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sidered in the light of an evasion. In 1822 a new liturgy and agenda," to give perfect uniformity to the service of the new Prussian Church, was drawn up by the same divines and submitted to the revision of Dr. Neander. When, however, it came to be introduced it met with great opposition in various places. The king was irritated, and the objections having assumed a political form, they were denounced as treasonable. In some poor villages in Silesia, which refused to exchange the old Lutheran service for the new, troops were quartered on the people till they should conform. They were reduced to utter ruin, and a few of them, about six hundred in number, calling themselves old Lutherans, fled from persecution across the Atlantic, and found a home with the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers. The magistrates of the city of Berlin were required, as patrons of the city churches, to introduce the new liturgy. They answered in a declaration, dated July 13, 1832, which seems to show that the monarch had mistaken the temper of his subjects. "If," they say, "this liturgical right of the sovereign is to be held one of the inherent rights of sovereignty, it must extend with equal force to all his subjects, alike to Catholics as well as Protestants. But the king claims no such right over his Catholic subjects, and the Protestants will be induced rather to go over to the Catholic faith than to be exposed to the constant disquietude of conscience by ever-changing forms of worship imposed at the pleasure of each succeeding sovereign. If inherent, this liturgical right must belong to other sovereigns, to Roman Catholics, and how is the Protestant religion to subsist at all in Catholic states if the Catholic sovereign has this inherent right over their religious observances?" This document was backed by a memorial from twelve ministers of Berlin, in which they repeat their own objections to the new service-book. It has been ably defended, on the one hand, by bishop Eylert, of Potsdam, and assailed, on the other, by Dr. Von Schutz, of Wurtzburg, and a host of polemical writers, Roman Catholic and Protestant. What its future destiny may be, or whether the experiment will utterly fail, and if so, what is destined to occupy its place, are speculatious on which it would be hazardous to offer an opinion. Chevalier Bunsen, in his "Church of the Future," seems to prepare an edifice for which the foundations have been scarcely laid at present; how far it may exist in the reasonable hopes or

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wishes of his countrymen, we cannot tell. The present distractions of Germany will, no doubt, interfere with any project of Church reform, even were Prussia ripe for the change. conclude with a description of the service in the new Prussian Church by the keen observer whose volume we have already quoted; though it seems to us not free from a touch of sarcasm. There is an altar railed in, and covered with an altar-cloth. Two lighted wax candles and a crucifix stand upon the altar, and behind and around it are pictures of saints and holy subjects, as in a Roman Catholic church. The only difference observable is, that the priest at the altar is in a plain black gown, instead of the embroidered robes in which the Catholic priest officiates. He reads the new liturgy standing with his back against the altar, and facing the people. The Amen to each prayer is finely quavered out by the choristers behind the altar, and the "Halleluia," the "Holy, holy, holy," the "Glory to God in the highest," &c., are delivered with great musical effect, as might be expected in so musical a land. But, as justly objected to by the twelve ministers in their protest against this new service, the congregation have no part in all this; they are not made partakers, as in the former, and in the English liturgies, in the act of public worship. They are but passive listeners, as to an

opera.

So little has it been intended that the congregation should take part in this new service, that no book of the liturgy, equivalent to the English Common Prayer Book, are in their hands. The liturgy is for the clergyman only, and is not even to be got at the booksellers' shops. The only book of public worship in the hands of the congregation is the Gesangbuch. This is a sort of hymn-book in doggrel verse, which supersedes the Psalms of David and the paraphrases of portions of Scripture used in our Church services. It is printed as prose, but each clause of a sentence is a line rhyming to another clause. It is divided into sections and sentences, which are numbered; and the numbers being stuck up in conspicuous parts of the church, the congregation, on entering, sees what is to be sung without the minister or clerk giving out the place and verse. The whole part that the congregation has to take in the public worship by the new service is to sing or chant a portion of this Gesangbuch, with the accompaniment of the organ, before the minister comes to

the altar to read the liturgy, and again, in the interval between the liturgy and the sermon. The whole liturgy occupies about half an hour; and as the ministers in the new church are prohibited in the agenda from occupying more than one hour, the sermon seldom exceeds five-and-twenty minutes. This, in the more serious part of the congregation, occasions great dissatisfaction. In so short a time the preacher can scarcely give an exposition of his text, much less apply it to the wants and circumstances of his hearers. It prevents also the possibility of entering upon a wide and varied course of instruction from the pulpit, and may in part account for the growth of that rationalism or nealogianism which, since the establishment of the Evangelical Church, has found its strongest citadel in Prussia. (See RATIONALISM.)

COPTIC CHURCH.-This is the Monophysite Church in

Egypt. Its head is styled the Patriarch of Alexandria, though he resides at Cairo. It has a bishop or titular patriarch of Jerusalem, who also lives at Cairo, visiting Jerusalem at Easter. The Copts have a convent at Jerusalem, and a chapel within the church of the holy sepulchre. The history of the Coptic Church may be very briefly stated.

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In the fifth century, Eutyches taught that the two natures, human and divine, in the person of Christ, were so blended as to become one nature, the human being absorbed in the divine. (See ARMENIAN CHURCH.) He raised a formidable party, and amongst his followers was Dioscorus, patriarch of Alexandria. By his influence it was that Eutyches escaped condemnation at the General Council of Ephesus, A.D. 449, summoned expressly on the subject of his heresy; but by a decree of the Fourth General Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 457, both Eutyches and Dioscorus were condemned; and, in consequence, the latter was banished from his see. But his friends in Egypt were powerful enough to prevail ultimately against the decision of the orthodox party. A Eutychian, or Monophysite, Church was established in Egypt, which, under the title of the Coptic Church, continues to the present time. Probably no section of the Christian Church is reduced to a lower state of degradation, ignorance, and poverty. Besides the patriarchs there are twelve bishops, and a great

number of archpriests, priests, and deacons; but it frequently happens that neither the priest nor any of his congregation can read, and the conduct of the former is often such as to entitle him to no respect. Missionaries were sent out by the Church Missionary Society some years since, with the benevolent wish of restoring the Coptic Church to a purer state. They found the clergy and people sunk in sloth and superstition; the clergy using the gospels as charms, and some of them teaching that the Virgin Mary was a person in the Godhead. The churches contain no images; but they are decorated with gaudy pictures of the saints, before which the people prostrate themselves. They suppose that if a child die unbaptized, it will be blind in a future state. They are said to practise circumcision on their children. (Lane's "Manners and Customs of Modern Egyptians." London, 1836.) They maintain the doctrine of the transmutation of the elements into the real body and blood of Christ; and offer prayers for the dead. The invocation of the Virgin is commonly practised The Coptic language has long fallen into disuse, and is now understood by few; but the services of religion are still conducted in it, with occasional explanations of some parts of the service in Arabic, now the spoken language of the country.

The number of Coptic churches and convents is stated at about one hundred and fifty. The Coptic Christians do not exceed one hundred and fifty thousand, of whom, perhaps, ten thousand reside at Cairo. They have long suffered great oppressions from the Mahomedan rulers of Egypt, and bear the mark of a degraded race. They are said to be suspicious, sullen, and faithless The men are obliged to wear a coloured turban to distinguish them from the Moslems, and the women are concealed with a veil. Under the present ruler of Egypt their condition has been considerably improved. There are numerous schools for boys; and the British and Foreign Bible Society has furnished them with the Scriptures in Coptic and Arabic.

It was in Egypt that, in the early ages of Christianity, the monkish system was practised in its severest forms; and the same disposition still exists. Monastic seclusion is common amongst the Coptic Christians, and great austerity is practised. The number of their convents exceeds that of their churches; but the monks are profoundly ignorant, and their chief virtue is the hospitality they cheerfully extend to travellers. Manuscripts

of great value have been discovered in some of these refuges, and no doubt many more exist, and will one day, we trust, reward the diligence of our enterprising travellers.

The Abyssinian Church is a branch of the ancient Coptic Church of Egypt. The abuna, or bishop of Abyssinia, is required by a canon of his own Church to be appointed or consecrated by the patriarch of Alexandria, to whom he is subject. (See ABYSSINIA, CHURCH OF.)

COVENANTERS, by writers of the last century termed CAMERONIANS; a once numerous body of Scotch Presbyterians. Their leader, Richard Cameron, fell in battle at Airsmoss, fighting against prelacy, in 1680. The history of the Cameronians is that of a political no less than a religious party; but it is interwoven with the spiritual affairs of Scotland during the reign of Charles II., and forms a painful episode in the history of the Scottish Church.

To understand the nature of the principles for which the Cameronians fought and suffered, it will be necessary to carry back the reader to the affairs of Scotland in the time of James I. In the year 1581 a confession of faith, or national COVENANT, was subscribed, first by the king and his nobility and afterwards by all ranks, in which episcopal government was condemned and a Presbyterian Church established. An unsuccessful attempt was made a few years afterwards by some of the nobility to restore episcopacy, which led to a solemn ratification of the Covenant in the year 1590; and James himself being suspected of a too favourable regard for popery and prelacy, the Covenant was again renewed by the General Assembly at Edinburgh in 1596. James succeeded to the throne of England upon death of Elizabeth in 1603, and was scarcely seated in his new dignities when he plainly discovered his aversion to the Presbyterian kirk. In 1610, three bishops were consecrated in London, and sent down to Scotland to take possession of the sees of Glasgow, Brechin, and Galloway: they proceeded to consecrate an archbishop of St. Andrews, and to place bishops in the other anciens sees These proceedings were very unpopular. The churches where episcopalian ministers officiated were forsaken, riots frequently occurred, and the prisons were crowded with the

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