impossible to admit the existence in Alexandria of a large and real public Library after the end of the fourth century (1). In my opinion the passage of Orosius (416) where this author affirms that he had seen empty book-cupboards in certain temples, in whatever manner we may interpret it, proves that no public Library of considerable importance existed at that epoch. This need not mean that all the books had disappeared from Alexandria; for there must always have been a great number of books, in private collections, in certain monasteries, and in the schools of the grammarians and heathen philosophers, schools or « Museums » which flourished in Alexandria until the end of the Vth century (2). At any rate Amru may be absolved of the accusation brought against him by the Arab historian Abdu-el-Farag (five centuries after the conquest of Alexandria) of having burnt the Grand Library. Abu-el-Farag relates that John Philoponus, who became very intimate with Amru, asked for permission to take away certain books in the « Imperial treasury Amru, before forming a decision, asked the advice of the Caliph Omar. His piquant reply is well-known: « If the books contain nothing but the Coran they are useless; if they contain anything else they are dangerous. Burn them ». The quantity of these books was so great (still quoting Abu-el-Farag) that they sufficed to heat the 4000 public baths of Alexandria for six months. Whilst admitting as unproved that at the time of the Arab conquest the Grand Library had long ceased to exist, this story contains too many legendary elements to allow us to put faith in it. Moreover John Philoponus had died, it seems, well before the Arab conquest. But is the legend altogether false, or does it reflect a portion of historical truth, however exaggerated and distorted? Butler concludes: « One must admit that Abu-el-Farag's story is a mere fable, totally destitute of historical foundation ». For my part, even if the legend signifies, as I believe it does, that the conquerors did not respect the collections of books that had survived previous disasters and had eventually fallen into their power, I should not be too severe on them. If the French in our own days after taking possession of Constantine burnt all books and manuscripts that fell into their hands, if the English after the conquest of Magdola abandoned there the

(1) I refer to BUTLER, The Arab Conquest of Egypt, p. 400-426. By a minute and clever criticism drawn from all sources (Rufinus, Aphtonius, Orosius) he proves, against the writer MATTER (L'école d'Alexandrie), that in the Vth century the Serapeum Library did not exist any more.

(2) Cf J MASPERO, Horapollon et la fin du paganisme égyptien, in the Bulletin de l'Inst. Français d'Arch. Orient., vol. XI, p. 164-195.

best and the largest part of a rich Abyssinian library, if the representatives of great European powers have done what they have recently done in China, if we think of the fate of the Louvain Library, what right have we to reproach the Arabs of the VIIIth century with not being of the same mind as a western philologist concerning documents of classic literature?

BIBLIOGRAPHY. In addition to that concerning the Museum on p. 47: CHASTEL E., Les destinées de la Bibl. d'Alex. (Rev. Hist, 1876, pag. 484 sg); RITSCHL, Die Alex. Bibliot, Breslau, 1838; NOURRISSON V., La Bibliothèque des Plolémées, Alexandrie, 1893; DZIATZKO, Bibliotheken in the Real-Encyclo pädie of Pauly-Wissowa, III, p. 405-424. See also the polemic between S. B. Kyril'os Macaire and S. E. Magdi Bey in Bull. de la Soc. Khédiviale de Géogra phie, série VII, nos. 8 and 10.

Christianity in Alexandria. « After the church of Alexandria had had for two centuries a succession of eminent men, Clement, Origen, Denis, Athanasius, Cyril, it seemed to her that her glory fell short on one point only, that of not having been founded in the times of the apostles » (1). So they attributed the foundation of the See of Alexandria to St. Mark. A martyr's chapel dedicated to a saint of that name had really existed in close proximity to the Large Harbour; but did it actually commemorate Saint Mark, the Evangelist? This is at least very doubtful (2). On the other hand it is certain that during the first century and the first half of the second century the spread of Christianity in Alexandria and in Egypt had not been considerable. Moreover the gnostics, who gave a special character to the first period of Alexandrian Christianity, had nothing Christian about them except their origin. It will be enough to recall that, though worshipping Christ, Carpocrates taught that salvation was acquired through immorality. « Souls » he said, « could not obtain blessedness until they had passed through the whole cycle of possible actions, that is to say. the series of iniquities open to human nature ».

Hadrian, according to his letter to Servianus, had seen the Alexandrians prostrate themselves before Serapis or Christ impartially. They conceived no great difference between the two religions. From the outset of the principate of Commodus (180), the Christian religion, almost completely purified of its gnostic doctrines and of all trace of paganism, appears firmly established in Alexandria. In the time of Septimus Severus 193-211) Christianity had begun to make history, and from that

(1) DOM LECLERCQ, Dictionnaire d'Archéol. Chrét., I, col. 1099. (2) In 828 some Venetian merchants secretly carried away the (supposed ?) body of the saint, and transported it to their own country.

time onwards its development was very rapid. The founding of the celebrated school, the catechetical College, may be placed about this epoch: it was a kind of Christian University adapted for becoming in course of time the centre of theology generally ». It will be enough to mention the two most celebrated heads of this school, Clement and Origen. Until the time of Constantine (313) the church in Egypt encountered many obstacles in the course of its existence. It suffered bloody persecutions under the rule of Septimus Severus (204), under Decius (250) and under Valerian (251) (1).

It

After the final triumph of Christianity, in the time of Constantine, the church of Alexandria took part in all the theological disputes and in all the religious controversies. held a predominant place in the Councils. Arius, who denied that the Word (Logos) was God, and that He was of the same substance as the Father, belonged to Alexandria; as did also the Bishop Alexander and Athanasius, the two most energetic defenders of Orthodoxy. After an ephemeral triumph, the Arians were definitely deprived of all the churches they occupied in the town. The rule of Theodosius gave the mortal blow to paganism but did not mark the end of religious dissensions. Shortly afterwards, in 415, Hypatia, the last heroine of Alexandrian paganism, fell under the blows of some Christian fanatics. Yet the current of resistance to Christianity remained very powerful until the close of the Vth century.

At the Council of Ephesus (+31) the church of Egypt, represented by Cyril and the celebrated anchorite Schenouda, triumphed over Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who claimed to recognize two persons in Christ, the one divine, the other human. But some years later Dioscorus, patriarch of Alexandria, propagated the monophysitic doctrine of Eutychius (according to which the divine nature of Christ absorbed the human nature). Since that time the Christians in Egypt have been divided into two sects: the ancient Catholics (Melkites), and the Orthodox (Jacobites, formerly Eutychians).

After the Arab conquest the majority of the Egyptians were converted to Islamism. To-day out of a population of more than eleven million inhabitants, there are about 600,000 Copts, of whom 15,000 are Catholics.

Alexandrian Christianity was characterised by the tendency

(1) Amongst the papyri that the soil of Egypt has preserved for us, several documents about the Decian persecution have been discovered. They are what are called libelli libellatici, that is to say, certificates delivered by the Commission on Sacrifices, attesting that the person in question had sacrificed pagan divinities. One of these precious documents is in our Museum.

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of its adherents towards a monastic life. As early as the IVth century the land in the neighbourhood of the town began to be covered with monasteries, which grew more merous every day. In the Vth and VIth centuries there were no less than six hundred of them, all built like fortresses: they were like pigeon-cots said Severus of Achmunein. The group of monasteries of the Hennaton (ninth mile) was the most famous. The Museum possesses 16 epitaphs from the cemeteries belonging to this group of monasteries.

The Persians in their siege of Alexandria (618-619) carried ruin and death among the monks; great numbers were put to death by the sword, others saved themselves by hiding in caves and grottos. Their treasures were pillaged, churches and other edifices were burnt or destroyed. The monasteries did not survive this disaster, and the Arab conquest gave them the final blow.

In the IVth century the churches in Alexandria were fairly numerous, and in the course of the Vth and VIth their numbers steadily increased. Through literary sources we know some of them by name, but all actual trace of them has disappeared from the ground. Father Faivre (paragraph Catacombes and Eglises) in his article on Alexandria published in the Dictionnaire d'histoire et géographie ecclésiastiques says it is regrettable that no trace has been left of these various monuments and that it is impossible to determine their exact site. The most celebrated churches were the following: The Church of Saint Mark which must have been near the shore of the Eastern Harbour, (not the present Coptic Church of Saint Mark); some Vth century marble capitals with their surfaces decorated with flowers and trellis-work have been assigned to this church; three of these capitals are in our Museum and a fourth in the Cairo Museum. When Alexandria was taken by the Arabs, Saint Mark's Church was burnt; its reconstruction was carried out in 680; in 828 two Venetian merchants, Buono di Malamocco and Rustico di Torcello, removed the corpse which had been considered to be that of Saint Mark and carried it away.

Another famous church was that of Saint Michel or of Alexander. Some archaeologists have placed it near the buildings of the present Municipality; it is supposed to have been the Temple of Saturn changed into a church.

The Caesareum was a heathen temple. begun by Cleopatra in honour of Caesar, but completed by Octavian and dedicated forthwith to the worship of the emperors under the name of

Caesareum or Sebasteum. One of the entrances of this temple or of its vast enclosure was quite close to the present Ramleh Tramway Terminus on the site of the present Yehia building. After the peace of the Church, the Caesareum was dismantled and turned into a Cathedral: μεγάλη ἐκκλησία or Κυριακόν, οι Dominicum. The μεγάλη ἐκκλησία was plundered and restored many times. In 368 it was reconstructed by the patriarch Athanasius; later, Jacobites and Orthodox disputed its possession until 912, at which date it disappeared in a conflagration and its ruins were never restored.

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The Church of Saint Athanasius constructed by the patriarch of this name in the Bendidion or Mendidion Quarter and consecrated in 370 was turned into a mosque at the Arab quest. In all likelihood this is the mosque in the so-called Suk-el-Attarin, which in a restored state exists to the present time.

The oratory built by Theonas (282-300) near the shore of the Eunostos Harbour was reconstructed and enlarged by the patriarch Alexander (313-326). After that date it was used as the cathedral of Saint Mary until the close of the IVth century, when the Caesareum became the cathedral. Under Mussulman domination Saint Mary's church was turned into a mosque. The Arabs gave it the name of Western Mosque (Gamaa El Gharbi) or Mosque of a thousand pillars. Its site must be in the Marina Quarter, on the spot where the convent of the Franciscan missionaries is now standing. The two pillars of green granite decorated with reliefs, standing at each side of Dr. Schiess's tomb on the little hill in the garden of the Native Hospital, belonged to the Church of Theonas.

There were no vast catacombs in Alexandria. The Christian cemeteries, partly subterranean, partly open to the sky, were outside the city and were spread over the hills between Chatby and Hadra, near the Serapeum in the south-west and beyond the ancient pagan necropolis between the Abattoir and Dekhela. A very interesting tomb was discovered at Karmous not far from Pompey's Column in 1858, but it has since disappeared. Fortunately, detailed descriptions of it have been published many times. The architectural type of this monument, known as Wescher's Catacomb, differs in no way from that of pagan hypogeums Access into an open atrium connected with a vestibule is gained by a stair-way The vestibule opens into a room provided with three niches hewn in the living rock and forming three separate chapels, with a sarcophagus in each. Galleries opened out around this essential and central portion