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He could surely win over the abbess in the course of the voyage, and Paula might be brought to reason, perhaps, this very evening. Justinus and his wife were Melchites, and he knew that both these friends for whom he had a particular regard would be enchanted with his scheme if he took them into his confidence.
The whole of Egypt was then divided into two churches separated from each other by an implacable hatred. At the head of the Melchites was the new patriarch, who was followed by a few priests and a small number of partisans who were more attached to him by fear than by faith.
And there are many advantages in going over to your side: for the power is in your hands, and long may you keep it! We have got to be ruled by strangers; and who would not rather pay small tribute to the wise and healthy Khalif at Medina than a heavy one to the sickly imperial brood of Melchites at Constantinople.
He could surely win over the abbess in the course of the voyage, and Paula might be brought to reason, perhaps, this very evening. Justinus and his wife were Melchites, and he knew that both these friends for whom he had a particular regard would be enchanted with his scheme if he took them into his confidence.
Their numbers, and visible splendor, bestowed an imperfect claim to the appellation of Catholics: but in the East, they were marked with the less honorable name of Melchites, or Royalists; of men, whose faith, instead of resting on the basis of Scripture, reason, or tradition, had been established, and was still maintained, by the arbitrary power of a temporal monarch.
We Jacobites or Monophysites or whatever they choose to call us will not yield a jot or tittle of the divine nature of our Lord and Saviour; and if the old faith must die out, I will turn Moslem and be converted to your One Omnipotent God; for before I confess the heresies of the Melchites I will be hewn in pieces, and my wife and children with me. Who knows what may be coming to pass?
That that But you, Ptolimus a wise and worthy servant of the Lord tell me to the best of your convictions: May I die in the belief that it was not a sin to conclude a peace with the Arab conquerors of the Greeks? May I, even at this hour, think of the Melchites as heretics?"
They did not certainly injure his person; but they did worse, for when the Melchites rose up against our party it was at Alexandria, and the late Greek patriarch Cyrus had a finger in that pie they killed his two sons, two fine, splendid men killed them like dogs; and it crushed him completely." "Poor man!" sighed the Arab. "And has he no child left?" "Oh, yes.
The prelate drew his still upright figure to its full height, and his mild features assumed a determined nay a stern expression as he exclaimed: "You know the decision pronounced by the Synod of Ephesus the words which should be graven on the heart of every true Jacobite as on marble and brass 'May all who divide the nature of Christ and this is what the Melchites do be divided with the sword, be hewn in pieces and be burnt alive! No Head of our Church has ever hurled such a curse at the Moslems who adore the One God!"
During the first age of the conquest, they suspected the loyalty of the Catholics, whose name of Melchites betrayed their secret attachment to the Greek emperor, while the Nestorians and Jacobites, his inveterate enemies, approved themselves the sincere and voluntary friends of the Mahometan government.
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