Copti, or Copti, a name given to the Christians of Egypt, who are of the sect of Jacobites.

The critics are extremely divided about the origin and orthography of the word; some write it Cophtii, others Coptites, Coptitae, Copts, &c. Scaliger derives the name from Coptos, an anciently celebrated town of Egypt, the metropolis of the Thebaid. Kircher refutes this opinion, and maintains, that the word originally signifies "cut" and "circumscribed;" and was given these people by the Mahometans, by way of reproach, because of their practice of circumcision; but P. Sollier, another Jesuit, refutes this opinion. Scaliger afterwards changed his opinion, and derived the word from Aiyo, the ancient name of Egypt, by retrenching the first syllable; but this opinion, too, P. Sollier disputes. John de Leo and others say, that the Egyptians anciently called their country Eleleth, or Cibth, from Cibth their first king, whence Coptite, &c. others say from Cobtim second king of Egypt. Vanfleb derives the word Copt from Copt son of Mifraim, grandson of Noah. All these etymologies P. Sollier rejects, on this principle, that were they true, the Egyptians ought all equally to be called Copti; whereas, in effect, none but the Christians, and among those none but the Jacobites, bear the name, the Melchites not being comprehended under it. Hence he chooses to derive the word from the name Jacobite, retrenching the first syllable; whence, Cobite, Cobea, Copta, and Cophta.

The Copts have a patriarch who resides at Cairo, but he takes his title from Alexandria; he has no archbishop under him, but 11 or 12 bishops. The rest of the clergy, whether secular or regular, is composed of the orders of St Antony, St Paul, and St Macarius, who have each their monasteries. Besides the orders of priests, deacons, and subdeacons, the Copts have likewise archimandrites, the dignity whereof they confer with all the prayers and ceremonies of a strict ordination. This makes a considerable difference among the priests; and besides the rank and authority it gives them with regard to the religious, it comprehends the degree and functions of archpriests. By a custom of 600 years standing, if a priest elected bishop be not already archimandrite, that dignity must be conferred on him before episcopal ordination. The second person among the clergy, after the patriarch, is the titular patriarch of Jerusalem, who also resides at Cairo, because of the few Copts at Jerusalem; he is, in effect, little more than the bishop of Cairo: only he goes to Jerusalem every Easter, and visits some other places in Palestine near Egypt, which owns his jurisdiction. To him belongs the government of the Coptic church, during the vacancy of the patriarchal see.

To be elected patriarch, it is necessary the person have lived all his life in continence: it is the condition of the bishopric. To be elected bishop, the person must be in the celibate; or, if he have been married, it must not be above once. The priests and inferior ministers are allowed to be married before ordination; but are not obliged to it, as Ludolphus erroneously observes. They have a great number of deacons, and even confer the dignity frequently on children. None but the lowest rank among the people commence ecclesiastics; whence arises that excessive ignorance found among them: yet the respect of the laity towards the clergy is very extraordinary. Their office is longer than the Roman office, and never changes in anything: they have three liturgies, which they vary occasionally.

The monastic life is in great esteem among the Copts: to be admitted into it, there is always required the consent of the bishop. The religious Copts make a vow of perpetual chastity; renounce the world, and live with great austerity in deserts; they are obliged to sleep in their clothes and their girdle, on a mat stretched on the ground; and to prostrate themselves every evening 150 times, with their face and breast on the ground. They are all, both men and women, of the lowest class of the people; and live on alms. The nunneries are properly hospitals; and few enter but widows reduced to beggary.

P. Roderic reduces the errors and opinions of the Copts to the following heads: 1. That they put away their wives, and espouse others while the first are living. 2. That they have seven sacraments; viz. baptism, the eucharist, confirmation, ordination, faith, fasting, and prayer. 3. That they deny the Holy Spirit to proceed from the Son. 4. That they only allow of three ecumenical councils; that of Nice, Constantinople, and Ephesus. 5. That they only allow of one nature, will, and operation, in Jesus Christ, after the union of the humanity with the divinity. For their errors in discipline, they may be reduced, 1. To the practice of circumcising their children before baptism, which has obtained among them from the 12th century. 2. To their ordaining deacons at five years of age. 3. To their allowing of marriage in the second degree. 4. To their forbearing to eat blood: to which some add their belief of a baptism by fire, which they confer by applying a hot iron to their forehead or cheeks.

Others palliate these errors, and show that many of them are rather abuses of particular persons than doctrines of the feet. This seems to be the case with regard to their polygamy, eating of blood, marrying in the second degree, and the baptism of fire: for circumcision, it is not practised as a ceremony of religion, nor as of any divine appointment, but merely as a custom which they derive from the Ishmaelites; and which, perhaps, may have had its origin from a view to health and decency in those hot countries.

The Copts, at different times, have made several reunions with the Latins; but always in appearance only, and under some necessity of their affairs. In the time of pope Paul IV. a Syrian was dispatched to Rome from the patriarch of Alexandria, with letters to that pope; wherein he acknowledged his authority, and promised obedience; desiring a person might be dispatched to Alexandria, to treat about a re-union of his church to that of Rome: pursuant to which, Pius IV. successor to Paul, chose F. Roderic, a Jesuit, whom he dispatched in 1561, in quality of apostolical nuncio. But the Jesuit, upon a conference with two Copts deputed for that purpose by the patriarch, was made to know, that the titles of father of fathers, pastor of pastors, and master of all churches, which the patriarch had bestowed on the pope in his letters, were no more than mere matters of civility and compliment; and that it was in this manner the patriarch used to write to his friends: they added, that since the council of Chalcedon, and the establishment of several patriarchs independent of one another, each was chief and master of his own church. This was the answer the patriarch gave the pope, after he had received a sum of money remitted to him from Rome, by the hands of the Venetian consul.

COPTIC, or Coptic, the language of the Copts, the ancient language of the Egyptians, mixed with a great deal of Greek, the characters it is written in being all Greek. It has a form and construction peculiar to itself: it has no inflections of the nouns or verbs; but expresses number, case, gender, person, mood, tense, and possessive pronouns, by letters and particles prefixed.

F. Kircher is the first who published a grammar and vocabulary of the Coptic. There is not known any book extant in the Coptic, except translations of the Holy Scriptures, or of ecclesiastical offices; or others that have relation thereto, as dictionaries, &c.

The ancient Coptic is now no longer found but in books; the language now used throughout the country is Arabic. The old Coptic, which Kircher maintains to be a mother-tongue, and independent of all others, had been much altered by the Greek: for besides that it has borrowed all its characters from the Greek, with a very little variation, a great number of the words are pure Greek. Voilieu, indeed, affirms, that there was no Coptic language till after Egypt became subject to the Arabs. The language, according to him, is a mixture of Greek and Arabic; the very name thereof not being in the world till after the Arabs were masters of the country. But this, M. Simon observes, proves nothing; except that what was anciently called Egyptian, has since by the Arabs been called Coptic, by a corruption of speech. There are, it is true, Arabic words in the Coptic; yet this by no means proves but that there was a language before that time, either Coptic or Egyptian. Pietro de la Valle observes, that the Copts have entirely lost their ancient tongue; that it is now no longer understood among them; that they have nothing extant therein but some sacred books; and that they still say mass in it.

All their other books have been translated into Arabic, which is their vulgar tongue; and this has occasioned the originals to be lost: it is added, that they rehearse the epistles and gospels in the mass twice; once in Arabic and once in Coptic. Indeed, if we believe F. Vanfleb, the Copts say the mass in Arabic, all but the epistles and gospels, which they rehearse both in that and Coptic.

COPTIC Bible. See Bible.

COPTIC Liturgies are three; one attributed to Basil, another to St Gregory, and the third to Cyril: they are translated into Arabic for the use of the priests and people.