Towards the Coptic Church: The making of the Severan Episcopate

This article concerns a seminal moment in the history of eastern Christianity: the creation of the Severan episcopate in Egypt (from A.D. 575), and with it the radical bifurcation, for the first time, of the ancient Egyptian church. Updating the classic account of Jean Maspero in the light of more recent publications, it first examines the rapid decline of the Severan episcopate in the period after the Alexandrian patriarch Theodosius’ exile (536), and the intense competition to replace him in the period between his death (566) and the consecration of Peter (575). Exploiting a wide range of evidence related to a new episcopate then created under Peter and his successor Damian, this article then examines the presence of certain Severan bishops in rural monasteries, and the creation of an unprecedented office, the patriarchal vicarate, in the context of the competition created through the creation of a raft of rival sees. Understanding these processes, it is argued, is crucial to appreciating the explosion of evidence which accompanies the patriarchate of Damian