In 1723, a French Jesuit reported “that the Copts in Egypt are a strange people far removed from the kingdom of God…although they say they are Christians they are such only in name and appearance. Indeed many of them are so odd that outside of their physical form scarcely anything human can be detected in them.” Although Christ had ordained that salvation must be extended to all, Copts seemed a particularly hard case: “in any event we should not omit to teach the ignorant Copts in the faith as incapable as they
