Coptic Pilgrimages To Jerusalem, Relationship between the Coptic church and the Latin church

[yaoifunboi]

Setting: Historical fantasy (based on the real world, but magic works and my Copts have cat ears and tails due to their ancestor's reverence for cats) set in the Early Middle Ages. The novel I'm currently prewriting will be set in Germany and Scandianvia. It follows the kidnapping of a young, half-Coptic squire by vikings, and his father's quest to

Comments

[dustthouart]

No, Oriental Orthodox is 100% correct. The Oriental Orthodox are NOT the Eastern Orthodox. These are the English terms most commonly used today to differentiate between Orthodox Churches that accept or reject the Council of Chalcedon.

They would be considered Christians, certainly. Just heretics and schismatics. You can be a heretic and still be considered Christian. See the New Advent Encyclopedia for the Catholic view on such things. However it's possible that common people wouldn't get that--or perhaps would accuse a Copt (if there's cat ears, I assume they can be visibly identified as being such and nothing else) of being a Muslim (or Mohammedean, they would probably say at the time).

I'd also like to say that the difference in Christology between Chalcedonians and non-Chalcedonians is really subtle theological stuff--any common, uneducated person of the time wouldn't grasp the fine differences. For the average person the big difference would be in the language of liturgy, and perhaps a sense of loyalty to one's heritage and the saints and martyrs of one's Church.

[orange_fell]

I said they wouldn't be considered proper Christians by Europeans, not that they wouldn't be considered Christians at all. But it looks like I messed up about the term "Oriental Orthodox," thanks for the information.

[transemacabre]

Medieval Christians often referred to Arabs and Muslims in general as Saracens (most common), Ishmaelites, or Agarenes (after Hagar, mother of Ishmael).