HEALINGS IN COPTIC LITERATURE. When Christianity began the
conquest of Egypt, that country had behind it both a very old
literature and a very long religious tradition. The inhabitants
of the Nile Valley had from time immemorial had recourse to
their divinities to obtain cures when traditional medical
practice proved powerless. Just as ancient medicine continued to
be practiced, as the treatises in Coptic prove, so recourse to a
supernatural power continued to enjoy favor among the Egyptians.
But if a well-established paganism maintained itself when it had
no competitors, Christianity found itself altogether differently
placed, obliged as it was for many generations to struggle to
annihilate those fallen gods which had been degraded to the rank
of evil demons. Thus into the accounts of miraculous healings
there enters an avowed missionary purpose. According to the
ancient idea, both pagan and Christian, illness came from a god
or a demon, as a punishment from a god or as the vengeance of an
evil spirit. Thus