6 - The Coptic Mission, Mediterranean Geopolitics, and the Mediation of Eliano’s Jewish and Catholic Identities

Summary

This chapter begins with the Coptic synod and its subsequent unraveling. First, while many Coptic theologians approved it, the patriarch refused to recognize the accord. Secondly, the synod was rejected in Rome because it was seen as heretical. Moreover, when the mission’s patron, Henry III, changed consuls, the new consul Cristoforo Vento and Eliano came to blows. In turn, Vento told the Ottoman officials that a Portuguese Jew named David Moze had evidence that Eliano aimed to overthrow Ottoman authority in Egypt. Eliano was arrested and nearly executed. Upon his release, Eliano went to great lengths to prove that his arrest was not the machinations of a Jew who wanted to punish him for his apostasy. While Eliano was eventually able to return to his work with the Copts one he successfully proved that Vento and not Moze was the culprit of the conspiracy against him, the mission’s breakdown and the confrontation with the Jews that led to his arrest are reminders that Eliano’s Jewish past, however helpful it might have been in allowing him to scour religious texts and engage in theological debates, was always potential fodder for accusations of renegadism and opportunism.