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90

and the Roman taxes were raised by such proportions of land, whence the ordinary tax upon land was styled jugatio in the Civil Law, as I have had occasion to note in another place 89: so that threescore thousand juga, according to this account, will make a far greater diocese, than if we should understand it of single acres only. And that we may not think this was barren and unoccupied land, Theodoret in another place 9 specifies what number of churches and parishes he had in his diocese, which, he says, were eight hundred: some of which were overrun with the heresies of Marcion, Arius, and Eunomius, when he came to the diocese; but he converted above ten thousand of one sect only, viz. Marcionites 91, to the Catholic faith, and of others some thousands more. All which arguments agree to make it one of the largest dioceses of the East, as Blondel 92 ingenuously confesses it to be, though some others would fain insinuate the whole story to be a fiction, when yet

89 See b. 5. c. 3. n. 3. v. 2. p. 132. n. 98. [According to the authorities of the classical Lexicons, (see Gesner and Facciolati,) jugum, taken for a measure of land, means quod juncti boves uno die exarare possunt. Du Fresne also (Glossar. Latinit. Francofurt. 1681. t. 2. col. 140.) notices the same; but he also adds as follows, on the authority of Spelman : Videtur manerium distributum fuisse in varias portiones, ad alendum totidem familias rusticas una cum bobus eorum junctoris sufficientes, atque inde juga appellatas. Postea vero juga ista lucri causa in plurima habitacula redacta sunt. Jacobus Gotofredus ad leg. 2. Cod. Theod. de Censu, juga seu capita, terrena juga, in. leg. 3. Cod. Theod. de Militari Veste, et leg. 1. de Impon. Lucrat. Descript. terra modos, interpretatur, quibus colendis per annum boum jugo opus est: sicut jugum, jugerum, quantum in die jugo boum exerceri potest. Ita eo casu jugum plura jugera continuerit. Facciolati (Lond. 1828. v. 1. p. 1039.) notices one meaning of jugatio thus:.... Sumitur pro mensura agrorum et possessionum a jugis boum, quibus exercentur.—I conceive that strictly speaking a jugum was as much land as a yoke

BINGHAM, VOL. III.

of oxen could plough in a day; and a jugatio became the technical lawterm for a little farm or allotment of land, for the yearly work of which two oxen were sufficient. ED.]

90

Ep. 113. ad Leon. (t. 4. part. 2. p. 1190.) Ths deías μoi xáρiros σvvepynoάons λeiovs pèv i xidías vxàs ἠλευθέρωσα τῆς Μαρκίωνος νόσου, πολλοὺς δὲ ἄλλους ἐκ τῆς ̓Αρείου καὶ Εὐνομίου συμμορίας προσήγαγον τῷ Δεσπότῃ Χριστῷ· καὶ ἐν ὀκτακοσίαις ἐκκλησίαις ἔλαχον ποιμαίνειν τοσαύ τας γὰρ ἡ Κύρρος παροικίας ἔχει, K. T.λ.

91 Ep. 145. ad Monach. Constantinop. (ibid. 1251.) 'Eye Opηvw καὶ ὀδύρομαι, ὅτι ὃς πρώην τοῖς τῶν MapKiwvos Tv λúμnv deέaμévois πέφερον ἀποδείξεις, καὶ πλείους ἢ pvpiovs dià rŷs delas xápiros neiσas

роσпуaуoν т паvayio Barrioμari, ταύτας νῦν τοῖς νομισθεῖσιν ὁμοπίστ τοις ἡ ἐπισκήψασα νόσος προσφέ pew KaravaуKÁČEι.

92 Apol. s. 3. (p. 185.) Octingentas curæ suæ commissas ecclesias Theodoretus refert. Quis autem, Ptolemæo Aristeram, Regiam, Rubam, Heracleam, Niaram, &c. inter Cyresticæ nóλes memorante, unicam in toto illo ecclesiarum numero, quæ urbis nomen meretur, Cyrum fuisse somniet?

U

Of Osrho. ene and Mesopotamia.

all circumstances concur to give it the clearest evidences of truth. They, who would see objections answered, may consult Bp. Stillingfleet, or Dr. Maurice 94, who have particularly considered the exceptions that have been raised against it. As to the other cities of this province, Doliche, Germanicia, Nicopolis, Zeugma, Cæsarea, &c., some of them were but small cities, as Doliche, which Theodoret 95 speaks of with the diminutive title of поλíɣvη σμкρà, a very small city; but they might have large dioceses, as Cyrus [or Cyrrhus 96] had, which itself was neither a great city nor very well inhabited, but had a diocese larger than many other cities which were ten times the bigness of it.

15. In the Roman provinces beyond the Euphrates, which some call by the general name of Mesopotamia, because it lay between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates; (but the Romans divided it into two provinces, Osrhoene on the banks of Euphrates, and Mesopotamia toward the Tigris,) there are so few dioceses to be found in ancient records, that to me it seems probable that our accounts are very imperfect. For the whole number in both provinces is but sixteen; whereas in the later Notitia there are sixteen in Osrhoene alone, and in the other province thirty-five more; which makes it probable that ancient accounts are here defective: otherwise we must say, that these dioceses were extremely large. For Baudrand makes the country four hundred and twenty miles long, and two hundred and seventy broad; which divided into sixteen dioceses would make them all of great extent. But the country seems not to have been all converted, for the Roman cities were only such as lay by the banks of the rivers, and chiefly upon the Euphrates. I shall therefore make no other estimate of them, than by the certain light we have of them in ancient history. From which it is clear, that some of them were at least such episcopal dioceses as were in all other parts of the world, that is, cities with country-regions and village

93 Unreason. of Separat. part 3. 5. 10. p. 258. (Works, v. 2. p. 586.) The ecclesiastical province was likewise very large, &c.

94 Defence of Diocesan Episcopacy (p. 396.) And this was Alexander, &c.

95 L. 5. c. 4. (v. 3. p. 198. 13.) Ο δὲ θεῖος Εὐσέβιος ἔσχατον ἐπίσκοπον Μάριν τῇ Δολιχῇ κεχειροτόνηκε πολίχνη δὲ αὕτη σμικρὰ, καὶ τῆς Αρειανικής νόσου κατ ̓ ἐκεῖνο τοῦ Kaiрoù μeтeiλýþei.

96 See n. 90, preceding.

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churches. This is evident from what Epiphanius observes of Chascara, one of the cities of Mesopotamia, that beside the bishop's see it had village-churches, and presbyters incumbent on them in the third century. For, speaking of Manes, the heretic, the first founder of the Manichees, he says 96, when he had been baffled at a public disputation by Archelaus, bishop of Chascara, and had like to have been stoned by the people, he fled to Diodoris, a village belonging to Chascara, where one Tryphon was presbyter, whom he challenged to a new disputation.' And if the lesser cities had such kind of dioceses, we may readily conclude the same of Nisibis, the metropolis, which was so large a city as to be able to defend itself sometimes against all the power of the Persian empire; being, as Sozomen 97 observes of it, in a manner all Christian in the time of the Emperor Julian. Edessa, the metropolis of the other province of Osrhoene, was also a very large city, and the royal seat of Agbarus, who lived in our Saviour's time, and by whose means it is generally thought to be converted very early to Christianity; and so it might perhaps from the very first have several churches in it. However, in after-ages we are sure it had for Sozomen 98, speaking of the persecution under Valens, the Arian Emperor, says, he took away all the churches within the city, among which that of St. Thomas was one, so that the people were forced to assemble in gardens without the city for divine service.'

Persica,

16. Beside these provinces mentioned by Carolus à Sancto Of Armenia Paulo, there were some other countries out of the bounds of the Roman empire, which had the same form of episcopal go

96 Hær. 66. Manich. n. 11. (t. I. p. 627 c.) Εντεῦθεν ὁ Μάνης ἀποδράσας, βουλομένων αὐτὸν λιθοβολῆσαι, . . . ἀναχωρήσας δὲ ἔρχεται εἰς κώμην τινὰ τῆς Καρχάρων εἰς Διοδωρίδα καλουμένην, ἐν ᾗ Τρύφων τις ἐπιεικέστατος κατ ̓ ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ ἐτυγχανε τῶν αὐτόθι πρεσβύτερος, κ. τ. λ. 97 L. 5. c. 3. (v. 2. p. 183. 13.) ̓Αμέλει τοι προσδοκωμένων τότε Περσῶν ἐπιστρατεύειν, πρεσβευομένοις περὶ τοῦτο Νισιβηνοῖς, ὡς παντελῶς χριστιανίζουσι, καὶ μήτε τοὺς ναοὺς ἀνοίγουσι, μήτε εἰς τὰ ἱερὰ φοιτῶσιν, ἠπείλησε μὴ βοηθεῖν, μήτε πρεσβείαν δέχεσθαι, καὶ ὡς ἐναγοὺς τῆς αὐτῶν

πολέως μὴ ἐπιβήσεσθαι πρότερον, εἰ
μὴ πύθοιτο εἰς ̔Ελληνισμὸν μετα-
βαλόντας.

98 L. 6. c. 18. (ibid. p. 240. 16.)
Μαθὼν δὲ ἐν Ἐδέση εὐκτήριον ἐπι-
φανὲς εἶναι Θωμᾶ τοῦ ̓Αποστόλου
ἐπώνυμον, ἦλθε τοῦτο ἱστορῆναι· ἀ-
φαιρεθέντων δὲ κἀνταῦθα τῶν εὐκτη-
ρίων οἴκων, θεασάμενος ἐν πεδίῳ πρὸ
τοῦ ἄστεος συνηγμένους τοὺς ἀπὸ τῆς
καθόλου ἐκκλησίας, λέγεται τὸν και
θόλου ὕπαρχον λοιδορήσασθαι, καὶ
πὺξ κατὰ τῆς σιαγόνος πλῆξαι, ὡς
παρὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ πρόσταξιν συγχωρή-
σαντα γενέσθαι τοιαύτας συνόδους.

Of Assyria, or Adia

vernment; upon which, therefore, it will not be amiss to make a few strictures, whilst we are speaking of the eastern provinces. That which we now call Armenia Magna was anciently called Armenia Persica, because it belonged not to the Roman, but to the Persian empire. Here were also bishops in the time of Theodoret, as appears from some of his Epistles: for, writing to one Eulalius 99, a bishop, he styles him, for distinction's sake, Τῆς Περσικῆς ̓Αρμενίας, Bishop of the Persian Armenia, And another Epistle is directed to one Eusebius, a bishop of the same region. By which it is plain there were bishops in that country in Theodoret's time; but how many we cannot learn from him or any other ancient writer. Otho [or Otto] Frisingensis 2, and Baronius3, and some other modern writers, talk much of the Catholic of Armenia, that sent to submit himself to the Pope, in the twelfth century, having a thousand bishops under him. But, as Mr. Brerewood rightly observes, if the whole story be not a fiction, Otho must needs mistake obedience for communion: for the Catholic of Armenia might have a great number of the Jacobite bishops in his communion, but there could not be so many in Armenia under his jurisdiction. For the modern Notitia mentions but nineteen bishops in this Armenia, as the reader will find in the seventh chapter of this Book. And it is not probable they should multiply from twenty to a thousand in an age or two. However, this story has no relation to the state of the Church in the primitive ages, about which the present inquiry is only concerned.

17. We have some further account of the churches in other

bene, and parts also of the Persian dominions beyond the river Tigris, in Adiabene, which is a region of Assyria, and in Babylonia or Chaldea, in which we find two large cities, Seleucia and Ctesi

Chaldea.

99 Ep. 77. (t. 4. par. 2. p. 1126.) Εὐλαλίῳ ἐπισκόπῳ τῆς Περσικῆς ̓Αρμενίας.

Ep. 78. (ibid. p. 1131.) Evoeßio ἐπισκόπῳ τῆς Περσικῆς ̓Αρμενίας.

2 L. 7. c. 32. (p. 146.) Ea tempestate legati Armeniorum episcoporum, eorumque metropolitani, quem ipsi Catholicon, id est, Universalem, propter infinitum, id est, amplius quam mille episcoporum sub se habentem numerum, vocant, legati ab ultimo pene Oriente sum

mum Pontificem Viterbii, laboriosum iter per annum et sex menses complentes, adeunt, eique ex parte illius ecclesiæ subjectionem omnimodam eum consalutando offerentes, causas viæ, nobis cum aliis multis præsentibus, apud veterem aulam aperiunt, &c.

3 An. 1195. n. 30. (t. 12. p. 869 a.) Denique sedente eo, &c.

4 Enquiries, &c., ch. 24. (p. 211.) But it should seem, &c.

phon, under one bishop. These were the royal seats of the Persian kings, and but three miles from each other, as Pliny and Ferrarius after him compute, though others place them at a greater distance. Seleucia is by some said to be the same as Mosul, the present seat of the patriarch of the Nestorians. But anciently they were both but one diocese, as we learn from Sozomen, who styles Simeon, archbishop of Ctesiphon and Seleucia, under Sapores, king of Persia, who lived in the time of Constantine. There were other bishops also in these parts at the same time, some of which suffered martyrdom together with Simeon, as the same author informs us. He also mentions one Acepsimas, a bishop in the region of Adiabene, and twenty-three more, whose names are there recorded, as suffering martyrdom about the same times in several parts of the Persian empire. And what sort of dioceses they had, we may conjecture from what Sozomen says of one of them, named Bichor, that he suffered martyrdom together with Maurean

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5 L. 6. c. 26. (p. 95. 3.) Caetero circuitu in solitudinem rediit [Babylon] exhausta vicinitate Seleuciæ, ob id conditæ a Nicatore intra nonagesimum lapidem, in confuente Euphratis fossa perducti atque Tigris: quæ tamen Babylonia cognominatur, libera hodie ac sui juris, Macedonumque moris. . . Invicem ad hanc exhauriendam Ctesiphontem juxta tertium ab ea lapidem in Chalonitide condidere Parthi, quod nunc est caput regni.

6 L. 2. c. 9. (v. 2. p. 56. 13.) ▲iaβάλλουσι πρὸς Σαβώρην, τὸν τότε βασιλέα, Συμεώνην τὸν τότε ἀρχιεπίσκοπον Σελευκείας καὶ Κτησιφῶντος, τῶν ἐν Περσίδι βασιλευουσῶν πόλεων, ὡς φίλον ὄντα τῷ Καίσαρι Ρωμαίων.

7 Ibid. c. ro. (p. 58. 28.) Κατὰ δὲ τὴν αὐτὴν ἡμέραν, ὁμοίως ἀναιρεθῆναι προσετάχθησαν καὶ ἄλλοι ἑκατὸν ἐν τῷ δεσμωτηρίῳ ὄντες τελευταῖον δὲ αὐτοῖς ἐπισφαγῆναι Συμεώνην, τὸν πάντων θάνατον θεασάμενον· ἦσαν δὲ τούτων οἱ μὲν, ἐπίσκοποι· οἱ δὲ, πρεσβύτεροι καὶ ἄλλοι ἄλλων κληρικῶν ταγμάτων.

8 Ibid. c. 13. (p. 61. 4.) 'Yπò dè τοῦτον τὸν χρόνον καὶ ̓Ακεψιμᾶν τὸν ἐπίσκοπον συνελάβοντο, καὶ πολλούς τῶν ὑπ ̓ αὐτὸν κληρικῶν. Ἐπίσκοποι

9

δέ, (p. 61. 42.) ὧν ἐπυθόμην, Βαρβασύμης καὶ Παῦλος καὶ Γαδδιάβης καὶ Σαβίνος καὶ Μαρέας καὶ Μώκιος καὶ Ιωάννης καὶ Ορμήσδας, Πάπας τὲ καὶ Ιάκωβος καὶ Ρώμας καὶ Μαάρης καὶ "Αγας καὶ Βόχρης καὶ ̓Αβδᾶς καὶ ̓Αβδιησοῦς, Ἰωάννης τε καὶ ̓Αβράμιος καὶ ̓Αγδελᾶς καὶ Σαβώρης καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Δαῦσας, κ. τ. λ. See the next note.

9 L. 2. c. 13. [Grischovius observes,-Ex sequentibus Sozomeni verbis patet, episcopi nomen non fuisse Bichorem, sed Dausam; nec chorepiscopi Maureandum, sed Mareabden; adeoque cl. Binghamus in utroque nomine errasse mihi videtur. Sic autem Sozomenus, proxime post ultima verba allata, habet: — Καὶ Δαῦσας, ὃς αἰχμάλωτος ἦν γενόμενος ὑπὸ Πετρῶν ἀπὸ Ζαβδαίου χωρίου ὧδε προσαγορευομένου· κατ ̓ ἐκεῖνο δὲ καιροῦ ὑπὲρ τοῦ δόγματα τέθνηκεν, ἅμα Μαρεάβδη χωρεπισκόπῳ, καὶ κληρικοῖς τοῖς ὑπ ̓ αὐτὸν, ἀμφὶ διακοσίοις πεντήκοντα, οἳ παρὰ Περσῶν αἰχμάλωτοι συνελήφθησαν.-Joseph Bingham seems to have referred in this instance, as in some others, to the Latin version of Christophorson, (Col. Agr. 1570. p. 762.) where he has Maureambe. ED.]

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