Of the Immireni in

in Arabia

Felix.

dus, his chorepiscopus, and two hundred and fifty more of the clergy that were under him.' Such a number of clergy, and a chorepiscopus amongst them, seem to bespeak a pretty large diocese; and if the rest were answerable to this, we may conclude the bishops were all of the same species, as we have seen in all the Eastern nations.

18. Theodorus Lector 10 speaks of another nation converted Persia, and to Christianity in the time of Anastasius the Emperor, whom Homerita he names Immireni, and says, they were subjects of the Persian empire, and dwelt in the most southern parts of their dominions. Whether they had above one bishop is not certain; for only one is mentioned as set over them upon their conversion. And it might be with them, as it was with some other barbarous people, Goths, Saracens, &c., that one bishop served the whole nation. Valesius confounds this people with the Homeritæ, whom Bochart 12 and others more truly place in Arabia Felix toward the south sea. Baronius 13 supposes the Homerites first converted to the Christian faith about the 354, at the same time that the Indians or Ethiopians were converted in the reign of Constantius. But we have no account then of what bishops were settled among them: but in the beginning of the sixth age, we find the Christian religion in a flourishing condition there, till one Dunaan, an apostate Jew, having gotten the kingdom, raised a great persecution against the Church, especially at Nargan, where one Arethas was a petty king, subject, as many other small reguli were, to the

10 L. ii. (v. 3. p. 583. 22.) 'Iμμinνοὶ ἔστιν ἔθνος τελοῦν ὑπὸ Πέρσας οἰκοῦσι δὲ ἐν ταῖς ἐσχατιαῖς τοῦ νότου. Ἰουδαῖοι δὲ ὑπῆρχον ἀνέκαθεν, Εκ τῆς ἐλθούσης πρὸς Σολομῶντα βασιλίδος τοῦ νότου· ἐγένοντο ἐθνικοί. Οἱ αὐτοὶ δὲ ἐπὶ ̓Αναστασίου ἐχριστιάνισαν, καὶ ἐπίσκοπον ἔλαβον.

11 [In Theodor. Lect. 1. c. (ibid. n. 5.)....Iμμnvoi. Ego Homeritas esse existimo. Omnia enim, quæ Immirenis tribuit Theodorus, Homeritis plane conveniunt. Etenim Homeritæ ad extremos fines habitant oceani meridiani, et metropolim habent Saba; cujus loci regina olim ad Salomonem visendum profecta Præterea, origine sunt Judæi, orti ex Chettura Abrahæ. Postea

est.

year

kingdom of the Homerites, whom he barbarously destroyed, with all his people. But this cloud quickly blowing over by the assistance of Justin, the Roman emperor, and Elesban, king of Ethiopia, who conquered Dunaan 14, the government fell again into the hands of a Christian king; in whose time Gregentius, archbishop of Tephra,' the royal city, is said to have had that famous disputation with Herbanus, the Jew, the result of which was the conversion of an incredible number of Jews in that region. Here I chiefly observe that Gregentius is styled archbishop of Tephra,' which implies, that he had suffragan bishops under him; and in the relation of his death, at the end 15 of the dispute, it is added, that both bishops, priests, and deacons were gathered together to attend his funeral:' by which it appears, that the state of that Church, so far as we have any account of it, was conformable to other Churches.

6

among the

19. We have some few intimations also given us of churches Of bishops planted anciently among the Saracens in Arabia, which were Saracens in never under the Roman empire. Hilarion is said by some 16 Arabia. to have begun the conversion of this nation, but it was not completed till Mauvia, queen of the Saracens, made it a condition of her making peace with the Romans in the time of Valentinian, that they should send her one Moses, a famous monk, to be the bishop of her nation; which was accordingly done, and so he became the first bishop of that region of the Saracens, as Ruffin 17 and Socrates is and the other historians

14 Act. Mart. Homerit. ap. Baron. ann. 522, 523. (t. 7. pp. 80 c, seqq.) Qui sequitur, &c.

15 Disput. cum Herb. (ap. Bibl. Patr. Gr.-Lat. t. 1. p. 272 d. 7.) 'Eτάφη δὲ ἐν τῷ κοιμητηρίῳ τῆς μεγάλης ἐκκλησίας, ἀθροισθέντων ἐκεῖσε ἐπισκόπων, ἱερέων, διακόνων, μοναζόνTwν μvpionnov ènì tỷ kŋdeia avrov, πολλὰ θρηνούντων καὶ ἀποδυρομένων τὴν στέρησιν αὐτοῦ.

16 Baron. an. 372. n. 103. p. 344. (t. 4. p. 348 d.) Jecerat jam ante fundamenta fidei apud Saracenos S. Hilarion abbas, qui (ut testatur S. Hieronymus) multos Saracenorum arreptos a dæmone frequenter liberavit, cultuique Veneris addictæ gentis illius sacerdotem convertit ad

fidem: qui quidem nec ipsum Hi-
larionem abire passi sunt ante, quam
futuræ ecclesiæ lineam mitteret. Qui
ergo adeo magna ab Hilarione sunt
consequuti; eo defuncto, illi parem
quæsierunt dari sibi hominem epi-
scopum orthodoxum. At, quomodo
res se habuerit, Rufinum audiamus
auctorem: Dum, inquit, Lucius, &c.
See n. 17, following.

17 L. 2. [al. 11.] c. 6. (p. 246 a. 7.)

Quæ dum Lucius omni arrogantia et sævitia ageret, Mauvia, Saracenorum gentis regina, vehementi bello Palæstini et Arabici limitis oppida atque urbes quatere, vicinasque simul vastare provincias cœpit. Cumque frequentibus bellis Romanum attrivisset exercitum, et,

inform us. Sozomen also adds, that one Zocomos, another regulus, or petty prince, of another region of the Saracens, being converted by a monk, brought over all his subjects to the Christian faith.' Theodorus Lector 19 likewise mentions another of these Saracen princes, named Alamundarus, who embraced the Faith in the reign of the Emperor Anastasius, anno 513. And Cyril of Scythopolis 20, who wrote the Lives of Euthymius and Sabas, takes notice also of a plantation of Saracens under the Roman government in Palestine, over whom one Peter, a converted Saracen, who had before been their captain, was made the first bishop by Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem, about the middle of the fifth century. Now we are to observe, that as these Saracens were thus divided into little

plurimis peremptis, reliquos vertisset in fugam, orata pace, non aliter se amplexuram promittit, nisi Moyses quidam nomine, monachus, gentis suæ ordinaretur episcopus: qui in eremo, partibus suis propinqua, vitam solitariam ducens; merito et virtutibus ac signis, quæ faciebat Deus per illum, magnifice innotuerat. Petitio ejus principi indicata Romano, sine ulla dilatione jubetur impleri a ducibus nostris, qui ibi infeliciter pugnaverant. Captus Moyses, ad sacerdotium suscipiendum, Alexandriam ex more deducitur. Adest Lucius, cui ordinandi ferebatur officium. Quo viso, Moyses præsentibus ducibus, qui perurgebant, et populis, ait: Ego quidem me non esse dignum tanto sacerdotio judico: verum tamen si aliqua in me, licet indigno, divina dispensatio putatur explenda, Deum nostrum, cœli ac terra Dominum testor, quod Lucius sanctorum sanguine pollutas et cruentas super me non injiciet manus. Cumque Lucius tam gravi nota inustum se videret in oculis plurimorum, Quare, inquit, o Moyses, tam facile condemnas eum, cujus fidem ignoras? Aut si tibi aliquis de me aliter indicavit, audi fidem meam et tibi ipse magis quam aliis crede. Tunc ille: Desine, inquit, o Luci, dolosis tuis me quoque imaginibus aggredi. Bene mihi nota est fides tua, quam protestantur servi Dei per metalla damnati episcopi, in

exilium trusi presbyteri, diaconi extra Christiani nominis habitacula relegati, bestiis alii, alii etiam ignibus traditi. Numquid potest verior esse fides, quæ auribus capitur, quam quæ oculis pervidetur? Apud me certum est, quod, qui Christo recte credunt, ista non faciunt. Et ita Lucius majore dedecore deformatus (quoniara perurgebat necessitas reipublicæ consulendi) compulsus est acquiescere, ut ab episcopis, quos in exilium truserat, sacerdotium sumeret. Quo suscepto, et gentis ferocissimæ pacem tenuit, et fidei Catholicæ custodivit intemerata consortia.

18 L. 4. c. 36. tot. (v. 2. p. 257. 25.)-Conf. Sozom. 1. 6. c. 38. ab init. ad med. (ibid. p. 275. 1.)—. Theodoret. 1. 4. c. 23. tot. (v. 3. p. 182. 1.)

19 L. 2. p. 564. (v. 3. p. 579. 32.) 'Alapovvôápov Toû þvλápxov Ɛapakηvwv xpiσTIAVÍČOVTOS, K. T. λ.

20 Vit. Euthym. ap. Baron. an. 420. p. 481. (t. 5. p. 487 b.) Cum usque adeo multiplicarentur filii Agar et ad veram traducerentur nobilitatem, et in diversas excrescerent copias; mittit divinus Euthymius ad Juvenalem patriarcham Hierosolymitanum, postulans, ut eis ordinaretur episcopus. Ille vero mittit ad eum Petrum, patrem Terebonis ut qui esset idoneus præesse animabus et deducere ad salutem.... Petrus ergo sic primus ordinatur episcopus, qui erat in Palæstina.

nations, after the manner of the Arabians, and had each their regulus, or petty prince: so they seem each to have had their proper bishop, one to a nation, and no more. And therefore in Councils we find them usually subscribing themselves rather by the title of their nation, Episcopus Gentis Saracenorum, than any other way; which I take to be an indication, not that all the Saracens in the world had but one bishop, but that every petty nation had a bishop of its own, though it is hard to distinguish sometimes which family or tribe of them is meant by that general title. In the second Council of Ephesus 21 one Auxilaus is styled Episcopus Saracenorum Fœderatorum, among the bishops of Palestine, whence it is easy to conclude, that there the same Saracens are meant as Cyril speaks of, who were confederate with the Romans, or under the Roman government. But in other places we are left to guess what Saracens may be meant, since they were divided into several petty nations, and more than one nation of them, as we have seen, were converted to the Christian faith.

Bishops of the Axu

The Indians beyond Egypt.

20. There is one Eastern country more, famous for its conversion by Ædesius and Frumentius, in the time of Athanasius; mites, or but yet learned men are not agreed where to place it. ancient historians, Ruffin 22, Socrates 23, and the rest that relate the story, commonly call it India Ulterior, the Inner India: whence Carolus à Sancto Paulo 24, and Baronius 25, and many

21 Ap. Act. I. C. Chalced. (t. 4. p. 117 e.).. Καὶ Αὐξιλάου Σαρακηνῶν τῶν ὑποσπόνδων. [The citation in the text is according to the version of Dionysius Exiguus. Vid. Ed. Crabb. t. 1. p. 830. ED.]

22 L. 1. [al. 10.] c. 9. (p. 224 b. 18.) Metrodorus quidam philosophus, inspiciendorum locorum et orbis perscrutandi gratia, ulteriorem dicitur Indiam penetrasse. Cujus exemplo etiam invitatus Meropius, quidam Tyrius philosophus, simili ex causa adire Indiam voluit, habens secum duos puerulos, quos liberalibus literis utpote propinquos instituebat. Quorum unus, qui erat junior, Edesius, alter Frumentius vocabatur, &c.

23 L. I. c. 19. (v. 2. p. 49. 31.) Αὖθις οὖν μνημονευτέον καὶ ὅπως ἐπὶ τῶν καιρῶν τοῦ βασιλέως ὁ Χριστια

νισμὸς ἐπλατύνετο· τηνικαῦτα γὰρ Ιν-
δῶν τε τῶν ἐνδοτέρω καὶ Ἰβήρων τὰ
ἔθνη, πρὸς τὸ Χριστιανίζειν ἐλάμβανε
τὴν ἀρχήν τίνος δὲ ἕνεκεν τῇ προσ-
θήκῃ τῶν ἐνδοτέρω ἐχρησάμην, διὰ
βραχέων ἐρῶ. Ηνίκα οἱ ̓Απόστολοι
κλήρῳ τὴν εἰς τὰ ἔθνη πορείαν ἐποι-
οῦντο, Θωμᾶς μὲν τὴν Πάρθων ἀπο-
στολὴν ὑπεδέχετο· Ματθαῖος δὲ τὴν
Αιθιοπίαν· Βαρθολομαῖος δὲ ἐκληρού-
το τὴν συνημμένην ταύτῃ Ινδίαν· τὴν
μέντοι ἐνδοτέρω Ινδίαν, ᾗ προσοικεῖ
βαρβάρων ἔθνη πολλὰ, διαφόροις χρώ-
μενα γλώσσαις, οὐδέπω πρὸ τῶν Κων-
σταντίνου χρόνων ὁ τοῦ Χριστιανισ-
μοῦ λόγος ἐφώτιζε, κ. τ. λ.

24 Geogr. Sacr. [1. 8. n. 8.] p. 268.
(p. 258.) Quod autem ad Indiam,
scilicet interiorem, pertinet, nam ex-
teriorem Antiocheno paruisse cer-
tum est, &c.

25 Not. ad Martyrol. Rom. die 27.

others, take it for granted that they mean India within the Ganges, the other part, without the Ganges, having been converted before, as they think, by the Apostle St. Bartholomew. But Holstenius 26 and Valesius 27 correct this mistake, and Bp. Pearson 28 has more fully proved, that the India they speak of was no part of the East Indies, but India beyond Egypt, which was part of Ethiopia, whereof Axumis was the metropolis. This lay not far from the mouth of the Red Sea, over against the country of the Homerites, in Arabia; whence Constantius, in one of his laws 29, joins these two nations together: from