XLVII. CHAP. they might relate, with malicious joy, how the de crees of Chalcedon had been inspired and reformed by the emperor Marcian and his virgin bride. The prevailing faction will naturally inculcate the duty of fubmiffion, nor is it lefs natural that diffenters fhould feel and affert the principles of freedom. Under the rod of perfecution, the Neftorians and Monophyfites degenerated into rebels and fugitives; and the most ancient and useful allies of Rome were taught to confider the emperor not as the chief, but as the enemy, of the Chriftians. Language, the leading principle which unites or separates the tribes of mankind, foon difcriminated the fectaries of the East, by a peculiar and perpetual badge, which abolished the means of interPerpetual courfe and the hope of reconciliation. The long feparation of the Ori- dominion of the Greeks, their colonies, and, above ental fects. all, their eloquence, had propagated a language doubtless the most perfect that has been contrived by the art of man. Yet the body of the people, both in Syria and Egypt, ftill perfevered in the use of their national idioms; with this difference however, that the Coptic was confined to the rude and illiterate peasants of the Nile, while the Syriac "10, from the mountains of Affyria to the Red Sea, was adapted to the higher topics of poetry and argu 110 The Syriac, which the natives revere as the primitive language, was divided into three dialects. 1. The Aramaan, as it was refined at Edeffa and the cities of Mefopotamia. 2. The Palestine, which was used in Jerufalem, Damafcus, and the reft of Syria. 3. The Nabathaan, the rustic idiom of the mountains of Affyria and the villages of Irak (Gregor. Abulpharag. Hift. Dynaft. p. 11.). On the Syriac, fee Ebed-Jefu (Affeman. tom. iii. p. 326, &c.), whose pres judice alone could prefer it to the Arabic. ment, XLVII. ment. Armenia and Abyffinia were infected by CHAP. the speech or learning of the Greeks; and their Barbaric tongues, which have been revived in the ftudies of modern Europe, were unintelligible to the inhabitants of the Roman empire. The Syriac and the Coptic, the Armenian and the Ethiopic, are confecrated in the fervice of their respective churches; and their theology is enriched by domestic verfions" both of the fcriptures and of the most popular fathers. After a period of thirteen hundred and fixty years, the spark of controversy, first kindled by a fermon of Neftorius, ftill burns in the bofom of the Eaft; and the hoftile communions ftill maintain the faith and discipline of their found. ers. In the most abject ftate of ignorance, poverty, and fervitude, the Neftorians and Monophyfites reject the spiritual fupremacy of Rome, and cherish the toleration of their Turkish masters, which allows them to anathematise, on one hand, St. Cyril and the fynod of Ephefus; on the other, pope Leo and the council of Chalcedon. The weight which they caft into the downfal of the Eastern empire demands our notice, and the reader may be amused with the various profpect of, I. The Neftorians. II. The Jacobites ***. III. The Maronites. IV. The 112 I shall not enrich my ignorance with the spoils of Simon, Walton, Mill, Wetstein, Affemannus, Ludolphus, La Croze,whom I have confulted with some care. It appears, 1. That of all the ver fions which are celebrated by the fathers, it is doubtful whether any are now extant in their pristine integrity. 2. That the Syriac has the beft claim; and that the consent of the Oriental fects is a proof that is more ancient than their fchifm. 112 On the account of the Monophyfites and Neftorians, I am deeply indebted to the Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana of VOL. VIII. Ꮓ Jofeph XLVII. CHAP. IV. The Armenians. V. The Copts; and, VI. The Abyffinians. To the three former, the Syriac is common; but of the latter, each is difcriminated by the use of a national idiom. Yet the modern natives of Armenia and Abyffinia would be incapable of converfing with their anceftors; and the Chriftians of Egypt and Syria, who reject the religion, have adopted the language, of the Arabians. The lapfe of time has feconded the facerdotal arts; and in the Eaft, as well as in the Weft, the Deity is addressed in an obsolete tongue, unknown to the majority of the congregation. 1. THE NESTORIANS, I. Both in his native and his epifcopal province, the herefy of the unfortunate Neftorius was fpeedily obliterated. The Oriental bishops, who at Ephefus had refifted to his face the arrogance of Cyril, were mollified by his tardy conceffions. The fame prelates, or their fucceffors, fubfcribed, not without a murmur, the decrees of Chalcedon; the power of the Monophyfites reconciled them with the Catholics in the conformity of paffion, of intereft, and infenfibly of belief; and their laft reluctant figh was breathed in the defence of the three chapters. Their diffenting brethren, less moderate, or more fincere, were crushed by the penal laws; and as early as the reign of Juftinian, it became difficult to find a church of Neftorians Jofeph Simon Affemannus. That learned Maronite was difpatched in the year 1715, by pope Clement XI. to vifit the monafteries of Egypt and Syria, in fearch of MSS. His four folio volumes publifhed at Rome 1719-1728, contain a part only, though perhaps the most valuable, of his extensive project. As a native and as a scholar, he poffeffed the Syriac literature; and, though a dependant of Rome, he wishes to be moderate and candid. XLVII. within the limits of the Roman empire. Beyond CHAP. thofe limits they had discovered a new world, in which they might hope for liberty and afpire to conqueft. In Perfia, notwithstanding the refiftance of the Magi, Christianity had struck a deep root, and the nations of the East reposed under its falutary fhade. The catholic, or primate, refided in the capital in his fynods, and in their dioceses, his metropolitans, bishops, and clergy, represented the pomp and order of a regular hierarchy: they rejoiced in the increase of profelytes, who were converted from the Zendavefta to the Gofpel, from the fecular to the monaftic life; and their zeal was stimulated by the presence of an artful and formidable enemy. The Perfian church had been founded by the miffionaries of Syria; and their language, difcipline and doctrine, were clofely interwowen with its original frame. The catholics were elected and ordained by their own fuffragans; but their filial dependence on the patriarchs of Antioch is attefted by the canons of the Oriental church 13. In the Perfian school of 113 Edef 113 See the Arabic canons of Nice in the translation of Abraham Ecchelenfis, N° 37, 38, 39, 40. Concil. tom. ii. p. 335, 336. edit. Venet. Thefe vulgar titles, Nicene and Arabic, are both apocryphal. The council of Nice enacted no more than twenty canons (Theodoret, Hift. Ecclef. 1. i. c. 8.) ; and the remainder, seventy or eighty, were collected from the fynods of the Greek church. The Syriac edition of Maruthas is no longer extant (Asseman. Bibliot. Oriental. tom. i. p. 195. tom. iii. p. 74.) and the Arabic version is marked with many recent interpolations. Yet this code contains many curious relics of ecclesiastical discipline; and fince it is equally revered by all the eastern communions, it was probably finished before the fchifm of the Neftorians and Jacobites (Fabric. Bibliot. Græc, tom. xi. p. 363–367.). XLVII. CHAP. fa 14, the rifing generations of the faithful imbibed their theological idiom; they studied in the Syriac verfion the ten thousand volumes of Theodore of Mopfueftia, and they revered the apoftolic faith and holy martyrdom of his difciple Neftorius, whofe perfon and language were equally unknown to the nations beyond the Tigris. The firft indelible leffon of Ibas bishop of Edeffa, taught them to execrate the Egyptians, who, in the fynod of Ephefus, had impiously confounded the two natures of Christ. The flight of the mafters and scholars, who were twice expelled from the Athens of Syria, dispersed a crowd of miffionaries inflamed by the double zeal of religion and revenge. And the rigid unity of the Monophyfites, who, under the reigns of Zeno and Anaftafius, had invaded the thrones of the East, provoked their antagonists, in a land of freedom, to avow a moral, rather than a physical, union of the two perfons of Chrift. Since the first preaching of the gofpel, the Safanian kings beheld with an eye of fufpicion, a race of aliens and apoftates, who had embraced the religion, and who might favour the cause, of the hereditary foes of their country. The royal edicts had often prohibited their dangerous correfpondence with the Syrian clergy; the progress of the fchifm was grateful to the jealous pride of Perozes, and he liftened to the eloquence of an artful prelate, who painted Nefto 114 Theodore the reader (1. ii. c. 5. 49. ad calcem Hift. Ecclef.) has noticed this Perfian school of Edeffa. Its ancient splendour, and the two æras of its downfal (A. D. 431 and 489), are clearly dif cuffed by Affemanni (Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii. p. 402. iii, p. 376. 378. iv. p. 70. 924.). rius |