XLVII. rius as the friend of Perfia, and urged him to fecure CHAP. the fidelity of his Christian fubjects, by granting a just preference to the victims and enemies of the Roman tyrant. The Neftorians compofed a large majority of the clergy and people: they were encouraged by the smile, and armed with the sword, of defpotifm; yet many of their weaker brethren were startled at the thought of breaking loose from the communion of the Chriftian world, and the blood of feven thousand seven hundred Monophyfites or Catholics, confirmed the uniformity of faith and difcipline in the churches of Perfia "". Their ecclefiaftical inftitutions are diftinguished by a liberal principle of reafon, or at leaft of policy: the aufterity of the cloyster was relaxed and gradually forgotten; houses of charity were endowed for the fole maf education of orphans and foundlings; the law of ters of celibacy, fo forcibly recommended to the Greeks and Latins, was difregarded by the Perfian clergy; and the number of the elect was multiplied by the public and reiterated nuptials of the priests, the bishops, and even the patriarch himself. To this standard of natural and religious freedom, myriads of fugitives reforted from all the provinces of the Eastern empire: the narrow bigotry of Justinian was punished by the emigration of his most induftrious fubjects; they tranfported into Perfia the 115 A differtation on the ftate of the Neftorians has fwelled in the hands of Affemanni to a folio volume of 950 pages, and his learned refearches are digefted in the mok lucid order. Befides this ivth volume of the Bibliotheca Orientalis, the extracts in the three preceding tomes (tom. i. p. 203. ii. p. 321-463. iii. 64-70. 378-395, &c. 403-408.580-589.) may be ufefully confulted. Perfia, A D. 500. &c. XLVII. CHAP. arts both of peace and war: and those who deferved the favour, were promoted in the fervice, of a difcerning monarch. The arms of Nufhirvan and his fiercer grandson, were affifted with advice, and money, and troops, by the defperate fectaries who still lurked in their native cities of the East; their zeal was rewarded with the gift of the Catholic churches: but when thofe cities and churches were recovered by Heraclius, their open profeffion of treafon and herefy compelled them to seek a refuge in the realm of their foreign ally. But the feeming tranquillity of the Neftorians was often endangered, and fometimes overthrown. They were involved in the common evils of Oriental defpotifm their enmity to Rome could not always atone for their attachment to the gofpel: and a colony of three hundred thoufand Jacobites, the captives of Apainea and Antioch, was permitted to erect an hoftile altar in the face of the catholic, and in the funshine of the court. In his laft treaty, Juftinian introduced fome conditions which tended to enlarge and fortify the toleration of Christianity in Perfia. The emperor, ignorant of the rights of confcience, was incapable of pity or esteem for the heretics who denied the authority of the holy fynods: but he flattered himself that they would gradually perceive the temporal benefits of union with the empire and the church of Rome; and if he failed in exciting their gratitude, he might hope to provoke the jealousy of their fovereign. In a later age, the Lutherans have been burnt at Paris and protected in Germany, by the superstition and policy of the most Christian king. The The defire of gaining fouls for God, and subjects for the church, has excited in every age the diligence of the Chriftian priefts. From the conqueft of Perfia they carried their fpiritual arms to the north, the east, and the fouth; and the fimplicity of the gofpel was fafhioned and painted with the colours of the Syriac theology. In the fixth century, according to the report of a Neftorian traveller 16, Christianity was fuccefsfully preached to the Bactrians, the Huns, the Perfians, the Indians, the Perfarmenians, the Medes, and the Elamites; the Barbaric churches, from the gulf of Perfia to the Cafpian fea, were almoft infinite; and their recent faith was confpicuous in the number and fanctity of their monks and martyrs. The pepper coaft of Malabar, and the ifles of the ocean, Socotora and Ceylan, were peopled with an increasing multitude of Christians, and the bishops and clergy of those fequestered regions derived their ordination 116 See the Topographia Christiana of Cofmas, furnamed Indicopleuftes, or the Indian navigator, 1. iii. p. 178, 179. l. xi. p. 337The entire work, of which fome curious extracts may be found in Photius (cod. xxxvi. p. 9, 10. edit. Hoefchel), Thevenot (in the 1st Part of his Relations des Voyages, &c.), and Fabricius (Bibliot. Græc. I. iii. c. 25. tom. ii. p. 603–617.), has been published by fa ther Montfaucon at Paris 1707, in the Nova Collectio Patrum (tòm. ii. p. 113-346.). It was the defign of the author to confute the impicus herefy of those who maintain that the earth is a globe, and not a flat oblong table, as it is represented in the Scriptures (1. ii. p. 138.). But the nonfenfe of the monk is mingled with the practical knowledge of the traveller who performed his voyage A. D. 522, and published his book at Alexandria A. D. 547 (l. ii. p. 140, 141. Montfaucon. Præfat. c. 2.). The Neftorianifm of Cofmas, unknown to his learned editor, was detected by La Croze (Christianisme des Indes, tom. i. p. 40-55.), and is confirmed by Affemanni (Bibliot. Orient. tom. iv. p. 605, 606.), CHA P. from the catholic of Babylon. In a fubfequent age, XLVII. the zeal of the Neftorians overleaped the limits. 117 117 In its long progrefs to Mosul, Jerusalem, Rome, &c. the story of Prester John evaporated in a monftrous fable, of which fome features have been borrowed from the Lama of Thibet (Hift. Genealogique des Tatares, P. ii. p. 42. Hift. de Gengifcan, p. 31, &c.), and were ignorantly transferred by the Portugueze to the emperor of Abyffinia (Ludolph. Hift. Ethiop Comment 1 ii, c.1.). Yet it is probable that in the xith and xiith centuries, Neftorian Christianity was profeffed in the hord of Keraites (d'Herbelot, P. 256. 915.959. Affemanni, tom, iv. p. 468--594 ). darins, XLVII. darins, who affect in public the reafon of philofo- CHAP. phers, are devoted in private to every mode of popular superstition. They cherished and they confounded the gods of Palestine and of India; but the propagation of Christianity awakened the jealoufy of the state, and after a fhort viciffitude of favour and perfecution, the foreign sect expired in ignorance and oblivion 118. Under the reign of the caliphs, the Neftorian church was diffufed from China to Jerufalem and Cyprus; and their numbers, with those of the Jacobites, were computed to furpass the Greek and Latin communions "19. Twenty-five metropolitans or archbishops composed their hierarchy, but feveral of these were difpenfed, by the distance and danger of the way, from the duty of perfonal attendance, on the easy condition that every fix years they should testify their faith and obedience to the catholic or patriarch of Babylon, a vague appellation, which has been fucceffively applied to the royal feats of Seleucia, Ctefiphon, and Bagdad. These remote branches are long fince withered, and the old patriarchal 118 The Christianity of China, between the feventh and the thirteenth century, is invincibly proved by the confent of Chinese, Arabian, Syriac, and Latin evidence (Affemanni, Biblioth. Orient. tom iv. p. 502–552. Mem, de l'Academie des Infcript. tom. xxx. p. 802-819 ). The infcription of Siganfu, which describes the fortunes of the Neftorian church, from the first mission A D. 636, to the current year 781, is accused of forgery by La Croze, Voltaire, &c. who become the dupes of their own cunning, while they are afraid of a Jefuitical fraud. 119 Jacobitæ et Neftoriane plures quam Græci et Latini. Jacob a Vitriaco, Hift. Hierofol. 1. ii. c. 76. p. 1093. in the Gefta Dei per Francos. The numbers are given by Thomaffin, Discipline de 'Eglife, tom. i. p. 172. 1 trunk 1 |