wards, and greatly favored them. Cliodabende, second son of Arghun, called by the Tarc^rs Oldshaitu, was led by his mother to become a Christian, like her, and was baptized under the name of Nicholas, but after her death he returned to Islamism, and took the name of Mohammed Ghaiath-ed-din; his son, Abu Said, sur- named Behadur Khan, was probably of the same re- ligion, as were also his followers, under whom the em- pire was divided- between several dynasties. It remain- ed thus divided until Timur remiited it. After him the Turcomans ruled over Mesopotamia, Chaldsea, Media, and Persia. His successors founded tlie Mongol empire in India and the Turkish empire in Western Asia.
The long and uninterrupted peace enjoyed by the Christians under the rule of the Arabs and Mongols had led to a great expansion of Nestorianism in Eastern Asia. Hulagu had (according to Haytho) given to Christians the command of camps and of whole states, and appointed a palace in Bagdad for the residence of patriarch Machicha. Abaga Khan confirmed this gift, but Machicha was obliged to leave the town on account of a disturbance he had himself occasioned (by causing a Christian renegade to be thrown into the Tigris), and retired to Arbela. The return of Achmed Khan, Cho- dabende, and their successors to Islamism jjut an end to the favor of the Christians, but we find no evidence of their being really oppressed until the reign of Timur, who persecuted both Christians and Mohammedans. Communications with the distant East were nOw broken up, and the churches there gradually died out. Islam- ism, on the contrarj', gained ground daily, and destroyed the Christian communities in Tartary and India, the same was subsequently done in Persia by the fanatical Shiites, and in other parts of Asia by the JMohammedan dynasties. To these causes must be added that the popes, especially since the appearance of the Mongols, who showed themselves favorable to the Christians, maintained an active correspondence with their princes, and sent missionaries who opposed the Nestorians, till, with the single exception of a few communities scat- tered througli India, and now known as Thomas Chris- tians, they were almost entirely confined to the wild mountains and the valley's of Kurdistan and to Armenia. Here, under the Turkish dominion, they remain to this day, with a separate patriarch, who from 1559 till the 17th century resided at ]\Iosid, but has since dwelt in an almost inaccessible valley on the borders of Tur- key and Persia. They are very ignorant and poor, and have been much reduced by war, persecution, disease, and want.
III. Nestorians of the Church of Rome. — A portion of the Nestorians, especially those in cities, united from time to time, under the name of Chaldccans, with the Roman Church, subject to a patriarch of their own. He resided first at Bagdad, and afterwards at Mosul ; but a division arising among them, in 1551 the patriarchate became divided, at least for a time, aiTd a new patriarch was consecrated by pope Innocent IX, whose successors fixed their residence in the city of Ormuz, in the moun- tainous parts of Persia, where thej' still continue, distin- guished by the name of Simeonites.
It is difficult to determine the early relation of the Christians of Persia to the see of Kome, yet without a brief review of their early history it is not well possible to understand the progress of Romanism in the Nestorian country, and we therefore insert here as much as is es- sential for the purpose of affording the reader a complete history of Nestorianism. It is very likely that Christi- anity M'as introduced into Persia as early as the days of the apostles, but the whole history of the empire at that time is so uncertain that it is impossible to arrive at any definite statements as to its progress. Under the Arsacides, who were thoroughly indifferent in religious matters, it is likely that the Church was permitted to spread unmolested, and Barhebraeus and others only men- tion one persecution of short duration. Trajan, however, persecuted the Christians as far as his power extended
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throughout the provinces during his wars. The bishop of the chief town of Seleucia-Ctesiphou gradually be- came the head of the Christian Church in Persia and the more remote Eastern countries. Yet wlien Papa, bishop of Selcucia, sent Simeon and Shadost as his rep- resentatives to the Council of Nice (A.D. 325), we still lind a .John, bishop of Persia, sent also to the same as- sembly as representative of the churches of Persia and the East Indies. And although JabaHalia, arclibishop of Seleiuia, in the synod of A.D. 420, invested the bish- ops of Persia with the office of metropolitans, it is only Jesujab of Adiabne (G54-GG0), his pupil and successor Georgius (GGO-G«0), or, (inall}', Timotheus (778-820), wild brought them into absolute subjection to the see of [Seleucia. I5ut as the frequent wars with the Komans renilered the journey difficult and sometimes impossible, it was at last neglected, and Shachlupha, who died in 182 (according to Amru in 241; see Assemani, Blhl. Or. iv, 42), was the first who was ordained at Seleu- cia. They thus acquired a certain degree of indepen- dence. Papa, the successor of Shachlupha, received the title of archbishop; subsequent ones took that of ]>atriarch, and claimed the same rank as those of the Western Church. This, Assemani states (^Jiibl. Or. iii, 427 ; iv, 80), was first done by Babajus (498-503) at a synod held in 4'JI). lie calls him the first Nestorian bisliop of Seleucia, and asserts that his three i)redeces- sors — Dadjesu, BaUcus, and Acacius— remained true to the Ivoman Catholic doctrine, and to their obedience to the see of Antioch. Yet Dadjesu already held a synod (430-4G5), in which it was declared that no complaints or accusations could ever be brought against the bishop of Seleucia, to whom all owed unquestioning obedience. In the Arabic Synodicon and Ntmocunon it is further stated that it is not allowable to complain of him to the Western patriarchs, nor to appeal to them from his de- cisions : this is by Assemani considered as a later Nes- torian interpolation. But BaUeus and Acacius must have been weak prelates, for it appears from the canons of the times that the morals of the clergy became very lax inider their rule; and Acacius, who formerly be- longed to the school of Edessa, and therefore held the Nestorian doctrines, being sent to Constantinople as I'ersian ambassador, joined there in anathematizing Nestorius, but after his return never acted against the Nestorians. He complained also, according to Barhe- bneus (see Assemani, Bill. Or. iii, 383, note), that Xena- jas, monophysite bishop of Mabug (Ilierapolis), known l)y the (Jreek name of Pliiloxenus, as the translators of the N. T. into Syriac called him, denominated him and his adiiercnts " Nestorians," while he had no knowledge whatever of Nestorius nor of his heresy (!). This seems, then, to be the origin of the name. They called them- selves "Cliald;cans," a name which now is used only for the Nestorians reconciled with the Koniish Church; they claim that the appellation of Nestorians is wrong, as Nestorius nevei''was their patriarch, and they do not even understand his language, and tliat, moreover, he is ]iosterior to them. Although these early patriarciis di<l not venture to break openly with the sec of Koine, Baba-us— originally a layman, and, as such, married— wlio filled the see of Seleucia after a two-years' vacancy, was the first to act towards it in a fearless manner, lie held a synod in which it was declared, 1, that all that had passed between Barsumas arid Acacius (who had exfoinmunicated each otlier) should be forgotten, and tlicir cinrespondeuce destroyed; 2, lliat the i)atriarch, bishops, priests, and monks sliould be allowed to marry one wife (not several, as had previously been sometimes the case; see Assemani, I)e catlmlirU xat jxilrinrcliis ('hiddo'orum el Ncstorianornm Commentdrhis [Home, 1775. 4to], p. 1«) ; 3, that the patriarch of Seleucia was cut il led to absolute obedience ; 4, that tiic bishops sliould meet their metropolitan every two years instead of yearly, and the patriarch every four instead of ev- ery two years, to consider Church matters, and that in the month of October, the patriarch having the privi-