RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Nestorians Nestorius
monks Thomas and Johannes as bishops. The patriarch Elias (d. 1502) consecrated three more monks bishops and sent them to India, where they reported some 30,000 Christian families, scattered in twenty cities, chiefly in Carangol, Palor, and Colom, although there were churches in all cities. Later Portuguese accounts reduce the number of Christian families to 16,000. In extreme poverty and oppressed from every side, they declared their sole allegiance to King Emmanuel of Portugal. The result was their destruction, oppressed both by the native princes because of this Portuguese alliance and also crushed by the Portuguese themselves. They were obliged, moreover, by Alexius Menezes, archbishop of Goa, to accept the decisions of the synod held at Diamper in 1599, so that only a few communities in the mountains remained true to the faith of their fathers. But in 1653 they revolted from their enforced union with the Roman Catholic Church, nor have the efforts of the Discalced Carmelites since that time availed to reconcile the Indian Nestorians with Rome. In 1665, on the other hand, the patriarch Ignatius of Antioch sent the Jacobite metropolitan Gregory of Jerusalem to Malabar, where he introduced a Jacobite tendency among the non-Uniates which became wide-spread, the Malabar Jacobites being estimated at nearly 170,000 by the younger missionary Baker.
The present number of Nestorians in Kurdistan and Persia is estimated at something over 150,000, with 250 churches, twelve archbishops and bishops, and more than 300 priests; the Chaldeans at over 100,000, with 150 churches and more than 250 priests. In India there are some 120,000 Nestorians and 250,000 Uniates. (K. KESSLBRf.)
Bibliography: The chief source, outside the writings named in the text, is J. S. Assemani, Bihliotheca orientalis, especially vol. ii., part 2, 3 vols., Rome, 1719-28. Consult further: M. Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, 3 vols., Paris, 1740; Gregory Barhebraeus, Chronicon ecclesiasticum, ed. Abbeloos and Lamy, 3 vols., Paris, 1872-1877; J. Guidi, Ostsyrische Bischbfe und Bischofssitze, in ZDMG, xliii (1889), 388-414; E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of Governors: The Historica Monastica of Thomas, Bishop of Marga, A.D. 840, forming a History of Nestorian Monasticism and Asceticism for over Three Hundred Years, 2 vols., London, 1893; Histoire de Mar Jab Alaha, ed. P Bedjan, Paris, 1895; Mari ibn Sulaiman, Maris Amri et Slibce de patriarchis N estorianorum commentaria, ed. H. Gismondi, 2 parts, Rome, 1896-99; the " Chronicle " of Michael the Syrian has been edited by J. B. Chabot, 2 vols., Paris, 1899-1901; O. Braun, Das Buch der Synhados, Stuttgart, 1900; G. Diettrich, Die Nestorianische Taufliturgie ins Deutsche iibersetzt, Giessen, 1903; The East Syrian or Nestorian Rite translated by A. J. Maclean, London, 1905; Acts of the synods collected in A. Mai, Scriptorum veterum nova coliectio, vol. x.t Rome, 1838; and by J. B. Chabot, in Notes et extraits, xxxvii. 695 sqq., Paris, 1902. On Nestorian canonical law cf. the dissertation by H. Leclercq in the Fr. transl. of Hefele's Conciliengeschichte, ii. 1271-1301, Paris, 1908. For Nestorian authors consult: Assemani, ut sup., i. 1-362; W. Wright, A Short Hist, of Syriac Literature, pp. 166 sqq., London, 1894; R. Duval, Anciennes litteratures chretiennes, vol. ii., Paris, 1900; H. Labourt, De Timotheo I. Nestorianum patriarcha (.728-823), Paris, 1904. General accounts are: J. W. Etheridge, The Syrian Churches, London, 1846; G. P. Badger, The Nestorians and their Ritual, 2 vols., London, 1852; A. Grant, Hist, of the Nestorians, London, 1855; Georgius Ebedjesu Khayyath, Syri orientates" seu Chaldwi Nestoriani, Rome, 1870; A. Kleisz, Sur les missions nestoriennes en Chine au vii. sidcle, Paris, 1880; A. d'Avril, La Chaldee chretienne, Paris, 1892; H. Holme, The Oldest Christian Church, London, 1896; J. E. Heller,
Das nestorianische Denkmal in Singan-fu, Budapest, 1897; W. Kohler, Die katholischen Kirchen des Morgenlandes, Darmstadt, 1898; B. Szechenyi, Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisseder Reise in Ostasien 1877-80, vol. ii., Vienna, 1898; W. Barthold, Zur Geschichte des Christentums in Mittel- Asien bis zur mongolischen Eroberung, Tubingen, 1901; S. Jamil, Genuinoe relationes inter sedem apostolicam et Assyriorum orientalium seu Chaldmorum ecclesiam, Rome, 1902; J. Labourt, Le Christianisme dans Vempire Perse sous la dynastie Sassanide, 224-682, Paris, 1904; DCB, iv. 29-33. For the Nestorians in India consult: G. B. Howard, Christians of St. Thomas and Their Liturgies, Oxford, 1864; J. D. Maebride, The Syrian Church in India, Oxford, 1856; W. J. Richards, The Indian Christians of St. Thomas, otherwise Called the Syrian Christians of Malabar, London, 1908; V. A. Smith, Early Hist, of India, pp. 218 sqq., Oxford, 1908. For Kurdish and Mesopotamian Nestorians consult: J. Perkins, A Residence of Eight Years in Persia among the Nestorian Christians, Andover, 1843; Sketches of Pious Nestorians . . at Oroomiah, Persia, Boston, 1857; T. Laurie, Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians, Boston, 1874; A. J. Maclean and W. H. Brown, The Catholicos of the East, his People, London, 1892; G. Oussani, Modern Chaldeans and Nestorians, in Johns Hopkins Semitic Papers, 1902, pp. 72-90.; W. A. Wigram, The Doctrinal Position of the Assyrian or East Syrian Church, London, 1908. Much of interest and importance will be found under Syrian Church. Material is also to be found in the periodicals Der christliche Orient, Oriens Christianus, Bessarione, and Revue de V orient chretien.