THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
a nn EEN
Peter Ignatius III., in the interest of the Syrians of South India under the secular authority of the English government, presented himself in 6. Modern 1874 to the archbishop of Canterbury Syrian and the bishops of the Anglican Confession Church, the traditional imputation to of Faith. the Syrians of the heresy of Eutyches, or Monophysitism, could not fail to become prominent. This century-long charge was fully controverted by the following sections of the “Creed of our Holy Fathers, the Pillars of our Eastern Syrian Church, St. James of Nisibis, St. Ephraem, St. James the Divine, and others, recognized by all (churches), and also of my unworthy self (the patriarch), as taken from our Lords the Holy Apostles, and divided into twenty-five chapters or articles ”’:
I. Whosoever shall say that the Son of God is not very God, even as the Father is very God, and that he is not coequal with the Father in essence, sovereignty, and eternity, let him be anathema.
II. Whosoever shall say, that the Son is not begotten of the Father, essentially and eternally, let him be anathema.
III. Whosoever shall say that the Son of God, when he sojourned on earth in the flesh, was not in heaven with the Father, let him be anathema.
IV. Whosoever shall say that in that humanity, he did not sit at the right hand of the Father, and that he shall not come again as he is, to judge both the living and the dead, let him be anathema.
V. Whosoever shall say that Christ underwent change and alteration, and does not confess that his soul underwent no change, and that his body did not see corruption as it is written, let him be anathema.
VI. Whosoever shall say that Christ became perfect man by separation (from the divine essence?), and does not confess of our Lord Jesus Christ that he is one as it is written, let him be anathema.
VII. Whosoever shall say that one (nature) suffered, and that the other (nature) was absent at the time of the Passion, and does not believe that God, the impassible, suffered in the flesh as it is written, let him be anathema.
VIII. Whosoever shall say that Christ was human like all other men, and does not believe of him that he was incarnate and became man by the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary, a daughter of David, as it is written, let him be anathema.
IX. Whosoever shall say that the holy Virgin Mary is the mother of Christ, and does not confess that she brought forth the Word of God, who was incarnate, and became man, let him be anathema.
X. Whosoever shall say that the body of Christ is an offspring of the divine essence, and does not confess that he was God before the foundation of the world, who humbled himself and took upon him the form of a servant, as it is written, let him be anathema.
XI. Whosoever shall say that the body of Christ was a phantom or mere image, and does not confess that his was a real body like ours, and that the Virgin Mary brought forth the incarnate Word in a real body, let him be anathema.
XII. Whosoever shall say that when God the Word became united to the body, the divine nature was commingled with the human nature, or that the two natures became commixed and changed so as to give rise to a third nature, and does not confess that the two natures became united in indissoluble union without confusion, mixture, or transmutation, and that they remained two natures in an unalterable unity, let him be anathema.
XIII. Whosoever shall say that the Word of God is created, and not Creator, and does not confess that he is Creator even as is the Father, and that he is coequal with the Father and the Holy Spirit in essence, power, the creation of created things, sovereignty, and eternity, let him be anathema.
XIV. Whosoever shall say that the Holy Spirit is created and not Creator, and that he is of time and not eternal, and does not confess that he is Creator even as is the Father, and as is the Son, and that he is coequal with the Father and the Son in essence, eternity, dominion, power, creation,
majesty, and sovereignty, and that he proceeds from the Father and receives from the Son, and that he is with the Father and the Son, eternal and everlasting, let him be anathema.
XV. Whosoever shall say that the Holy Spirit is not of the essence of the Father, as the Son is of the essence of his Father, and God of God, let him be anathema.
XVI. Whosoever shall say that the Holy Spirit is not omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, as is the Father, and as is the Son, let him be anathema.
XVII. Whosoever shall say that the visible and invisible things of creation were not created by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, let htm,be anathema.
XVIII. Whosoever shall say that the Godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not all of one, and does not confess that the three blessed persons are verily and indeed one in eternity, dominion, sovereignty, and will, let him be anathema.
XIX. Whosoever shall say that the persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not verily and indeed coequal in all things, ever-living, having dominion over all things visible and invisible, all-judging, all-reeompensing, and giving life to all, let him be anathema.
XX. Whosoever shall say that the Holy Spirit is not to be adored and worshiped by all creatures, equally with the Father and the Son, let him be anathema.
XXI. Whosoever shall say that God the Father is alone God, to the exclusion of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and shall teach or believe that worship belongs to the Father alone, excepting them, and does not believe of the three blessed persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that they are one God, one (object of) adoration, one judge, as the holy catholic and apostolic Church believes, let him be anathema.
XXII. Whosoever shall say that the Trisagion which is said in the liturgy is (addressed) to the three blessed persons, and shall truly so believe, and shall then improperly add to the Trisagion, ‘“‘Who wast crucified for us,’’ and shall not believe what our Syrian Jacobite Church believes with a firm faith undoubtingly, and which ascribes the Trisagion to the only begotten Son, the Word, who was pleased to be born of the holy Virgin Mary, and become flesh, as it is written, and of his own will and pleasure was crucified out of his great love for us, in token of his overflowing bounty
and beneficence to us, let him be anathema. (Church Times, September, London, 1874.) Ill. The Separated Armenian Churches: Since
the Armenian Church existed, for the greater part, in the borderland between the Byzantine and the Persian empires, and was actually under the rule of the latter, it was, both for this reason and because of its differing ecclesiastical language, unable to participate freely and fully in the successive ecumenical councils of the Christian Church convened in the East. Although unrepresented at the third council, that of Ephesus (481), Cyril of Alexandria addressed to the patriarch of the Armenians a statement of the doctrines discussed and the decision of the council condemning as heretical the alleged errors of Nestorius. This letter was entrusted to certain pupils of Mesrob (q.v.), whom he had sent
1. Reasons to Constantinople to translate into for Non- Armenian the several books written by representa- the fathers of the Greek Church, and tion at was soon after delivered by them to Ecumenical their preceptor. Thereupon Mesrob Councils. convened a synod of the Armenian bishops, doctors, and confessors, to
whom this letter of Cyril’s, containing the acts and the decision of the council, wasread. After they had discussed and approved its several statements, they condemned and anathematized anew the heresy ascribed to Nestorius. During the early part of 451, while the fourth council was assembling at Chalcedon, the Armenians were being persecuted persist-