'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎129] (138/568)

EELIGIONS 129
Nn
Wiil, over which the East Roman Empire of Byzantium exercised only
tkltni a l oos ® an d intermittent protectorate, it was natural that the
limit:; Armenian Church should gradually lose connexion with Byzantine
ecclesiastical organization and doctrine; and finally, in the middle of
ittujni ^ ie s ^ x th century, when the heretics called Monophysites (who denied
unpi ^ ie human element in Christ) were actively proselytizing in Syria
kill and Mesopotamia, their doctrine found general acceptance in Armenia.
Wpl Gregorian Church is still Monophysite.
stiiii Tiie - Easfc s y ri an Church is a remnant of the great body of
[lulu, Nestorian Christians who in the Middle Ages were to be found
dWi throughout Asia. The ' Eestorian ' doctrine had arisen in the East
at Roman Empire during the fifth century, its general position being
tie Mi ^ iafc was not one person, but had two distinct natures, a divine
and a human. The Nestorians were condemned as heretics at the
Council of Ephesus in a . n. 431, and were forced to take refuge
beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. In Mesopotamia and
Persia their form of Christianity spread with great rapidity. Nestorian
missionaries made converts in Malabar, China, and the Mongolian
111 > plains (hence, probably, the mediaeval legend of 'Prester John').
The Arab conquerors on the whole treated the Nestorians with
' ,, toleration, and the Nestorian Church increased and flourished till
!, i about year 1400, when Timur Leng (Tamerlane), the Mongol,
persecuted it with wholesale massacre. Of the isolated remnants
WW' one 0 f th e most considerable was that which lingered in the plains
mCtas# 0 f Assyria round Mosul and in the mountains south of Lake Van
mfei a nd Urmia. This body of Nestorians was, however, reduced in the
W sixteenth century by the adhesion of the majority of the plain-
dwelling part of the community to the Church of Rome. The East
®Ir_ Syrian Church, which still maintains its independence, though it
iirfi* denies the imputation of being 'Nestorian', is now almost entirely
feioBi confined to the mountains.
(hi) The West Syrian or Jacobite Church traces its origin to the
ieii# work of a certain Jacobus Baradaeus ('James of the horse-cloth so
i ( oe ^ called from the appearance of his dress), who in the sixth century
CbU' was successful in establishing a large number of Monophysite com-
jcotis? munities in Syria and Mesopotamia. In spite of persecution by the
jjilb Byzantine Government, this Monophysite Church maintained its
;e tie S existence near the borders of the East Roman Empire, until it was
able to enjoy the modified tolerance extended to all Christian sects
e (itii b y the Arab conquerors. The Jacobite Church is still Monophysite.
jlUiiiiiiii Uniatism. —There are three Uniate Churches in Mesopotamia—the
(nistrf Armenian Uniate, the Chaldaean or East Syrian Uniate, and the West
.^Syrian or Jacobite Uniate—and these communities have only three
mbs. i 1