"مذكرات الحرب. مقر قيادة الجيش، الهند. [...] قوة المشاة الهندية «د». المجلد ٣٧. الجزء II. (من ١٦ إلى ٣١ أغسطس ١٩١٧)." [و‎‎٨‎٥] (٥٤٦/١٧٤)

What is now known as the Orthodox Greek Church is the direct descend
ant of the Schismatic Church of the Byzantines. This Church has ^iven
its liturgy to various Christian groups, to the Christians of Armenia in
particular, but the great schism did not carry the whole Eastern Church
in its wake, as will soon be seen. The ferment and discontent of the East
against West brought about further disintegration in various parts of the East,
especially where the principles of Christianity were not deeply rooted. Dis
sension, discontent and rebellion spread rapidly. The known world was in a
state of unrest. The hold of Borne on the Christians of the East had, by war
and invasion, become loosened.
Soon there began to arise small sects differing, in dogma from the Mother
Church, claiming absolute independence and Divine Sanction.. The most
important of these were the Nestorians, under the leadership of Nestonus,
who held that Christ had two persons and two natures. His followers were
condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 431. Eutychus, an ardent opponent
of Nestorius, himself fell into heresy, declaring that Christ had one person
and one nature. This doctrine was spread by one Jacob Baradan, and was
known as the monophysite heresy, condemned in the Council of Chalcedon
451. . ,
In the Vllth Century Maron, who preached what is known as the
Monothelite heresy, which held that Christ had one nature one will and one
person, was the founder of the Maronite Church of Mount Lebanon, of which
there are a few adherents in Mesopotamia. This Church was reconciled
to Eome in 1216. , t> -n i a
Meanwhile the Armenian Church broke away from the Roman Fold.
The Armenians had been first converted by St. Gregory the Illuminator, in 2o7,
and it was doubtless owing to the influence of the Byzantine or Greek
Orthodox Church that they were led to renounce the Papal supremacy.
It is interesting to note that this Church, besides its attitude towards ihe
Panal supremacy and its married clergy, has another feature in common
with the Church 7 of England in its denial of purgatory, audit is amragst
the Armenians alone that Protestantism of the Presbyterian form has made
great progress of late years, under American Missionaries.
We have now accounted for and described the origin of all the Churches;
of Mesopotamia which are schismatic, that is, not in the Homan allegiance..
To sum up they are The Greek Orthodox ; The Nestorians; The Jacobite*
and the Gregorians (Armenian).
The Uniate Churches, that is, they who acknowledge the supremacy of
Borne, areas follows:—*
The Chaldeans, the Armenian Uniates, Syrian Catholics, Greek Melchites,
M aronites and Latins.
These communities, besides acknowledging the spiritual supremacy of the
Pope, accept the decrees of the Council of Ephesus and of Chalcedon, which
condemned respectively the Nestorians and Monophysite heresies. . In all other
respects they are separate and independent, possessing their own liturgies and
* hierarchies. They are subordinated to the Pope who appoints a Delegate
Apostolic as his representative in Mesopotamia.
The Chaldman community received its liturgy from St. Thaddeus and is
to be found mostly in and around Mosul.
The Armenian IJniates are a very small community and were reconciled to
Borne in 1075.
The Syrian Catholics received their liturgy from St. James the Greater,
and consist of the decendants of those who did not adopt the Jacobite heresy.
The Greek Melchites were reconciled to Borne from the Greek Orthodox
Church in the XVth Century. They are otherwise known as Greek TJniates or
Greek Catholics, and in common with the Greek Orthodox Church their
liturgy was derived from St. John Chrysostom.
The Maronites were re-nnited to Borne in 1216.
The Latin community traces its liturgy to an Italian Dominican Mission
at Mosul in the XIHth Century. After Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
recognised King Erancis I of France as protector of the Christians in his
Dominions, the Latin clergy consisted of French missionaries mostly of the
Dominican, Capucin and Carmelite Orders. The nuns have Convent schools
in Basrah, Baghdad and Mosul, where Chaldseans and other Eastern IJniates.
can obtain a European education.