INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO ASSYRIA. — ORIGIN OF THE CHALDAEAN OR NESTORIAN CHURCH. — EARLY MISSIONS OF THE CHALDEANS. — THE MONUMENT OF SE-GAN-FOO. — THE CHALDEANS UNDER THE ARABS. — THE LEARNING OF THE CHALDEANS. — THEIR TRANSLATIONS OF GREEK WORKS. — THE CHALDAEANS AFTER THE TATAR INVASION. — PRESTER JOHN. — HIS LETTER TO THE GREEK EMPEROR. — EXTENT OF THE CHALDAEAN CHURCH. — DECLINE OF ITS POWER. — ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF "NESTORIANS." — DOCTRINES OF THE CHALDEANS OR NESTORIANS. — THEIR PROFESSION OP FAITH. — THEIR TENETS. THEIR PATRIARCH. — THEIR LANGUAGE. — AMERICAN MISSIONS.

The account given in the preceding chapter, of the Chaldaean or Nestorian tribes, will probably have made the reader desirous of knowing something of their condition, and of the events which led to the isolation of a small Christian community in the midst of the mountains of Kurdistan. Indeed the origin of the race, as well as the important position which the Chalda3an church once held in Asia, renders the subject one of considerable historical interest. To Protestants, the doctrines and rites of a primitive sect of Christians, who have ever remained untainted by the superstitions of Rome, must be of high importance; and it is a matter of astonishment, that more curiosity has not been excited by them, and more sympathy felt for their sufferings.

In the first centuries of the Christian sera, the plains of Assyria Proper were still the battle-ground of the nations of the East, and the West. From the fall of the Assyrian empire, whose capital was Nineveh, the rich districts watered by the Tigris and Euphrates had been continually exposed to foreign invasion. Their cities had been levelled with the ground, the canals which gave fertility to the soil had been destroyed, and a great part of the ancient population had either been exterminated or carried away captive to distant regions. Still there lingered, in the villages and around the sites of the ruined cities, the descendants of those who had formerly possessed the land. They had escaped the devastating sword of the Persians, of the Greeks, and of the Romans. They still spoke the language of their ancestors, and still retained the name of their race.

The doctrines of Christianity had early penetrated into the Assyrian provinces; they may even have been carried there by those who had imbibed them at their source. When, in the first part of the fifth century, the church was agitated by the dissensions of St. Cyril and Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Chaldaeans were already recognised as one of the most extensive of the Eastern sects.

Nestorius himself was never in Assyria; but it will be remembered that, in the struggle at Ephesus between him and his rival St. Cyril, his chief supporters were the Eastern Bishops, who accompanied John of Antioch to the third œcumenical Council.¹ Although the peculiar doctrines held by Nestorius, had been previously promulgated on the borders of Assyria by Dioclorus of Tarsus, and Theoclorus the Bishop of Mopsuestia, and had been recognised by the celebrated school of Edessa, the Ur of the Chaldees, and the last seat of their learning; yet until the persecution of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the schism had not attracted much attention. It was to the rank and sufferings of Nestorius, that the doctrines which he had maintained owed their notoriety, and those who professed them, their name.

These doctrines were alternately taught and condemned in the school of Edessa, to the time of its close, by an order of the Emperor Zeno. Those who professed them were known as the Persian party. When the Emperor called upon all Christian sects to forget their dissensions, and to subscribe the Henoticon, or articles of Faith, Barsumas, the recusant Bishop of Nisibis, placed himself under the protection of the Persian King Firouz. Acacius, who on the murder of Babuteus was elected to the archbishopric of Seleucia or Ctesiphon², secretly professed the Nestorian doctrines. Babuaus, his successor, openly declared himself in favour of the new sect; and from his accession may be dated the first recognised establishment of the Nestorian church in the East, and the promulgation of its doctrines amongst the nations of central Asia.

Until the fall of the Sassanian dynasty, and the establishment of the Arab supremacy in the provinces to the East of the Tigris, the Chaldaeans were alternately protected and persecuted; their condition mainly depending upon the relative strength of the Persian and Byzantine Empires. Still their tenets were recognised as those of the Eastern Church, and their chief, at an early period, received the title of " Patriarch of the East." They laboured assiduously to disseminate their doctrines over the continent of Asia; and it is even asserted that one of the Persian Kings was amongst their converts. From Persia, where the Chaldaean Bishoprics were early established, they spread eastwards; and Cosmas Indicopleustes, who visited Asia in the early part of the sixth century, declares that they had bishops, martyrs, and priests in India, Arabia Felix, and Socotra, amongst the Bactrians, the Huns, the Persarmenians, the Medes, and the Elamites and that their Metropolitans even penetrated into China as early as the fifth century.³

The celebrated inscription of Se-gan-foo, which was seen by the Jesuit missionaries in the year 1625, gives many particulars regarding the state of the Chaldaean Church in China, from a. d. 620 to 781. The Chaldaeans had enjoyed, during that period, with only two exceptions, the imperial favour; and their doctrines had been preached before the court, and throughout the empire. This inscription, the authenticity of which — so long contested — seems at length to be generally admitted, contains an exposition of the creed of the sect, and of their peculiar tenets and ceremonies, a short history of the progress of Christianity in China, and the names of the missionaries who preached the Gospel in that country. The date of the erection of the monument is given in these words: " In the empire of the family of the great Tang, in the second year of the reign of Keen-Kung, on Sunday the seventh day of the month of Autumn, was erected this stone, the Bishop Hing-Kiu administering to the church of China; a Mandarin, whose name was Lieu-sie-ki-yen, and whose title was Keagy-kuu, whose predecessor was Tae-kiew-sie-su-kan-keun, wrote this inscription with his own hand." In the margin is written, in Syriac: " In the days of the Father of Fathers, Mar Ananjesus, the Patriarch." Below are these words, also in Syriac: " In the Greek year 1092, Mar Jezedbuzd, a Presbyter and Chorepiscopus of the royal city of Chumdan, the son of Millesius of happy memory, a Presbyter of Balkh in Tochuristan, erected this tablet of stone, in which are described the precepts of our Saviour, and the preaching of our fathers to the Emperor of the Chinese." These notices fix the date of the monument to A. D. 781. The Patriarch Ananjesus died about 778; but it is highly probable that the intelligence of his death had not yet reached the far distant regions of China.⁴

We find, in the earliest annals of the Chaldaean Church, frequent accounts of missionaries sent by the Patriarchs of the East into Tatary and China, and notices of their success and of their fate.

When the Arabs invaded the territories of the Persian Kings, and spread their new faith over Asia, they found the Chaldaean Church already powerful in the East. Even in Arabia its missionaries had gained extensive influence, and Mohammed himself may have owed the traditions and learning which he embodied in the Koran to the instruction of a Chaldaean monk.⁵ At any rate the Arabian prophet appears to have been well disposed towards the Nestorians; for one of his first acts, after he had established his power, was to enter into a treaty with them. By this document (which, however, it is right to state, has been rejected as a forgery by several European critics, whilst its authenticity is admitted by early Mohammedan and Eastern Christian writers) not only protection, but various privileges were secured to the sect. They were freed from military service; their customs and laws were to be respected; their clergy were to be exempted from the payment of tribute; the taxes imposed on the rich were limited to twelve pieces of money, those to be paid by the poor to four; and it was expressly declared that when a Christian woman entered into the service of a Mussulman, she should not be compelled to change her religion, to abstain from her lasts, or to neglect her customary prayers, or the ceremonies enjoined by her church.⁶ The prosperity of the Chaldaeans and the toleration of the Arab conquerors are evidenced by a letter from the Patriarch Jesujabus to Simon the metropolitan of a Persian city. "Even the Arabs," he writes, " on whom the Almighty has in these days bestowed the dominion of the earth, are amongst us, as thou knowest. Yet they do not persecute the Christian religion; but, on the contrary, they commend our faith, and honour the priests and saints of the Lord, conferring benefits upon His churches and His convents."⁷

At the time of the Arab invasion, the learning of the East was still chiefly to be found amongst the Chaldaeans. Their knowledge and skill gained them favour in the eyes of the Caliphs, and they became their treasurers, their scribes, and their physicians. Whilst filling such high stations, and enjoying the confidence of the Sovereign, they could protect and encourage their fellow-Christians. A Bishopric was established in the new Mussulman settlement of Cufa, and shortly afterwards the seat of the Patriarchate was transferred from Seleucia and Ctesiphon, now falling into decay, to Baghdad, the new and flourishing capital of the Commanders of the Faithful.

We are indebted to the Chaldaeans for the preservation of numerous precious fragments of Greek learning; as the Greeks were, many centuries before, to the ancestors of the Chaldaeans for the records of astronomy and the elements of Eastern science. In the celebrated schools of Edessa, Nisibis, Seleucia, or Mahuza — as it is frequently called by the Syrian chroniclers, — and of Dorkena, the early languages of the country, the Chaldee and Syriac, as well as Greek, were publicly taught; and there were masters of the sciences of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy, and medicine, whose treatises were preserved in public libraries,⁸ The works of Greek physicians and philosophers had at an early period been translated into Chaldee. They excited the curiosity of the Caliphs, who were then the encouragers and patrons of learning; and by their orders they were translated by Nestorian Chaldaeans into Arabic. Amongst the works confided by the Caliph Al Mamoun to his Chaldaean subjects, we find recorded those of Aristotle and Galen; and others in the Greek, Persian, Chaldaean, and Egyptian languages. He also sent learned Nestorians into Syria, Armenia, and Egypt, to collect manuscripts, and to obtain the assistance of the most learned men. When asked by a rigid Mussulman how he could trust the translation of any book to a Christian, he is said to have replied: " If I confide to him the care of my body, in which dwell my soul and my spirit, wherefore should I not entrust him with the words of a person whom I know not, especially when they relate to matters which have no reference to our faith or to his faith?" Asseniani, who wrote the history of the Nestorian and Monophysite Churches, gives a Ions; list of the translators of, and commentators upon, the treatises of Aristotle; and a Syriac writer has left an extensive catalogue of the works of Chaldee authors.

The Chaldaean Patriarchs were not insensible to the growing power of the Tatar kings, whose descendants afterwards overturned the throne of the Caliphs, and overran nearly the whole of Asia. At an early period their missionaries had penetrated into Tatary, and from the sixth century, up to the time of the conquest of Baghdad by Hulako Khan, in the middle of the thirteenth, they had possessed great influence over the tribes of Turkistan. They even boasted of the conversion to Christianity of more than one Tatar king, amongst whom was the celebrated Prester, or Presbyter, John. Of this strange personage, who plays so conspicuous a part in the early annals of the Church, and of whom so many fables have been related that his very existence has been doubted, there remains a curious letter. It may have been composed for him by the Chaldaean missionaries who accompanied him in his wanderings, or it may be a forgery, after their return to Europe, by some ecclesiastics who had visited his court. It contains, however, a singular and amusing description of the power and state of these Tatar kings, and shows the exagerated ideas which prevailed regarding them. Many particulars contained in this letter are confirmed by Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville, and other travellers; and as this circumstance goes far to prove, that it was at least written by one who had seen the country and people he describes, I have made some extracts from it. It is addressed to Alexius Comnenus, the Greek Emperor.

"Prester John, by the grace of God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, the king of kings, to Alexius Comnenus, the governor of Constantinople, health and a happy end. Our Majesty has been informed that thou hast learnt our excellence, and that mention has been made to thee of our greatness. That which we desire to know is, whether thou boldest with us the true faith, and whether in all things thou believest in our Lord Jesus Christ?

"If thou desirest to know our greatness, and the excellence of our might, and over what lands our power extendeth, know and believe, without doubting, that we are Prester John, the servant of God: that we excel in all riches under Heaven, and in virtue and in power all the kings of the earth. Seventy kings are our tributaries. We are a devout Christian, and we everywhere protect, and nourish with alms, such poor Christians as are within the empire of our clemency. We have made a vow to visit the sepulchre of our Lord with a great army, as it becometh the glory of our majesty, to wage war against and humiliate the enemies of the cross of Christ, and to exalt His holy name.⁹ Our magnificence ruleth over the three Indias; and our territories stretch beyond the furthermost India, in which resteth the body of the blessed Apostle, Thomas; thence through the wilderness they extend towards the rising of the sun, and, returning towards the going-down thereof, to Babylon, the Deserted, even to the Tower of Babel. Seventy-two provinces obey us, a few of which are christian provinces; and each hath its own king. And all their kings are our tributaries. In our territories are found elephants, dromedaries, and camels, and almost every kind of beast that is under Heaven. Our dominions flow with milk and honey. In one portion of our territories no poisons can harm; in another grow all kinds of pepper; and a third is so thick with groves that it resembleth a forest, and is full of serpents in every part. There is also a sandy sea without water. Three days' journey from this sea there are mountains from which descend rivers of stones. Near these mountains is a desert between inhospitable hills. Under ground there floweth a rivulet, to which there appeareth to be no access; and this rivulet falleth into a river of greater size, wherein men of our dominions enter, and obtain there from precious stones in great abundance. Beyond this river are ten tribes of Jews, who, although they pretend to have their own kings, are nevertheless our servants and tributaries.¹⁰ In another of our provinces, near the torrid zone, are worms, which in our tongue are called Salamanders. These worms can only live in lire, and make a skin around them as the silk- worm. This skin is carefully spun by the ladies of our palace, and from it we have cloth for our common use. This cloth can only be washed in a bright fire.¹¹ Our army is preceded by thirteen great crosses of gold and precious stones¹²; but when we ride out without state, a cross unadorned with figures, gold, or jewels, that we may be ever mindful of our Lord Jesus Christ, and a silver vase filled with gold, that all men may know that we are the king of kings, are carried before us. We visit yearly the body of the holy prophet Daniel, which is in Babylon, the Desert.¹³ Our palace is of ebony and shittim wood, and cannot be injured by fire. On its roof, at each end, are two golden apples, and in each apple are two carbuncles, that the gold may shine by day and the carbuncles give light by night. The greater gates are of sardonyx, mingled with horn, so that none may enter with poison; the lesser gates. are of ebony. The windows are of crystal. The tables are of gold and amethyst, and the columns, which sustain them, are of ivory. The chamber in which we sleep is a wonderful work of gold and silver, and every manner of precious stones. Within it incense is ever burning. Our bed is of sapphire. We have the most beautiful wives. We feed daily 30,000 men, besides casual guests; and all these receive daily sums from our chamber, to nourish their horses, and to be otherwise employed. During each month we are served by seven kings (by each one in his turn), by sixty-five dukes, and by three hundred and sixty-five counts. In our hall there dine daily, on our right hand, twelve archbishops, on our left twenty bishops, besides the Patriarch of St. Thomas and the Protopapas of Salmas, and the Archiprotopapas of Susa, in which city is the throne of our glory and our imperial palace. Abbots, according to the number of the days in the year, minister to us in our chapel. Our butler is a primate and a king; our steward is an archbishop and a king; our chamberlain is a bishop and a king; our mareschal is an archimandrite and a king; and our head cook is a king and an abbot; but we assume an inferior rank, and a more humble name, that we may prove our great humility."

The Chaldaean missionaries do not appear to have had the same success with other Tatar monarchs as with Prester John. If they refused to embrace the Christian religion, there is, nevertheless, evidence to prove that their wives and children, in many instances, were amongst the converts. Their influence secured to the Christians the toleration of their religion, although it may not have been sufficient to enable them to extend it. Amongst those who married a Christian wife may be mentioned the celebrated Ginghis Khan, whose four children were probably brought up in the faith of their mother. The Metropolitan of the Tatar branch of the Chaldaean church resided at Meru, or Merv. This city, built upon the ruins of the Margiana Alexandria of the Macedonian conqueror, stood on the south-western borders of those vast steppes which stretch eastwards to the frontiers of China; and formed, in the days of its prosperity, the principal station in the great caravan route between Persia and Bokhara, Balkh, Samarcand, and the cities of Transoxiana. These plains were subsequently occupied by roving Tatar tribes; the most numerous of which were known to the early Christian historians, as the Keraites. The chief of this tribe was looked upon as the sovereign of that great region. He resided in the city of Karakorum, at the foot of the mountains of Altai, the burial place of the kings of his race. It is singular that a Chaldaean Patriarch first announced, in the hall of the Caliphs, the progress from the north of these innumerable hordes, which were destined, ere long, to sweep away the dynasty of the prophet, and to defile the palaces of Baghdad. The incident, as described by Eastern writers¹⁴, is highly interesting; and it so strikingly illustrates the manners of the people who now inhabit the city where the scene occurred, that it is worth recording.

The Chaldaean Patriarch had received a letter from his Metropolitan at Samarcand, giving him an account of the new race which had appeared. He hastened to communicate the news to the Caliph, and read the letter before the divan, or assembly of councillors and chiefs. A people, numerous as the locust-cloud, had burst from the mountains between Thibet and Kotan, and were pouring down upon the fertile plains of Kashgar. They were commanded by seven kings, each at the head of 70,000 horsemen. The warriors were as swarthy as Indians. They used no water in their ablutions; nor did they cut their hair. They were most skilful archers, and were content with simple and frugal fare. Their horses were fed upon meat. The Arabs listened with wonder and incredulity to these strange reports. The mode of feeding the horses chiefly astonished them; and they refused to credit the assertion, until one of their number declared that he himself had seen horses in Arabia which were not only fed upon raw meat, but even upon fried fish.¹⁵

I will not trouble the reader with a detailed account of the alternate reverses and successes of the Chalda3an missionaries in the interior of Asia, although the history of their labours in that region is one of high interest; but I cannot refrain from adding a list of the twenty-five Metropolitan bishops, who, at the time of the capture of Baghdad by Hulaku Khan, recognised the Chaldaean Patriarch as the head of the Eastern church. This list will serve to show the success of the Chaldaean missions, and the influence which they possessed at this time in Asia. The sees of these Metropolitans were scattered over the continent, from the shores of the Caspian to the Chinese seas, and from the most northern boundaries of Scythia to the southern extremity of the Indian peninsula. They included, 1. Elamand Jundishapoor (Susiana, or the modern Persian province of Khuzistan); 2. Nisibis;.3. Mesena, or Busrah; 4. Assyria, or Adiabene, including the cities of Mosul and Arbela; 5. Beth-Garma, or Beth-Seleucia, and Carcha (in Assyria); 6. Halavan, or Halacha (the modern Zohab, on the confines of Assyria and Media); 7. Persia, comprising the cities of Ormuz, Salmas, and Van; 8. Meru (Merv in Khorassan); 9. Hara (Herat); 10. The Ivazichita?, or Arabia, and Cotroba; 11. China; 12. India; 13. Armenia; 14. Syria, or Damascus; 15, Bardaa, or Aderbijan (the Persian province of Azerbijan); 16. Raia and Tabrestan (Ray, Rha, or Rhanae, perhaps the Rhages of Tobit, near the modern city of Teheran, — Tabrestan comprised a part of Ghilan and Mazanderan, the ancient Hyrcania); 17. The Dailamites (to the sontli of the Caspian Sea); 18. Samarcand and Mavaralnahr (Transoxiana); 19. Cashgar and Turkistan (Independent Tatary); 20. Balkh and Tocharestan (Bactria); 21. Segestan (Seistan); 22. Hamadan (Media); 23. Chanbalek (Cambalu, or Pekin in China); 24. Tanchet (Tanguth in Tatary): 25. Chasemgara and Nuacheta (districts of Tatary).

All these Metropolitans were in direct communication with the Nestorian Patriarch; and those whose sees were too distant to admit of their frequently tendering in person their obedience to him, as the head of the Eastern church, were expected to send to him every sixth year a report upon the condition of their flock, and a renewed confession of their faith.

After the fall of the Caliphs, the power of the Chaldaean Patriarch in the East rapidly declined. The sect endured persecution from the Tatar sovereigns, and had to contend against even more formidable rivals in the Catholic missionaries, who now began to spread themselves over Asia. The first great persecution of the Chaldaeans appears to have taken place during the reign of Kassan, the son of Arghoun, the grandson of Hulaku. But it is to the merciless Tamerlane, that their reduction to a few wanderers in the provinces of Assyria must be attributed. He followed them with relentless fury; destroyed their churches, and put to the sword all who were unable to escape to the almost inaccessible fastnesses of the Kurdish mountains. Those who at that time sought the heights and valleys of Kurdistan, were the descendants of the ancient Assyrians, and the remnant of one of the earliest Christian sects.

From the year 1413, the Chaldaean records contain scarcely any mention of the existence of the Nestorian church beyond the confines of Kurdistan. The seat of the Patriarchate had been removed from Baghdad to Mosul, and from thence, for greater security, to an almost inaccessible valley near the modern Kurdish castle of Julamerik, on the borders of Persia. A few Chaldaeans still dwelt in the cities and villages of the plains; but they were exposed not only to the persecutions of Turkish governors, but to the machinations of Popish emissaries, and did not long retain their faith. Those alone who had found refuge in Kurdistan, and on the banks of the Lake of Oroomiah in Persia, remained faithful to the church. The former maintained a kind of semi-independence, and boasted that no conqueror had penetrated into their secluded valleys. Although they recognised the supremacy of the Sultan by the payment of an annual tribute, no governors had been sent to their districts; nor, until the invasion and massacre described in the last chapter, had any Turk, or Kurd, exercised authority in their villages.

It is only in the mountains of Kurdistan, and in the villages of the district of Oroomiah in Persia, that any remnant of this once wide-spreading sect can now be discovered; unless, indeed, the descendants of those whom they converted still preserve their faith in some remote province of the Chinese Empire. The Nestorians of India were even in the last century represented by the Christians of St. Thomas, who inhabit the coast of Malabar; but, from some unexplained cause, this community, a few years ago, abandoned its Church, and united with the Jacobites, or Monophysites.¹⁶

By a series of the most open frauds, the Roman Catholic emissaries obtained many of the documents which constituted the title of the Chaldaean Patriarch, and gave him a claim to be protected, and to be recognised as head of the Chaldaean church by the Turkish authorities. By a system of persecution and violence which could scarcely be credited, the Chaldaeans of the plain were compelled to renounce their faith, and to unite with the Church of Rome. A rival Patriarch, who appropriated to himself the titles and functions of the Patriarch of the East, was elected, not by but for the Seceders, and was put forward as a rival to the true head of the Eastern Church. Still, as is the case in all such forced conversions, the change was more nominal than real; and to this day the people retain their old forms and ceremonies, their festivals, their chronology, and their ancient language in their prayers and holy books. They are even now engaged in a struggle with the church of Rome, for the maintenance of these last relics of their race and faith.

If I have, in these volumes, sometimes called the Chaldaeans "Nestorians," it is because that name has been generally given to them. It is difficult to ascertain when it was first used; probably not before the Roman Catholic missionaries, who were brought into contact with them, found it necessary and politic to treat them as schismatics, and to bestow upon them a title which conveyed the stigma of a heresy. By the Chaldaeans themselves the name has ever been disavowed; and although Nestorius is frequently mentioned in their rituals, and book of prayer, as one of the fathers of their church, yet they deny that they received their doctrines from him. Ebedjesus, a Chaldaean, who wrote in the fourteenth century, asserts that " the Orientals have not changed the truth; but, as they received it from the Apostles, so have they retained it without variation. They are therefore called Nestorians without reason, and injuriously. Nestorius followed them, and not they Nestorius." And even Assemani, a member of the Romish church, who wrote their history, calls them "Chaldaeans or Assyrians; whom, from that part of the globe which they inhabit, we term Orientals; and, from the heresy they profess, Nestorians."¹⁷ Paul V., in a letter to the Patriarch Elias, admits their origin, "A great part of the East," says he, " was infected by this heresy (of Nestorius); especially the Chaldaeans; who, for this reason, have been called Nestorians."¹⁸ The name still used by the people themselves is, "Chaldani," except when designating any particular tribe; and the Mussulmans apply to them the common epithet of "Nasara." The Patriarch still styles himself, in his letters, and in official documents, " the Patriarch of the Chaldaeans, or of the Christians of the East;" using the titles which are found on the tombs of such of his predecessors as were buried in the convent of Rabban Hormuzd, before it fell into the possession of the converts to Roman Catholicism.¹⁹

The peculiar doctrine of the Chaldaeans — that which has earned for them the epithet of heretics — may be explained in a few words. With Nestorius they assert " the divisibility and separation of the two persons, as well as of the two natures, in Christ;" or, as Assemani has more fully defined it, " the attribution of two persons to Christ, the one being the Word of God, the other the man Jesus; for, according to Nestorius, the man formed in the womb of the Virgin was not the only-begotten Word of God, and the Incarnation was not the natural and hypostatic Union of the Word with the human nature, but the mere inhabiting of the Word of God in man — that is, in the human nature subsisting of itself — as it were in its Temple."²⁰ This, of course, involves the refusal of the title of "Mother of God" to the Virgin, which the Chaldaeans still reject, although they do not admit, to their full extent, the tenets on account of which they are accused of heresy by the Church of Rome. The distinctions they make upon this point, however, are so subtle and so refined, that it is difficult for one who discourses with them to understand that which most probably they scarcely comprehend themselves. The profession of faith adopted by the Fathers of their church, and still repeated twice a day by the Chaldaeans, differs in few respects from the Nicene creed. I give it entire, as it is both interesting and important. In their books it is entitled, " The Creed, which was composed by three hundred and eighteen Holy Fathers, who were assembled at Nice, a city of Bithynia, in the time of King Constantine the Pious, on account of Arius, the Infidel accursed."

"We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of all things, which are visible and invisible:

"And in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten of his Father before all worlds: who was not created: the true God of the true Gods; of the same substance with his Father, by whose hands the worlds were made, and all things were created; who for us men and for our salvation decended from Heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost, and became man, and was conceived and born of the Virgin Mary, and suffered and was crucified, in the days of Pontius Pilate, and died, and was buried and rose on the third day, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of his Father, and is again to come and judge the living and the dead.

"And we believe in one Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeded from the Father — the Spirit that giveth light:

"And in one holy and universal Church.

"We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting."

It will be perceived that there is nothing in this creed to authorise the violent charge of heresy made against the Chaldaeans by their enemies; and it is certainly evident, not only from this document, but from the writings of Nestorius himself and the earliest Fathers of the Eastern Church, that much more has been made of the matter in dispute than its importance deserves.²¹ But however this may be, it should be remembered that it is only with this fundamental heresy that the Roman Catholic charges the Chaldaean. It is not denied that in other respects they have retained, to a great extent and in all their purity, the doctrines and forms of the primitive Church. Mosheim, whose impartiality can scarcely be doubted, thus speaks of them: "It is to the lasting honour of the Nestorian sect, that of all the Christian societies established in the East, they have preserved themselves the most free from the numberless superstitions which have found their way into the Greek and Latin Churches."²² It is, therefore, highly interesting to a Protestant to ascertain in what respects they differ from other Christian sects, and what their belief and observances really are.

They refuse to the Virgin those titles, and that exaggerated veneration, which were the origin of most of the superstitions and corruptions of the Romish and Eastern Churches.

They deny the doctrine of Purgatory, and are most averse, not only to the worship of images, but even to their exhibition.

The figure of the cross is found in their churches, and they are accustomed to make the sign in common with other Christians of the East; this ceremony, however, is not considered essential, but rather in the light of a badge of Christianity, and as a sign of brotherhood among themselves, scattered as they are amidst men of a hostile faith.

In the rejection of the doctrine of Transubstantiation, they agree with the Reformed Church; although some of their earlier writers have so treated of the subject as to lead to the supposition that they admit the actual presence. Any such admission is, however, undoubtedly at variance with their present professions, and with the assertions that I have, on more than one occasion, heard from their Patriarch and priests.

Both the bread and wine are distributed amongst the communicants, and persons of all ages are allowed to partake of the sacred elements. Christians of all denominations are admitted to receive the holy sacrament, whilst Chaldaeans are allowed to communicate in any Christian church.

With regard to the number and nature of their sacraments, their books are full of discrepancies. Nor were the statements I received from the Patriarch, and various priests, more consistent. The number seven is always mentioned in the earliest Chaldaean writers, and is traditionally retained to this day; but what these seven sacraments really are, no one seems to know. Baptism is accompanied by confirmation, as in the Armenian church, when the meiron, or consecrated oil, is used; a drop being placed on the forehead of the child. This confirmation, or consecration, appears to have originated in the custom of giving extreme unction to an infant, in the fear that it might die soon after immersion. Through the ignorance of its origin, this distinct sacrament came to be considered an integral part of baptism: but neither extreme unction nor confirmation appears to have been recognised as a sacrament by the Chaldaeans.²³ Auricular confession, which once was practised as a sacrament, has now fallen into disuse.²⁴

A doubt also exists as to whether marriage is to be considered a sacrament. In the early ages of the Chaldaean church, the degrees of consanguinity and affinity, within which intermarriages were prohibited, were numerous and complicated. Ebedjesus enumerates sixty-two but the laws on this subject, if ever very strictly observed, have been greatly relaxed. The Patriarch has the power of pronouncing a divorce, and is the sole judge of the sufficiency of the grounds.

The five lower grades of the clergy, including the Archdeacon²⁵, are allowed to marry. In the early ages of the church, the same privilege was extended to the bishop and archbishop, and even to the Patriarch.

Ordination is a sacrament. Oil is only used in the ordination of the Patriarch. In other instances prayers are said over the candidates, with an imposition of hands, and with the tonsure of so much of the hair from the crown of the head, as when grasped in the hand rises above it. The early age at which the clergy, including bishops, priests, and deacons, are ordained, has long formed a ground of reproach against the Chaldaean church; which, in this respect, differs not only from all other Eastern churches, but acts in direct opposition to its own statutes.

The fasts of the Chaldaeans are numerous, and they are very strictly observed, even fish not being eaten. There are 152 days in the year in which abstinence from animal food is enjoined; and although, during the time I was carrying on my excavations, I frequently obtained from the Patriarch a dispensation for the workmen, they never seemed inclined to avail themselves of it. The feasts are observed with equal strictness. On the sabbath no Chaldaean performs a journey, or does any work. Their feasts, and fast days, commence at sunset, and terminate at sunset on the following day.

The Patriarch is always chosen, if not of necessity, at least by general consent, from one family. It is necessary that the mother should abstain from meat and all animal food, some months before the birth of a child, who is destined for the high office of chief of the Chaldaean Church. The Patriarch himself never tastes meat. Vegetables and milk constitute his only nourishment. He should be consecrated by three Metropolitans, and he always receives the name of Shamoun, or Simon; whilst his rival, the Patriarch of the converted Chaldaeans, in like manner, always assumes that of Usuf, or Joseph.

The language of the Chaldeans is a Shemitic dialect allied to the Hebrew, the Arabic, and the Syriac, and still bears the name of Chaldee. Most of their church books are written in Syriac, which, like the Latin in the West, became the sacred language in the greater part of the East. The dialect spoken by the mountain tribes varies slightly from that used in the villages of the plains; but the differences arise chiefly from local circumstances: and it is a singular and interesting fact, that the Chaldaean spoken near Mosul, is almost identical with the language of that very remarkable tribe the Sabseans, or Christians of St. John, as they are vulgarly called, who are found in the districts near the mouths of the Euphrates, and the province of Khuzistan, or Susiana; and are probably the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Babylonia and Chaldaea.

It will be seen, from the foregoing remarks, that there are some most striking points of resemblance between the Chaldaean Christians, and the members of the Protestant church; which are the more important, and the more deserving of attention, inasmuch as they confirm many of the doctrines of the Reformed religion, and connect them with those of the primitive church: and whilst the peculiar doctrine which has brought upon them the accusation of heresy — even admitting it to the fullest extent — can only be charged against them as an innovation: their being uncontaminated by the superstitions of the church of Rome, and their more simple observances and ceremonies, may be clearly traced to the primitive form of Christianity received by them before they were corrupted. Isolated amongst the remote valleys of Kurdistan, and cut off from all intercourse with other Christian communities, they have preserved, almost intact, their primitive faith. Corruptions may have crept in, and ignorance may have led to the neglect of doctrines and ceremonies; but, on the whole, it is a matter of wonder that, after the lapse of nearly seventeen centuries, the Chaldaeans should still be what they are. There are no sects in the East, and few in the West, who can boast of such purity in their faith, or of such simplicity in their forms of worship.

The Protestants of America have, for some time past, taken a deep interest in the Chaldaeans, Their missionaries have opened schools in and around Oroomiah. A printing press has been established, and several works, including the Scriptures, have already been issued in the vernacular language of the people, and printed in a character peculiar to them. Their labours have, I believe, been successful. Although members of the Independent Church, they profess to avoid any interference with the Ecclesiastical system of the Chaldaeans; admitting, I am informed, that Episcopacy is the form of church government best suited to a sect circumstanced as the Chaldaeans are.

It is to be hoped that the establishment of the authority of the Sultan in the mountains, and the removal of several of the most fanatical and blood-thirsty of the Kurdish chiefs, will enable the Chaldaeans to profess their faith without hindrance or restraint; and that, freed from fears of fresh aggression, they may, by their activity and industry, restore fresh prosperity to their mountain districts. As the only remnant of a great nation, every one must feel an interest in their history and condition; and our sympathies cannot but be excited in favour of a long persecuted people, who have merited the title of "the Protestants of Asia."

1) A.D. 431.

2) The names of Seleucia and Ctesiplion are very frequently confounded by the early Christian writers; but the cities stood on opposite sides of the river Tigris, and were built at different periods.

3) Cosmas Indicopleustes, in Topographià Christianâ, Assemani, vol. iv. p. 92. Gibbon, ch. 47. note 116. Mosheim, Hist. Tart. Eccles. pp. 8, 9.

4) For a full account of this remarkable monument, which is so peculiarly interesting, as affording irrefragable proof of the spread of Christianity in Asia during the early centuries of the Christian area, the reader is referred to Assemani, who published a transcript of the inscription. D'Herbelot has also given a description and analysis of the inscription in the supplement to his Bibliothèque Orientale, and its genuineness has been canvassed by numerous controversial writers. Mr. Milman, in an able note in his edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall (chap, xlvii.), has pointed out upon what evidence its authenticity can be established. It was discovered in the foundations of the walls of the city of Se-gan-foo. Above the Chinese inscription is the figure of a cross; the title then follows, written in three characters. The inscription itself contains sixty-two lines, counting the lines from right to left, or twenty-eight if read from top to bottom, after the manner of the Chinese. It begins by stating that it was written by King-Sing, a priest of the kingdom of Taetsin. That which follows may be divided into twenty-one sections, containing a profession of Christian faith, an exposition of church ceremonies and observances in accordance with Nestorian doctrines, and a general history of the Introduction and progress of Christianity in the Empire. The inscription is followed by seven lists of missionaries, who preached the gospel in China from the year 636, written in the ancient Syriac (Estranghelo) character. The names are Syriac, Persian (or Pehlevi), and Chinese.

The 5th section contains an account of the arrival In China of Olopuen, or Jaballah, a preacher of the Gospel of Christ, from Tacin, when Tai-kung, the second Emperor of the 13th dynasty, called Tang, was upon the throne. That monarch, by an edict published in the twelfth year of his reign, approved of the Christian religion, and commanded the Mandarins to build a church, upon the walls of which the portrait of the Emperor was painted as an ornament.

5) The tradition of his connection with Sergius, a Nestorian monk, is well known.

6) The substance of this treaty is given by three Syriac authors — Bar Hebræus, Maris, and Amrus. (Assemani, vol. iv. p. 59.) It was first published in Arabic and Latin by Gabriel Sionita, Paris, 1630, and is usually called the "Testamentum Mahometi."

7) Assemani, vol. iii. p. 131.

8) Ibid. vol. iv. p. 943.

9) A similar vow was exacted by Haiton, the Christian King of Armenia, from Mango Cham, the fourth Emperor of the Tatars in 1253. (Histoire Orientale, ou des Tartares, par Haiton, parent du Roi d' Armenia. Bergeron, Collect, de Voyages, vol. ii.)

10) In Marco Polo's Travels (lib. ii. c. 2.) Jews are described as being in the army of the Emperor Cublai. It seems, therefore that it was not in this century alone that the lost tribes were traced to Tatary.

11) The Salamander is also described by Marco Polo (lib. i. ch. 47.). The cloth is mentioned In the inscription on the celebrated stone of Segan-foo (D'Herbelot, vol. iv. p. 380.). This fable, or exaggeration, which was probably of very early date, appears therefore to have been current amongst the Tatars or amongst the Chaldaeans.

12) The army of Naiam, when he rebelled against Cublai, was preceded by a cross. (Marco Polo, lib. ii. ch. 6.)

13) According to tradition the tomb of Daniel was preserved amongst the ruins of Susa, or in a valley of the Bakhtiyari mountains. We have no other mention of its existence at Babylon.

14) Abulfuraj in Chrouico Syriaco ad an. Hegiræ 438. Assemani, vol. iv. p. 487.

15) The practice of occasionally giving raw meat to horses still exists in some parts of Arabia.

16) There may have been from the earliest Christian period a mixture of Nestorians and Jacobites on the Malabar coast.

17) Vol. iv. p. 1.

18) Assemani, vol. iv. p. 75.

19) See previous chapter, p. 236.

20) Assemani, vol. iv. p. 190.

21) See Assemani, vol. iv. p. 192. Researches in Armenia, &c., by Smith and Dwight, vol. ii. p. 225. Mosheim, Eccles. Hist. Cent. XVI. sect. iii.

22) Moslieim, Cent. XVI. sect. iii. part i.

23) La Croze, Christianisme des Indes, lib. iii. p. 176. Assemani, vol. iv. p. 27. Smith and Dwight, Researches in Armenia, pp. 227, 228.

24) Assemani, vol. iv. p. 285.

25) The Chadaean Church reckons eight orders of clergy. 1. The Katoleeka, or Patriarka, the head. 2. The Mutran or Metrapoleeta, the archbishop. 3. The Khalfa, or Episkopa, the bishop. 4. The Arkidyakono, or Archdeacon. 5. The Kasha, or Keshecsha, the priest. 6. The Shammasha, the deacon. 7. the Hoopodyakono, or subdeacon. And 8. The Karooya, or Reader.