§ 72. The Nestorian and Monophysite Churches of the East.The Nestorian and Monophysite churches of the East owed the protection and goodwill of their Moslem rulers to their hostile position in regard to the Byzantine national church. Among the Persian Nestorians as well as among the Syrian and Armenian Monophysites we find an earnest endeavour after scholarship and great scientific activity. They were the teachers of the Saracens in the classical, philosophical and medical sciences, and with no little zeal pursued the study of Christian theology. The Nestorians also long manifested great earnestness in missions. Only when the science-loving Khalifs gave place to Mongolian and Turkish barbarians did those churches lose their prestige, and that stagnation and torpidity passed over them in which they still lie. In order to crown the Florentine union attempts ofA.D.1439 (§67, 6), Rome solemnly proclaimed in the immediately following year the complete union with all the detached churches of the East. But this was a vain self-delusion or a bit of jugglery. Men pretending to be deputed by those churches treated about restoration to the bosom of the church, which was accorded them amid great applause.
The Nestorian and Monophysite churches of the East owed the protection and goodwill of their Moslem rulers to their hostile position in regard to the Byzantine national church. Among the Persian Nestorians as well as among the Syrian and Armenian Monophysites we find an earnest endeavour after scholarship and great scientific activity. They were the teachers of the Saracens in the classical, philosophical and medical sciences, and with no little zeal pursued the study of Christian theology. The Nestorians also long manifested great earnestness in missions. Only when the science-loving Khalifs gave place to Mongolian and Turkish barbarians did those churches lose their prestige, and that stagnation and torpidity passed over them in which they still lie. In order to crown the Florentine union attempts ofA.D.1439 (§67, 6), Rome solemnly proclaimed in the immediately following year the complete union with all the detached churches of the East. But this was a vain self-delusion or a bit of jugglery. Men pretending to be deputed by those churches treated about restoration to the bosom of the church, which was accorded them amid great applause.
§ 72.1.The Persian Nestorians, or Chaldean Christians (§64, 2), stood in peculiarly friendly relations to the Khalifs, who, in the Nestorian opposition to Theotokism, worship of saints, images and relics, and priestly celibacy, saw an approach to a rational Christianity more in accordance with the Moslem ideal. The Nestorian seminaries at Edessa, Nisibis, Seleucia, etc., were in high repute. The rich literature issued by them is, however, mostly lost, and what of it remains is known only by Asseman’s [Assemani’s] quotations (Biblioth. Orientalia). Among the later Nestorian authors the best known is Ebed Jesus, Metropolitan of Nisibis, who died inA.D.1318. His writings treat of all subjects in the domain of theology. The missionary zeal of the Nestorians continued unabated down to the 13th century. Their chief mission fields were China and India. At the beginning of the 11th century they converted the prince of the Karaites, a Tartar tribe to the south of Lake Baikal, who as vassals of the great Chinese empire had the name Ung-Khan. A large number of the people followed their prince. The Mongol conqueror Genghis-Khan married the daughter of the Karaite prince, but quarrelled with him, drove him from his throne, and took his life,A.D.1202.—With the overthrow of the Khalifs by Genghis-Khan inA.D.1219, the prosperity of the Nestorian church came to an end. At first the Nestorians attempted missionary operations not unsuccessfully among the Mongols.But the savage Tamerlane, the Scourge of Asia,A.D.1369-1405, drove them into the inaccessible mountains and wild ravines of the province of Kurdistan.195§ 72.2. Among theMonophysite Churchesthe most important was theArmenian(§64, 3). It boasted, at least temporarily and partially, of political independence under national rulers. The Armenian patriarch from the 12th century had his residence in the monastery of Etshmiadzin at the foot of Ararat. The literary activity in the translation of classical and patristic writings, as well as in the production of original works, reached a particularly high point in the 8th and then again in the 12th century. To the earlier period belong the patriarch Johannes Ozniensis and the metropolitan Stephen of Sünik, to the later, the still more famous name of the patriarch Nerses IV. Clajensis, whose epic “Jesus the Son” is regarded as the crown of Armenian poetry, and his nephew, the metropolitan Nerses of Lampron. The two last named readily aided the efforts for reunion with the Byzantine church, but owing to the troubles of the time these came to nothing. The Western endeavours after union which were actively carried on from the beginning of the 13th century, split upon the dislike of the Armenian church to the Western ritual, and found acceptance with only a relatively small fragment of the people. TheseUnited Armeniansacknowledged the primacy of the pope and the catholic system of doctrine, but retained their own constitution and liturgy.—Inthe Jacobite-Syrian Church(§52, 7), too, theological and classical studies were prosecuted with great vigour. The most distinguished of its scholars during our period was George, bishop of the Arabs, who died inA.D.740. He translated and annotated the Organon of Aristotle, and wrote exegetical, dogmatic, historical and chronological works, also poems on various themes, and a number of epistles important for the history of culture during these times, in which he answered questions put to him by his friends and admirers. The brilliant Gregory Abulfarajus is the last of the distinguished scholars of the Jacobite-Syrian church. He was the son of a converted Jewish physician, and hence he is usually called Barhebræus. He was made bishop of Guba, afterwards Maphrian of Mosul, and died inA.D.1286. His noble and truly benevolent disposition, his extraordinary learning, the rich and attractive productions of his pen, and his skill as a physician made him universally revered by Christians, Mohammedans and Jews. Among his writings, for the most part still in manuscript, the most important and best known is theChronicon Syriacum.—The Jacobite church suffered most inEgypt. The perfidy of the Copts, who surrendered the country to the Saracens, was terribly avenged. FromA.D.1254 the Fatimide Khalifs held them down under the most severe oppression, and this became yet more severe under the Mamelukes. The Copts were completely driven out of the cities, and even in the villages maintained only a miserable existence. Their church was now in a condition of utter stagnation. InAbyssinia(§64, 1) the national rulers maintained their position, though pressed within narrower limits from time to time by the Saracens. But here, too, church life became fossilized. At the head of the church was an Abbuna consecrated by the Coptic patriarch (§64, 1; 165, 3).§ 72.3.The Maronites(§52, 8) attached themselves to the Western church on the appearance of the crusades inA.D.1182, renouncing their Monothelite heresy and acknowledging the primacy of the pope, but retaining their own ritual. In consequence of the Florentine union measures they renewed their connection inA.D.1445, and subsequently adopted also the doctrinal conclusions of the Council of Trent. Their numbers at the present day amount to somewhere about 200,000.§ 72.4.The Legend of Prester John.—InA.D.1144 Bishop Otto of Freisingen obtained from the bishop of Cabala in Palestine, whom he met at Viterbo, information about a powerful Christian empire in Central Asia, and published it inA.D.1145 in his widely-read Chronicle. According to this story the king of that region, a Nestorian Christian, who was named Prester John, had not long before driven to flight the Mohammedan kings of the Persians and Medes, and thus delivered from great danger the crusaders in the Holy Land. He had also wished to go to the help of the church of Jerusalem, but was prevented by the Tigris which overflowed its banks. Twenty years later appeared a writing attributed to Prester John, first referred to by the Chronicler Alberich. It was addressed to the European princes in a Latin translation which contained the most fabulous stories, borrowed from the Alexander legends, about the extent and glory of his empire and the many wonders in nature, white lions, the phœnix, giants and pigmies, dog-headed and horned men, fauns, satyrs, cyclops, etc., which were to be seen in his country; and notwithstanding all these absurdities it was received as genuine. The pope, Alexander III., took occasion from its appearance to send an answer to Prester John by his own physician Philip, of whose fate nothing more is known. When inA.D.1219 the first news reached Palestine of the irrepressible advance of Mongolian hordes under Genghis Khan, the crusaders felt justified in assuming that he was the successor of the celebrated Prester John, and was now to accomplish what his distinguished predecessor had wished to undertake. But they were soon cruelly undeceived. The missionaries sent to the Mongols about the middle of the 13th century (§ 93, 15), reported that the last Prester John had lost his kingdom and his life in battle with Genghis Khan. Nevertheless the belief in the continued existence of an exceedingly glorious and powerful empire ruled by a Christian priest in further India was not by any means overthrown; but it was no longer sought in an Asiatic but in an African “India,” and the Portuguese actually believed that at last the famed Prester John had been found in the Christian king of Abyssinia, so that that country was known down to the 17th century asRegnum presb. Joannis.—The Jacobite historian Barhebræus had identified the first Presbyter-king with the prince of the Mongolian Karaites converted by the Nestorians. His name Ung-Khan or Owang-Khan corresponded both to the name Joannes and to the Chaldean כַּהֲנָא=priest. This notion prevailed until recently the Orientalist Oppert by careful examination and comparison of all Oriental and Western reports reached the conclusion (§ 93, 16) that these legends are to be referred to the kingdom established aboutA.D.1125 by Kur-Khan, prince of the tribe of the Caracitai in the Mandshuria of to-day. This prince, who was probably himself a Nestorian Christian, favoured the establishment of Christianity in his country; but this was utterly destroyed by Genghis Khan so early asA.D.1208.The title Prester or Presbyter given to the prince of this tribe is to be explained perhaps by the statement of the missionary Ruysbroek that almost all male Nestorians in Central Asia received priestly consecration.196
§ 72.1.The Persian Nestorians, or Chaldean Christians (§64, 2), stood in peculiarly friendly relations to the Khalifs, who, in the Nestorian opposition to Theotokism, worship of saints, images and relics, and priestly celibacy, saw an approach to a rational Christianity more in accordance with the Moslem ideal. The Nestorian seminaries at Edessa, Nisibis, Seleucia, etc., were in high repute. The rich literature issued by them is, however, mostly lost, and what of it remains is known only by Asseman’s [Assemani’s] quotations (Biblioth. Orientalia). Among the later Nestorian authors the best known is Ebed Jesus, Metropolitan of Nisibis, who died inA.D.1318. His writings treat of all subjects in the domain of theology. The missionary zeal of the Nestorians continued unabated down to the 13th century. Their chief mission fields were China and India. At the beginning of the 11th century they converted the prince of the Karaites, a Tartar tribe to the south of Lake Baikal, who as vassals of the great Chinese empire had the name Ung-Khan. A large number of the people followed their prince. The Mongol conqueror Genghis-Khan married the daughter of the Karaite prince, but quarrelled with him, drove him from his throne, and took his life,A.D.1202.—With the overthrow of the Khalifs by Genghis-Khan inA.D.1219, the prosperity of the Nestorian church came to an end. At first the Nestorians attempted missionary operations not unsuccessfully among the Mongols.But the savage Tamerlane, the Scourge of Asia,A.D.1369-1405, drove them into the inaccessible mountains and wild ravines of the province of Kurdistan.195
§ 72.2. Among theMonophysite Churchesthe most important was theArmenian(§64, 3). It boasted, at least temporarily and partially, of political independence under national rulers. The Armenian patriarch from the 12th century had his residence in the monastery of Etshmiadzin at the foot of Ararat. The literary activity in the translation of classical and patristic writings, as well as in the production of original works, reached a particularly high point in the 8th and then again in the 12th century. To the earlier period belong the patriarch Johannes Ozniensis and the metropolitan Stephen of Sünik, to the later, the still more famous name of the patriarch Nerses IV. Clajensis, whose epic “Jesus the Son” is regarded as the crown of Armenian poetry, and his nephew, the metropolitan Nerses of Lampron. The two last named readily aided the efforts for reunion with the Byzantine church, but owing to the troubles of the time these came to nothing. The Western endeavours after union which were actively carried on from the beginning of the 13th century, split upon the dislike of the Armenian church to the Western ritual, and found acceptance with only a relatively small fragment of the people. TheseUnited Armeniansacknowledged the primacy of the pope and the catholic system of doctrine, but retained their own constitution and liturgy.—Inthe Jacobite-Syrian Church(§52, 7), too, theological and classical studies were prosecuted with great vigour. The most distinguished of its scholars during our period was George, bishop of the Arabs, who died inA.D.740. He translated and annotated the Organon of Aristotle, and wrote exegetical, dogmatic, historical and chronological works, also poems on various themes, and a number of epistles important for the history of culture during these times, in which he answered questions put to him by his friends and admirers. The brilliant Gregory Abulfarajus is the last of the distinguished scholars of the Jacobite-Syrian church. He was the son of a converted Jewish physician, and hence he is usually called Barhebræus. He was made bishop of Guba, afterwards Maphrian of Mosul, and died inA.D.1286. His noble and truly benevolent disposition, his extraordinary learning, the rich and attractive productions of his pen, and his skill as a physician made him universally revered by Christians, Mohammedans and Jews. Among his writings, for the most part still in manuscript, the most important and best known is theChronicon Syriacum.—The Jacobite church suffered most inEgypt. The perfidy of the Copts, who surrendered the country to the Saracens, was terribly avenged. FromA.D.1254 the Fatimide Khalifs held them down under the most severe oppression, and this became yet more severe under the Mamelukes. The Copts were completely driven out of the cities, and even in the villages maintained only a miserable existence. Their church was now in a condition of utter stagnation. InAbyssinia(§64, 1) the national rulers maintained their position, though pressed within narrower limits from time to time by the Saracens. But here, too, church life became fossilized. At the head of the church was an Abbuna consecrated by the Coptic patriarch (§64, 1; 165, 3).
§ 72.3.The Maronites(§52, 8) attached themselves to the Western church on the appearance of the crusades inA.D.1182, renouncing their Monothelite heresy and acknowledging the primacy of the pope, but retaining their own ritual. In consequence of the Florentine union measures they renewed their connection inA.D.1445, and subsequently adopted also the doctrinal conclusions of the Council of Trent. Their numbers at the present day amount to somewhere about 200,000.
§ 72.4.The Legend of Prester John.—InA.D.1144 Bishop Otto of Freisingen obtained from the bishop of Cabala in Palestine, whom he met at Viterbo, information about a powerful Christian empire in Central Asia, and published it inA.D.1145 in his widely-read Chronicle. According to this story the king of that region, a Nestorian Christian, who was named Prester John, had not long before driven to flight the Mohammedan kings of the Persians and Medes, and thus delivered from great danger the crusaders in the Holy Land. He had also wished to go to the help of the church of Jerusalem, but was prevented by the Tigris which overflowed its banks. Twenty years later appeared a writing attributed to Prester John, first referred to by the Chronicler Alberich. It was addressed to the European princes in a Latin translation which contained the most fabulous stories, borrowed from the Alexander legends, about the extent and glory of his empire and the many wonders in nature, white lions, the phœnix, giants and pigmies, dog-headed and horned men, fauns, satyrs, cyclops, etc., which were to be seen in his country; and notwithstanding all these absurdities it was received as genuine. The pope, Alexander III., took occasion from its appearance to send an answer to Prester John by his own physician Philip, of whose fate nothing more is known. When inA.D.1219 the first news reached Palestine of the irrepressible advance of Mongolian hordes under Genghis Khan, the crusaders felt justified in assuming that he was the successor of the celebrated Prester John, and was now to accomplish what his distinguished predecessor had wished to undertake. But they were soon cruelly undeceived. The missionaries sent to the Mongols about the middle of the 13th century (§ 93, 15), reported that the last Prester John had lost his kingdom and his life in battle with Genghis Khan. Nevertheless the belief in the continued existence of an exceedingly glorious and powerful empire ruled by a Christian priest in further India was not by any means overthrown; but it was no longer sought in an Asiatic but in an African “India,” and the Portuguese actually believed that at last the famed Prester John had been found in the Christian king of Abyssinia, so that that country was known down to the 17th century asRegnum presb. Joannis.—The Jacobite historian Barhebræus had identified the first Presbyter-king with the prince of the Mongolian Karaites converted by the Nestorians. His name Ung-Khan or Owang-Khan corresponded both to the name Joannes and to the Chaldean כַּהֲנָא=priest. This notion prevailed until recently the Orientalist Oppert by careful examination and comparison of all Oriental and Western reports reached the conclusion (§ 93, 16) that these legends are to be referred to the kingdom established aboutA.D.1125 by Kur-Khan, prince of the tribe of the Caracitai in the Mandshuria of to-day. This prince, who was probably himself a Nestorian Christian, favoured the establishment of Christianity in his country; but this was utterly destroyed by Genghis Khan so early asA.D.1208.The title Prester or Presbyter given to the prince of this tribe is to be explained perhaps by the statement of the missionary Ruysbroek that almost all male Nestorians in Central Asia received priestly consecration.196