260 DISTINGUISHED CHURCHMEN
The Rector of All Hallows reflected for a moment. " More than fifty years ago," he said, " the Bishops of the Church in Assyria appealed to the English Bishops to help them. Besides being subjected to difficulties by the Mohammedan rulers, one part of the district being situated in Turkey and the other part in Persia, they were in danger of being led away from their ancient faith by the Roman Catholic missionaries on the one hand, and the American Presbyterians on the other. The Church is one of the oldest branches of the Catholic Church, believed to have been founded by St Thomas, and during the Middle Ages it was a powerful missionary church ; but having espoused the cause of Nestorius when he was ex communicated, it broke itself off from communion with the rest of Christendom. For a long time the appeals from the East Syrian Bishops were without avail ; but Archbishop Tait sent a clergyman out to endeavour to set on foot some kind of mission work. Nothing practical was accomplished, however."
" But what happened in Archbishop s Benson s time?"
" Soon after Archbishop Benson succeeded to the Primacy, he established his mission to the Assyrian Christians, and in this I have been interested from the first, having been placed by Archbishop Benson on that committee. The Archbishop sent out a succession of extremely able men, the first head of the mission being the Rev. A. J. Maclean,
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