Christian missionaries. Marco Polo is witness that there were Nestorian churches all along the trade routes from Bagdad to Pekin. (A. J. G.)
§ 4. The Modern Nestorians.—The Nestorians or East Syrians (Surayi) of Turkey and Persia now inhabit a district bounded by Lake Urmia, or Urumia, on the east, stretching westwards into Kurdistan, to Mosul on the south, and nearly as far as Van on the north. They are divided into the Persian Nestorians of the plain of Azerbaijan, and the Turkish Nestorians, inhabiting chiefly the sanjak of Hakkiari in the vilayet of Van, who are subdivided into the Rayat or subject, and the Ashiret or tribal, the latter being semi-independent in their mountain fastnesses. Forming at once a church and a nation; they own allegiance to their hereditary patriarch, Mar Shimun, Catholicus of the East, who resides at Qudshanis, a village about 7000 ft. above the sea-level, near the Kurdish town of Julamerk. It is only of late years, under the influence of the different missions, that education, ruined by centuries of persecution, has revived amongst the Nestorians; and even now the mountaineers, cut off from the outer world, are as a rule destitute of learning, and greatly resemble their neighbours, the wild and uncivilized Kurds. They are, however, extraordinarily tenacious of their ancient customs, and, almost totally isolated from the rest of Christendom since the 5th century, they afford an interesting study to the ecclesiastical student. Their churches are rude buildings, dimly lighted and destitute of pictures or images, save that of the Cross, which is treated with the deepest veneration. The qanki, or sanctuary, is divided from the nave, by a solid wall, pierced by a single doorway; it contains the altar, or madhb’kha (literary, the sacrificing place), and may be entered only by persons in holy orders who are fasting. Here is celebrated the Eucharist (Qurbana, or the offering; cf. “Corban”), by the priest (qasha), attended by his deacon (shamasha). Vestments are worn only at the ministration of the sacraments; incense is used invariably at the Eucharist and frequently at other services. There are three liturgies—of the Holy Apostles, of Theodore and of Nestorius. The first is quite free from Nestorian influence, dates from some remote period, perhaps prior to 431, and is certainly the most ancient of those now in use in Christendom; the other two, though early, are undoubtedly of later date. The Nestorian canon of Scripture seems never to have been fully determined, nor is the sacramental system rigidly defined. Nestorian writers, however, generally reckon the mysteries as seven, i.e. Priesthood, Oil of Unction, the Offering of the Body and Blood of Christ, Absolution, The Holy Leaven, the Signation of the life-giving Cross. The “Holy Leaven” is reputed to be a part of the original bread of the first Eucharist, brought by Addai and Mari[1] and maintained ever since in the Church; it is used in the confection of the Eucharistic wafers, which are rather thicker than those used in the Western Church. Communion is given in both kinds, as throughout the East; likewise, confirmation is administered directly after baptism. Sacramental confession is enjoined, but has recently become obsolete; prayers for the departed and invocation of saints form part of the services. The bishops are always celibates and are chosen from episcopal families. The service-books were wholly in MS. until the press of the archbishop of Canterbury’s mission at Urmia issued the Takhsa (containing the liturgies, baptismal office, &c.) and several other liturgical texts.
The Nestorians commemorate Nestorius as a saint, and invoke his aid and that of his companions. They reject the Third Oecumenical Council, and though showing the greatest devotion to the Blessed Virgin, deny her the title of Theotokos, i.e. the mother or bearer of God. Their theological teaching is misty and perplexing; their earliest writings contain no error, and the hymns of their great St Ephrem, still sung in their services, are positively antagonistic to “Nestorianism”; their theology dating from the schism is not so satisfactory. They attribute two Kiani, two Qnumi and one Parsopa in Christ (see J. F. Bethune-Baker’s Nestorius and his Teaching). To say that the modern Nestorians are not definitely and firmly orthodox is perhaps fairer than to charge them with being distinctly heretical.
§ 5. Missions amongst the Nestorians.—The peculiar circumstances, both ecclesiastical and temporal, of the Nestorians have attracted much attention in western Christendom, and various missionary enterprises amongst them have resulted.
1. The Roman Catholic Missions.—In Turkey these consist of the Dominican mission, established at Mosul during the 18th century. and in Persia of the French Lazarist mission, which sprang out of some schools established by a French layman and scientific traveller, Eugène Boré, in 1838. At M. Boré’s entreaty the Propaganda sent the first Lazarist father to Persia in 1840. The chief stations of the Lazarists are at Khosrova and Urmia. At the latter place there is an orphanage under the superintendence of the Sisters of St Vincent de Paul. The work of these missions is to extend and consolidate that Catholicized and partly Latinized offshoot of the Nestorians known as the Uniat-Chaldean Church (see ante).
2. The American Presbyterian Mission, established in Persia in 1834–1835 by the Rev. Justin Perkins and Dr A. Grant, comprises large buildings near Urmia, a college and a hospital. The influence of this mission does not extend much beyond the Turkish frontier, but it is strong in the Persian plains. The original aim was to influence the old Nestorian Church rather than to set up a new religious body, but the wide difference between Presbyterians and an Oriental Church rendered the attempt abortive, and the result of the labours of the Americans has been the establishment since 1862 of a Syrian Protestant community in Persia, with some adherents in Turkey.
3. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Mission to the Assyrian Christians.—This Anglican mission was promoted by Archbishop Tait, and finally established by Archbishop Benson in 1886. Its aim is thus officially defined: “To aid an existing Church, . . . not to Anglicanize, . . . not to change any doctrines held by them which are not contrary to that faith which the Holy Spirit, speaking through the Oecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church of Christ, has taught us as necessary to be believed by all Christians, but . . . to strengthen an ancient Church, at the earnest request of the Catholicos, and with the knowledge and blessing of the Catholic patriarch of Antioch, one of the four patriarchs of the Holy Orthodox Eastern Church, and occupant of the Apostolic See from which the Church of the East revolted at the time of Nestorius.” This mission has its headquarters at Urmia, with a college for candidates for holy orders and a printing-press. Two mission-priests reside in Turkey, one at Qudshanis with Mar Shimun, the Nestorian Catholicus and Patriarch. The Anglican Church in America co-operates with the mission.
4. The Russian Mission.—One of the Nestorian bishops joined the Russian Orthodox Church in 1898, and returned the same year with a small band of missionaries sent by the Holy Synod of Russia. This mission enrolled a very large number of adherents drawn from the old Church, the Protestant Nestorians, and the Uniat-Chaldeans, but it can hardly be said to have commenced any active work, although the Anglican mission withdrew from competition by closing its schools in the dioceses occupied by the Russians.
Authorities.—J. S. Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis, ii. and iv.; A. J. Maclean and W. H. Browne, The Catholicos of the East and his People (London, 1892); G. P. Badger, Nestorians and their Rituals (London, 1852); M. Labourt, Le Christianisme dans l’empire perse (Paris, 1904); W. F. Adeney, The Greek and Eastern Churches, pp. 477-538 (Edinburgh, 1908); J. Rendel Harris, Sidelights on New Testament Research, Lect. iv. (London, 1908); G. Milne Rae, The Syrian Church in India (1892); K. Heussi und H. Mulert, Atlas zur Kirchengeschichte, Map III. (Tübingen, 1905); P. Carus, The Nestorian Monument (Chicago and London, 1909); E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. xlvii.; J. W. Etheridge, Syrian Churches (1846); The Liturgy of the Holy Apostles Adai and Mari, &c. (London, 1893); Piolet, Les Missions catholiques au XIXᵐᵉ siècle (Paris, vol. i.); Quarterly Papers and Annual Reports of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Assyrian Mission. (J. A. L. R.)
NESTORIUS (d. c. 451), Syrian ecclesiastic, patriarch of Constantinople from 428 to 431, was a native of Germanicia at the foot of Mount Taurus, in Syria. The year of his birth is unknown. He received his education at Antioch, probably under Theodore of Mopsuestia. As monk in the neighbouring monastery of Euprepius, and afterwards as presbyter, he became celebrated in the diocese for his asceticism, his orthodoxy and his eloquence; hostile critics, such as the church historian Socrates, allege that his arrogance and vanity were hardly less conspicuous. On the death of Sisinnius, patriarch of Constantinople (December 427), Theodosius II., perplexed by the various claims of the local clergy, appointed the distinguished preacher of Antioch to the vacant see. The consecration took place on the 10th of April 428, and then, almost immediately afterwards, in what is
- ↑ The legendary founders of the Syrian Church. Addai was supposed to be one of the Seventy of Luke x. 1, and Mari his disciple.
