that the passing of a canon to that effect accompanied the separation, is very probable. There is not much evidence available on the point; but it does seem that the oriental mind was revolting against the false doctrine about celibacy current in "the West"; and while asceticism had a place, and a prominent one, in their religion, there was yet a perfectly true instinct in their minds that marriage was a holy thing to all not specially called to another life, and that sacred office was no bar to what was a duty rather than an indulgence. It has been suggested,[1] that desire to assimilate themselves to their Zoroastrian neighbours also moved them. The writer does not think it likely that there was conscious desire for assimilation. At the same time, the ideas and conceptions of the religion of the land have a way of soaking into the mind even of the alien, when resident, as we see in our best Indian officials; and how much more must this be the case with the native? It is probable that the Zoroastrian atmosphere they breathed kept their ascetic conceptions (which as orientals they were bound to have in one form or another) within the very reasonable bounds which at present prevail among them.[2]
As an incident of his work Bar-soma held a
- ↑ Adeney, The Greek and Eastern Churches.
- ↑ It is also quite true, that things do go more smoothly for the melet, if they do not outrage the prejudices of the dominant religion too openly; and the enforced celibacy of an order is not a thing that can be concealed. Thus, the Moslem of to-day thinks that a Christian who does not use pictures or images in his worship, is a decidedly less contemptible animal than one who does use them. It is, of course, quite easy to prove that this matter of devotion or discipline is a purely Christian affair, nothing to Magian or Moslem; but what profit to prove it, if your opponent of the dominant faith does not agree? He has a vast superiority to argument.
