rendered probable by the fact that his own clergy, under his Archdeacon Shimun bar Saba'i,[1] were among the principal opponents both of him and of his policy.[2] One suspects that there must have been good reason for opposition on their part to a line of action that tended so directly to their own exaltation in the Church. Charges of personal misconduct were also made, but these are simply "common form." One remembers how easily such charges were trumped up against an Athanasius; and in the East they are an ordinary feature of controversy. The opposition soon found episcopal leaders, and the first council in the history of the Church of the East met at Seleucia about 315[3] to investigate the matter.
The two leaders of the accusers in the council were Aqib-Alaha, Bishop of Karka d'Baith Slok, and Miles, the non-resident Bishop of Susa. Of the former we know little, save that on conversion he showed such zeal that he gave all his father's goods to feed the poor (a socialistic form of charity, of which there is more than one instance in the history of Eastern ascetics, and which always seems to have been regarded as an indubitable act of virtue); and that later he was a zealous and successful evangelist. The career of Miles is sufficiently characteristic to be worth sketching. Born in the land of Raziqai, the modern Teheran, he was apparently a Zoroastrian by birth; but was converted while staying in Khuzistan, and was "led by the Spirit to the ascetic life." He became Bishop of Susa, and there began to show that
- ↑ Or Sabbâ'e.
- ↑ Life of Miles, Bedj., ii. 267.
- ↑ The date, hitherto a matter of doubt, is practically settled by M.-Z. (Life of Shri'a). The council met during the episcopate of Shri'a, Bishop of Arbela 291–317. Papa, after the council, appealed to S'ada of Edessa, who was consecrated 313. The period 313–317, therefore, must have seen the assembling of the council.
