Patriarchs of whom there is nothing particular to say. Each held a synod at his election or nomination, according to what had become the invariable custom; and there was the usual series of quarrels, rivalries and depositions, either successful or not.[1]
From the 6th century the official Nestorian Church was troubled by the presence of heretical bodies. First among these we must count the Jacobites (Syrian Monophysites). The opposite heresy was much stronger in West Syria, as we shall see in Chapter X. Then, when it became an organized sect, it pushed towards the East and entered Persia. The Persia Government troubled not at all about these quarrels among Christians. We may reserve the account of Jacobitism in Persia till we come to that sect (p. 329). Here it is enough to say that the Jacobites eventually set up a smaller rival hierarchy in Persia and remained a permanent opposition to the Nestorians. There were other rivals too.
The Masalians are a sect who appear in the East from the 6th to about the 12th century. Their name means "people who pray," "orantes";[2] so in Greek they are εὐχόμενοι, εὐχῖται. Epiphanius († 403) already mentions a sect of Masalians,[3] who may be the same people. According to him they came to Syria from Mesopotamia. Their heresy consisted in denying baptism and all sacraments, admitting only prayer as the means of obtaining grace, rejecting any kind of hierarchy, claiming to be themselves wholly spiritual and perfect. They are clearly one form of the widespread Paulician sect. These people gave trouble to the Nestorians, as to all Eastern Churches. They were strong in Adiabene, and especially in the Shiggar mountains between the Tigris and the Euphrates, south of Nisibis. So there are canons in Persia made against the "false Masalians"; sometimes these people were converted. The Henanians are more difficult to understand. They are supposed to have been founded by one Ḥnânâ of Adiabene, head of the School of Nisibis in the early 6th century. They became a considerable
- ↑ Labourt gives notices of each of the Patriarchs. For those between Mârabâ and the Moslem conquest (scil. 552–637) see op. cit. pp. 192–246; also Wigram: The Assyrian Church, pp. 210–264.
- ↑ Mṣalyâne from ṣlâ; pa‘‘el: ṣallī (Ar. ṣalla), to pray.
- ↑ "Μασσαλιανοὶ οὗτοι καλοῦνται ἑρμηνευόμενοι." Hær. lxxx. 1–3 (P.G. xlii. 755–762).
