Abraham, had been appointed successor formerly, and he had many adherents, chiefly among the Nestorians of the plains. It was the ‘Ashīrah people who made the old Patriarch change and appoint Benjamin.[1] Mâr Benyamīn Shim‘un is now only twenty-seven years old. He became Patriarch at the age of seventeen.
There is now only one Metropolitan (called Maṭrān), who ranks as second after the Patriarch. He is always Mâr Ḥnânyeshu‘.[2] He has a diocese partly in Turkey and partly in Persia.[3] He has the right of ordaining the Patriarch, and assists him in his government. The present Metropolitan (Isaac by baptism), a very old man, is greatly respected and has much influence. He resides at Neri, on the Turkish side of the frontier. Besides the Patriarch and the Metropolitan, the Nestorians have seven bishops in Turkey and three in Persia, of whom several have only nominal dioceses. Moreover, the limits of the dioceses often change and appear to be very uncertain.[4] The dioceses in the plain of Urmi follow the course of the rivers, so that to belong to a certain river means to belong to the corresponding diocese. The succession of bishops is arranged usually like that of the Patriarch. There are "holders of the throne" (nephews or cousins of the bishop) brought up specially, abstaining always from flesh-meat, one of whom is chosen by the leading clergy and the notables of the diocese to succeed, and is then presented to Mâr Shim‘un for ordination. But this arrangement, involving a kind of heredity in certain episcopal families, is not according to the Nestorian canon law. Old custom demanded that bishops should be monks, and laws forbade a bishop to nominate his successor. But there are now practically no monks. The hereditary principle grew up as an abuse about three or four centuries ago.[5] It still sometimes happens that, when there is no "holder of the throne" who can be ordained, a priest, no relation of the last bishop, is chosen. One of the many bad
- ↑ See Échos d'Orient, vii. (1904), pp. 290–292. Mâr Abraham became a Uniate.
- ↑ "Mercy of Jesus."
- ↑ Shamsdin in Turkey and two plains in Persia.
- ↑ Two lists of bishops and sees (not agreeing) will be found in Silbernagl: Verfassung u. gegenw. Bestand. p. 267, and in Maclean and Browne: The Catholicos of the East, 195–197. It appears that the custom of a special name for each line of bishops (like Simon for the Patriarchate) is common to most sees.
- ↑ Among the Uniate Chaldees it is severely discouraged (see p. 101).
