results of the common practice is that boys, twelve years old or less, are chosen as bishops.[1] All Nestorian bishops (Efisḳufâ) must now be celibate.[2] But priests and all the lower clergy (except, of course, monks) may not only be married, but may marry several wives in succession, and may do so after ordination. This principle, held by the Nestorians alone among Eastern Churches, is a remnant of the old bad days when, under Mazdæan influence, they had discarded celibacy altogether.
The parish priest (kahnâ, ḳashīshâ, ḳashâ) is chosen by the community, and must be accepted and ordained by the bishop. Under the bishop the Archpriest (rab kumre) counts as first in the diocese. In the bishop's absence he replaces him at certain functions. Chorepiscopi (called sâ‘aure, "visitors") are not ordained bishop. They are priests having jurisdiction over a group of country parishes, whose clergy they assemble twice a year for examination and direction. The Archpriest is merely the Chorepiscopus of the city. The Archdeacon (arkīdyaḳunâ) looks after the bishop's finances, and acts as a kind of Vicar-General for the diocese. Under the priest come the deacon (shamâshâ, dyaḳnâ), the subdeacon (hufâdyaḳnâ), and the reader (ḳâruyâ, âmurâ). The shahârâ ("awakener") is the clerk (often a reader or an old priest) who presides at the night-office, and sometimes at funerals.
The Nestorians says that their hierarchy corresponds to the nine choirs of angels, thus: 1, Patriarch (= Cherub); 2, Metropolitan (= Seraph); 3, Bishop (= Throne); 4, Archpriest (= Dominion); 5, Chorepiscopus (= Virtue); 6, Priest (= Power); 7, Deacon (= Principality); 8, Subdeacon (= Archangel); 9, Reader (= Angel).[3] A curious point about these orders of the hierarchy is that each is attained by a special ordination form, with laying-on of hands. A priest who becomes a chorepiscopus, a deacon who becomes an archdeacon, is ordained, just as a priest who becomes a bishop. We should, of course, say that the making of
- ↑ The Nâṭir Kursi of Mâr Ḥnânyeshu‘ is a boy of seventeen, named Joseph (Kurds and Christians, p. 188).
- ↑ For the election, ordination, and rights of bishops see Silbernagl: op. cit. 262–266.
- ↑ See the Jewel or Pearl (margânīthâ) of ‘Ebedyeshu‘ of Nisibis (1298), translated by Badger: The Nestorians and their Rituals, ii. p. 403.
