alone in Christendom,[1] use the other great parent-rite of the East. As the Copts keep the old rite of Alexandria, so do the Jacobites keep that of Antioch, the parent of the Byzantine and Armenian liturgies. In rite, therefore, the Jacobites stand much nearer to their enemies the Orthodox. And in language they are one with their extreme enemies of all — the Nestorians. In the East you can never determine a man's rite by the language in which he says it,[2] nor his religion by his rite.[3]
There is little of special interest to see in a Jacobite church. They do not have the Coptic principle of three altars always; neither have they the Byzantine rule of one only. Generally there is only one; but in larger churches there may be one or more side-chapels with an altar. They seem to have no rule about an ikonostasion or haikal-screen. I have seen many churches in which there is no screen at all.[4] In others (at Damascus, etc.) there is an ikonostasion, copied, I suppose, from the Orthodox. But there should always be at least a curtain before the altar. In front of the sanctuary stand one or two lecterns. There are the usual pictures, but poor and uninteresting as a rule.[5] The Syrians are not an artistic folk. Their churches have nothing of the archæological interest of Coptic churches.[6] Also they have been much affected by Orthodox and Byzantine influence. They call the sanctuary Madbkhâ (literally, "altar"). On their altars stand the gospel-book, vessels, crosses and candles. Their vestments are: for a bishop, the alb (kuthīnâ),[7] apparently
7 From (
Greek characters).
- ↑ Except that the Orthodox use the Antiochene rite in two churches, once a year in each (Orth. Eastern Church, p, 395, n. 1), and, of course, the Syrian Uniates have the same rite as their heretical brethren, and the Maronites have a form of it.
- ↑ Hence the never to be sufficiently denounced absurdity of talking about the "Greek rite."
- ↑ Neither can you in the West. A Jansenist uses the Roman rite in Latin; a Milanese Catholic has the Ambrosian rite; in Dalmatia Catholics use the Roman rite in Slavonic. In short, every possible combination of religion, rite and language occurs.
- ↑ E.g. in their church at Beirūt.
- ↑ There seems to be a Protestantizing movement against pictures among them now. See Parry: Six Months, 191.
- ↑ Parry gives descriptions and plans of Jacobite churches (Six Months, 328-337).
- ↑ 7
