their death is nearly always either that they are apostates from the national religion, or have converted a Mazdæan. This is typical of the attitude of Persians before the great persecution. Christians were tolerated as foreigners from the Roman Empire. The Mazdæans understood that these Romans had their own religion; they did not interfere in this case. But there was to be no tampering with the faith of true-born Persians. In 225 Mšīḥâzkâ says that there were already more than twenty Christian bishops in Persia.[1] We have seen that these must be conceived as missioners or exiles not yet organized in a regular province.
The organization of the Persian Church was the work of Papa Bar ‘Aggai, whom legend makes the disciple of Mari. Really he lived at the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th centuries. He was Bishop of the civil capital, Seleucia-Ctesiphon. From him we can trace an authentic list of Primates of Persia down to the Nestorian Patriarchs, and so to Mâr Shim‘un, now reigning at Ḳudshanis. Following the example of the Churches of the Empire, he wanted to organize the Persian sees under himself. He was Bishop of the civil capital: the civil centres naturally became the metropolitan sees of the country round.[2] But his plan met with strong opposition. Apparently the bishops in Persia had too long been used to their independence and want of organization to welcome such a plan. A synod met, the first of many quarrelsome Persian councils, at Seleucia about the year 315.[3] The Fathers accused Papa of immoral conduct, of pride and scorn for canon law. He seized the Book of Gospels to swear his innocence, but his excitement brought on a fit of some kind[4] and he fell senseless. This, naturally, seemed a judgement from Heaven; he was deposed, and his deacon, Simon Bar Ṣabbâ‘e,[5] was ordained in his place. Papa did not yield. He appealed to the "Western Fathers," a fact that is interesting as showing consciousness of higher authority over the local sees of Persia. Naturally his appeal went to the immediate chief, the Bishop of the Mother
- ↑ Op. cit. 106.
- ↑ See Orth. Eastern Church, p. 7.
- ↑ Wigram: op. cit. p. 50.
- ↑ He was an old man; ordained apparently in 280 (Wigram: op. cit. 45).
- ↑ "Son of the Dyers."
