CHAPTER XXVIII.
OF SPEAKING IN THE CONGREGATION IN SUCH A TONGUE AS THE PEOPLE UNDERSTANDETH.
"It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the Primitive Church to have public prayer in the Church, or to minister the Sacraments in a tongue not understanded of the people."—Article XXIV.
All the ancient rituals of the Nestorians are written in classical Syriac, which has long ceased to be spoken in its purity throughout the East. The vernacular tongue of the mountain Nestorians, and of the Chaldeans of the plains, is a dialect of the Syriac, called Soorith or Fellehi, and differs so widely from the written language of the rituals, that only those of the laity who are tolerably well educated, (and of such there are but a very few,) can understand them; indeed many of the clergy are in the same deplorable case, not having any certain knowledge of what they read in the churches.
This practice, however, so far as the Nestorians are concerned, is opposed to the principles inculcated by their standard authors, and sanctioned by the authority of their provincial synods; but they are at present reduced to so low a state of intelligence, and learning has for so long a time been neglected among them, that they seem quite unable to exert that energy which is requisite to bring about a reformation in this respect. Even the Chaldeans manifest little sympathy with the custom of the Church of Rome censured in the Article, for they have translated the Epistles and Gospels into Arabic, which they write in the Syriac character, and this version is read in all the churches at Mosul, and wherever the people are better acquainted with that language than with the Syriac. Different
