>< 
 
 y
 
 L I B RARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Of ILLINOIS
 

 
 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS 
 
 f 
 
 REPORT OF A JOURNEY, 
 
 UNDERTAKEN BY DESIRE OF 
 
 HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 
 
 AND 
 
 HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK. 
 
 TO THE , 
 
 Christians in ^aoxtiistnix nrib (©rxrumiaf}. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. EDWARD L. CUTTS, B.A., 
 
 VICAR OF HOLY TRINITY, HAVERSTOCK HILL, LONDON. 
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, 
 
 BREAD STREET HILL, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET. 
 I8 77 .
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS (REPORT OF REV. E. L. CUTTS) . . 3 
 
 APPENDIX A. — STATISTICS OF THE NESTORIAN DIOCESES ... 34 
 
 APPENDIX B. — THE APPEAL FROM THE NESTORIANS .... 35 
 
 APPENDIX C. — INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN TO REV. E. L. CUTTS IN 
 
 APRIL, 1876 37 
 
 APPENDIX D.— THE NESTORIANISM OF THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS 38
 
 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 On the 18th of May, 1876, we disembarked at Alexan" 
 dretta (or Iskanderoon, 36 35' N., by 36 8' E.) from the 
 steamer which seemed the last thread connecting us with 
 Europe, and turning our faces eastward, with our tents and 
 baggage on a caravan of horses in front of us, we felt that we 
 had entered in good earnest upon our grave undertaking. 
 Our first stage was to Aleppo, where we knew that we should 
 receive wise counsels from the British Consul for our future 
 course, and should be able to complete anything wanting in 
 our equipment, and should take leave of civilization for 
 many a day. 
 
 Our way led us past several of the ruined cities which 
 abound in this part of Syria, some of them in a wonderful 
 state of perfectness, well worth an exploring expedition. 
 
 The fourth day brought us to Aleppo, where we received 
 every kindness from the Consul, Mr. Skeene. Here we 
 provided ourselves with money for the greater part of our 
 journey, sent back part of our outfit as superfluous, purchased 
 other things indispensable, hired a cook-servant and horses 
 for the journey, and equipped ourselves for our long tour in 
 the little-visited regions which lay before us. 
 
 The following are some statistics of Aleppo given us by 
 the Consul : — 
 
 Population, 1876 a.d.— Mussulmans, 83,500 ; Christians, 
 29,900; Jews, 6,600; total, 120,000. 
 
 Christians. — Roman Catholics, 850 ; Orthodox Greeks, 
 1,640; Greek Catholics, 9,730; Old Armenians, 3,460;
 
 4 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 Armenian Catholics, 5,400 ; Armenian Protestants, 80 ; 
 Maronites, 4,200; Jacobite Syrians, 40; Syrian Catholics, 
 4,500 ; total, 29,900. 
 
 Six Churches (three of them in one court), viz., Greek 
 Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Maronite, Old Armenian, Arme- 
 nian Catholic, and Syrian Catholic. The few families of 
 Jacobites have no church and no Priest. 
 
 The next town where we made any stay was Urfa, 
 situated on the last spur of the mountains where they de- 
 scend into the north-west skirts of the great plain which 
 extends, with breaks and under various names, east and 
 south through Mesopotamia. Nimroud and Abraham are 
 the heroes of the popular legends, and give their names to 
 the great natural features. Urfa is a fine walled town, with 
 the shell of a fine mediaeval castle and many interesting 
 antiquarian remains. 
 
 Population, 1876 a.d. — Mussulmans, 15,400; Christians, 
 I 3>5°°; J ew s, 310; total, 29,210. 
 
 Christian. — Old Armenians, 11,600; Jacobite Syrians, 
 1,520 ; Armenian Protestants, 380 ; total, 13,500.* 
 
 We visited the Armenian Bishop, Gregorius. He has 
 been consecrated Bishop for some years, but has not been 
 acknowledged by the Porte. An elder Bishop was with him. 
 We presented to them the Archbishop's circular-letter, and 
 explained that there was a strong feeling of interest and 
 sympathy in the English Church towards the ancient 
 Eastern Churches ; a desire to know them, and be known 
 by them, better. A conversation ensued on the state of 
 education and religion in the Armenian Church. I gathered 
 that there was a desire for education and for ecclesiastical 
 reforms, and that some progress in this direction was being 
 made, chiefly through the pressure of the more intelligent 
 laity upon the Bishops and Clergy. The chief difficulty was 
 the use of a dead language, the ancient Armenian, in the 
 services of the church and in the schools. I was told that 
 out of the whole Armenian population of Urfa (stated to be 
 between 10 and 11,000), perhaps 120 or 130 can read and 
 
 * Mr. Skeene's figures. I learnt on the spot that there is a small 
 Armenian Catholic body twenty years old, and a few Chaldean (Papal 
 Nestorian) families ; and that the Protestants have no place of worship. 
 
 % U,UC J
 
 URFA. 
 
 5 
 
 write. The Bishop kindly took me over the schools, six in 
 number. One, a good stone, vaulted building, with a row of 
 pillars down the centre, has been recently built and opened. 
 Another, a smaller school-room, has been recently built and 
 opened for teaching Turkish. Examined two of the schools. 
 In the larger there were sixty children present. The children 
 come at about six years old, and leave at ten, eleven, and 
 twelve. There were one teacher and one assistant to the 
 sixty children, neither of them specially trained. A great 
 part of the education consists in teaching the Psalter by 
 rote in the Old Armenian, and then the translation of it 
 in the new. I found a class of ten or twelve learning a 
 manual of religion, in question and answer, which they are 
 taught twice a week for an hour each time. The church is a 
 large and fairly handsome building, erected in 1846. In 
 reply to the Archbishop's letter, the Armenian Bishops 
 expressed verbally their thanks and good wishes for the 
 Archbishop and the Church of England. 
 
 In the absence of the Jacobite Bishop, [ visited the Priest 
 in charge, and presented to him the Archbishop's circular 
 letter. He gave me the impression of being an intelligent, 
 gentlemanlike person, and received us with great cordiality. 
 He estimated the number of his people at 300 to 400 
 families (1,500 to 2,000 souls). They have only one school 
 containing about 100 children, the eldest of them about 
 twelve years old, and only one teacher. The children learn 
 the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Psalter by rote in old 
 Syriac, and at about eleven or twelve years of age (if they 
 continue in school so long), the meaning of them is ex- 
 plained in Turkish. The church is quite modern, fairly 
 handsome, with pointed arch vaulting, and architectural 
 ornament in pillars and doors. It possesses some interest- 
 ing ancient instrumenta : two books of the Gospels for altar 
 use, one folio, the other quarto, both with silver covers of 
 ancient Byzantine character; the folio MS. is quite modern, 
 written in double columns, one column ancient Syriac, the 
 other a translation into Arabic language, written in Syriac 
 characters. The quarto MS. was dated about the middle 
 of the fifteenth century. Among the altar plate were five 
 or six chalices, two with porcelain cups, set in the usual
 
 6 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 silver stand, one enamelled. A double-headed bishop's 
 staff and a crook of usual form ; several hand crosses, one 
 jewelled ; censers, &c. ; sets of vestments ; a patriarch's veil 
 embroidered, another with plates and bosses of silver. 
 
 I had a conversation with the teacher of the Armenian 
 Protestant body ; he is an agent of the American Mission at 
 Aintab, an intelligent person, partly educated in Germany. 
 I gathered from him, and others who came with him, that 
 the eyes of the reforming party in the Armenian Church 
 are directed towards the Church of England, and that they 
 would gladly receive help and direction from that quarter. 
 The thoughts of my interlocutors, however, took the shape 
 of a Church of England schism from the Armenian Church, 
 and I explained to them that the Armenian Church would 
 have our best wishes in any endeavours to reform itself 
 and educate its people ; but that we should think it wrong 
 to lend ourselves to any proselytism from the Armenian 
 Church. 
 
 The next town on our route, Suarek, contains about 
 3,500 * families, of whom — 
 
 Mussulman, 2,500. Armenian, 300 families. 
 
 Christian, 500. Jacobite, 35 
 
 Protestant, 35 
 
 Jews, 10 
 
 The Armenians have one school containing about seventy 
 boys and girls. 
 
 The Protestants have one school containing about forty 
 boys and girls. 
 
 A Mr. Nutting (one of the American Missionaries) has 
 a house here in which the schools are held, and religious 
 services performed. 
 
 Ten Armenian families describe themselves as " Church 
 of England." A clergyman from Diarbekir occasionally 
 visits them. 
 
 One hundred and fifty heads of households lately signed 
 and sealed a letter to a Mr. Philips, " a clergyman of 
 Jerusalem," asking to have a clergyman of the Church of 
 
 * Totals do not agree.
 
 DIARBEKIR. J 
 
 England settled at Suarek, but they say they have received 
 no reply. I promised to try to ascertain the fate of their 
 letter, and to obtain some answer to it, I was told by 
 two of the Protestant body who paid me a visit, that 
 "all the old Armenians here were crying for help from 
 England." 
 
 On the banks of the Euphrates, about twelve hours from 
 Suarek, is the mountain district of Gerger Dagh, contain- 
 ing about sixty villages of Syrian Jacobites. Other villages 
 of the same people are to be found on the Euphrates, 
 between Malalyah and Samosata. The Jacobites are pro- 
 bably the most ignorant of all the bodies of Eastern 
 Christians, and greatly need the help for the foundation 
 of schools which their Patriarch lately sought for them in 
 England. 
 
 June 9th, reached Diarbekir, an imposing town with a 
 lofty wall and towers of black basalt, inhabited by 25,000 
 persons. More than half the population is Christian, 
 mostly of the poorer classes, but with some merchants, &c, 
 among them. An English merchant and his family have 
 also lately settled here. The population is divided as 
 follows : — 
 
 Old Armenian families, 1,500, 2 churches, 3 schools, 15 
 Priests. 
 
 Armenian Catholics, 200. These are divided into two 
 equal bodies, one retaining its old customs, the other con- 
 forming to those of Rome. They have 1 school, 5 Priests. 
 
 Jacobites, 250. 1 school, 3 or 4 priests. Catholic Syrian 
 families, 30. 1 church, 1 school, 1 Priest. Orthodox Greek 
 families, 50. 1 church, 1 school, 1 Archbishop, 2 Priests. 
 Greek Roman Catholic families, 5. 1 Priest. Chaldean 
 families (i.e., Papal Nestorians), 200. 1 church, 1 school, 1 
 Archbishop, and 4 Priests. Armenian Protestant families, 
 900, Syrian Protestant families, ico. 1 church, 3 schools, 
 (2 boys', 1 girls' — 130), 1 Minister, and 1 Assistant Minister. 
 Jews, 50. 
 
 There is residing here a Church of England clergyman, 
 Mr. Garabet, ordained by Bishop Gobat, who has about ten 
 persons worshipping in a room in his house. In paying our 
 respects to the Pasha, we met there the Chaldean Arch-
 
 8 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 bishop, and had a short conversation with him, whose tenor 
 did not encourage us to pay him a formal visit. 
 
 There are also Latin Missionaries, 2 Priests, 1 Deacon, 
 who are Spanish capuchins. 
 
 Total of Christians, 12,185 persons. 
 Jews 25° » 
 
 12,435 
 
 The position of the joint body of Armenian and Syrian 
 Protestants here is remarkable, and is an illustration of a 
 wide-spread condition of religious feeling. The Protestant 
 body was originally gathered together by the American 
 Missionaries ; Mr. Boiajan, an Armenian gentleman of con- 
 siderable intelligence and good education, was its minister. 
 After a while he and many of his congregation became dis- 
 satisfied with the American connection ; they subscribed 
 and erected a new church for themselves ; and many of them 
 were anxious to introduce the English Prayer-Book, or some 
 slight modification of it, as their form of worship ; others, 
 however, were not prepared for this step, and it was not 
 eventually taken. Many of this congregation feel the 
 irregularity of their status. They would gladly be members 
 of a reformed Armenian Church ; but they feel that to go 
 back to the Armenian Church as it is, would, in some respects, 
 be a backward step in their religious life, while probably the 
 Church would not receive them back without concessions to 
 which they cannot submit. On the other hand they repudiate 
 much of the teaching and discipline of the modern American 
 Missionaries. This body of Protestants looks with xstrong 
 sympathy to the Church of England. 
 
 There are many interesting ecclesiastical antiquities in this 
 ancient and once famous city. Especially two of the 
 churches, S.S. Cosmas and Damian (which contains their 
 tombs) and St. James (?), are of very ancient date, and retain 
 remains of sculpture of tine early classical character. 
 
 At Diarbekir it became necessary to determine our 
 further route. It was too late in the season for Europeans 
 to travel with safety in the plains to the south-east, and to 
 spend some time in Mosul. Some of our party had already
 
 SEERT EITLIS. 9 
 
 been attacked with, and were suffering from, the fever of the 
 country. On consultation with a European doctor, and 
 with ^experienced and trustworthy friends at Diarbekir, it 
 was decided that it was our duty to abandon the journey to 
 Mosul and to take the direct road to Kochanes the central 
 object of our journey. The only object in going to Mosul 
 was to study the Chaldean portion of the Nestorian people, 
 who live chiefly between the mountains and Mosul. But 
 Dr. Badger and Mr. Fletcher, when sent out by Archbishop 
 Howley thirty years ago, had very thoroughly explored that 
 part of the country, and Dr. Badger had published a full 
 account of it, and of the Chaldeans in his " Nestorians and 
 their Rituals." It did not seem worth while even to go down 
 to Mardeen, which would have occupied a week, since the 
 Jacobite Patriarch was absent in India. In three days we 
 reached the foot of the hills, and as soon as we began to 
 ascend, the pure air and fresh breeze began to invigorate 
 our invalids and restore them to health. 
 
 At the little town of Seert there are a number of 
 Nestorians, but they have accepted the Roman alliance. 
 They are under the government of a Metropolitan Bishop 
 (Mattran Patros — Archbishop Peter), who lives in a 
 monastery at a few hours' distance from the town, but was 
 absent at the time of our visit. 
 
 On the 2 1 st of June we reached Bitlis, a town of about 
 25,000 persons, of whom over 23,000 are Mussulmans, and 
 near 2,000 Christians. Old Armenians, 1,700, 4 churches, 6 
 schools, 12 Priests. Jacobites, 1,300. American Pro- 
 testants, 300, 2 schools (50 scholars), 1 Minister and 1 
 assistant. There were a little time since 100 persons 
 Armenian Catholics, but all except one family have 
 returned to their own Church. 
 
 There were two American Missionaries stationed here, but 
 one left on the day of our arrival to strengthen the Mission 
 at Wan. 
 
 I received a visit from the principal Priest, the Armenian 
 Bishop's Vicar, to whom I communicated the contents of the 
 Archbishop's circular letter. He expressed much gratifi- 
 cation, and paid compliments to the English Church. From 
 * There is also a large Armenian monastery outside the town.
 
 IO THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 another Priest who subsequently visited me, I gathered that 
 there was no preaching in the Armenian Church here. " The 
 Sunday morning service is three hours' long ; the people 
 would not stay for a sermon after that/' 
 
 " Is there any catechising of the children?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Then how do the people learn anything about their 
 religion ? " 
 
 " Those who can read pick up a little knowledge of it, and 
 those who cannot, do not." 
 
 Another journey through the mountain valleys and round 
 the shore of Lake Wan, brought us in four days to Wan, a 
 town of 14,000 or 15,000 people, of whom about 2,000 are 
 Armenians, with a few Koords, and still fewer Nestorians. 
 The Armenians live chiefly in " the Gardens," a suburb 
 stretching from the city wall up to the mountains on the 
 south-east, and have two churches there. The Americans 
 have here three Missionaries and their families. They have 
 only a handful of avowed proselytes, but they claim, and no 
 doubt correctly, to have exercised a considerable indirect 
 influence on the Armenians, by showing them the example 
 of a school on the European model, and so causing an 
 improvement in the Armenian schools, and by promoting a 
 spirit of religious inquiry by their preaching. 
 
 At length on the 7th July we arrived at Kochanes. 
 
 The Nestorian nation has been divided religiously into 
 two sections ever since the middle of the 16th century. For 
 a hundred years before that date it had been the law and 
 custom that the Nestorian Patriarch should be chosen out 
 of the nearest relatives of the last holder of the see, but in 
 1552, on the decease of the Patriarch of the day, some of the 
 Bishops assembled at Mosul, set aside the claims of the 
 late Patriarch's nephew, the Patriarch-designate, and elected 
 another, Sulaka, to the ancient seat. The mountain 
 Nestorians and the Nestorians of Oroomiah, making together 
 two-thirds of the whole people, adhered to the regular 
 succession ; and a schism ensued, which has continued ever 
 since. The one section recognises Mar Yussuf, of Alkosh, 
 as its Patriarch. It has for nearly a hundred years submitted 
 more or less uneasily to the influence of Rome ; it consists at
 
 KOCHANES — THE PATRIARCH. II 
 
 present of the Nestorians who inhabit, and border upon, the 
 plain about Mosul, with outlying bodies at Diarbekir, Seert, 
 the plain of Salmast, and a very few adherents in the plain 
 of Oroomiah. The other section, the mountaineers and the 
 men of Oroomiah, recognise Mar Shimoon, the 12th of that 
 name, as their Patriarch, and adhere tenaciously to the doc- 
 trines, discipline, and customs of their ancestors. The former 
 are distinguished as Chaldeans, the latter as Nestorians. 
 
 These Nestorians again are in two distinct sections : the 
 tribes who inhabit the highest and wildest mountains of the 
 Koordistan system, who are under Turkish rule, and the 
 people who live in the plain of Oroomiah, who are under 
 Persian rule. The two sections of the people differ much 
 in appearance and character ; they agree on religious points, 
 and in strong attachment to the religion for which they have 
 suffered so many ages of persecution. Kochanes is the 
 centre of one section, the city of Oroomiah of the other. 
 
 The numbers are estimated (by the American Missionaries) 
 
 at — 
 
 Mountaineers 56,000 
 
 Oroomians 25,000 
 
 81.000 
 
 Chaldeans 36,000 
 
 117,000 
 
 We arrived at Kochanes on Friday evening, July 7th, and 
 were received with all honour and kindness. On the follow- 
 ing day I had a formal interview with the Patriarch, and 
 presented the Archbishop's letter and stated the object of 
 my visit, viz : — 
 
 1. To convey verbally, as well as by letter, the assurance 
 of the sympathy of the Archbishop of Canterbury with 
 the Patriarch of the East and the ancient Church over which 
 he presides. 
 
 2. In reply to the request for aid from the Church of 
 England, to ask for the suggestion of some definite plan for 
 improving and extending the education of the people, in 
 which the Archbishop might be able to ask the assistance of 
 English Churchmen.
 
 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 i. The Patriarch expressed strongly his joy and gratitude 
 at receiving these assurances of the sympathy and interest 
 of the Archbishop and the Church of England, to which he 
 and his people have so long looked for aid, and bade me at 
 once write to the Archbishop to that effect. 
 
 2. He proposed to summon a meeting of the chief people, 
 to hear the Archbishop's message and to consult upon such 
 a plan of education as may seem best suited to the circum- 
 stances of the people. 
 
 I was taken by surprise by the great and universal excite- 
 ment which the arrival of an English clergyman bearing a 
 letter and messages from the Archbishop caused among this 
 people. 
 
 The Patriarch's invitations were sent out to all parts of 
 the mountain country, and of Persia, inhabited by the 
 Nestorians, and from all parts they flocked to Kochanes in 
 great numbers. They estimated that about a thousand of 
 the chiefs of the people had obeyed the Patriarch's 
 summons : all the Bishops but two, scores of Priests, and 
 hundreds of maleks and chief men of the various tribes. I 
 feared that the object and limits of my mission might have 
 been misunderstood, and took pains to explain them ; but I 
 found that while they quite understood the limited character 
 of the direct aid which it was proposed to give them, they 
 calculated upon the larger indirect results which were sure to 
 follow. They are conscious of their national backwardness 
 in civilisation, and desirous of improvement, and recognize 
 an improved and enlarged system of education as one of 
 the first steps in this improvement, and sincerely rejoice at 
 the offer of the Archbishop to help them in this way. But 
 they know that this evidence that England is going to take 
 an active interest in their affairs, and to keep up a regular 
 correspondence with them, will elevate them in the eyes of 
 their Turkish and Koordish neighbours. They know also 
 that the residence of one or two English clergymen among 
 them, will be a protection against much local oppression. In 
 these countries, every European of character and acknow- 
 ledged position, becomes a kind of irregular Vice-consul. 
 The Romish priests have extended French protection to their 
 converts. The American Missionaries, in Oroomiah, have
 
 ASSEMBLY AT KOCHANES. 1 3 
 
 exercised a similar' protection in favour of their clients. 
 through the English Consuls and Ambassador. It is every- 
 where acknowledged that this protection from local 
 oppression has been one of the most powerful inducements 
 to the Nestorians to join the Romish and American bodies • 
 and the Nestorians who adhere to their old Church know 
 that they will obtain similar advantages through the residence 
 of English clergymen among them, who take an interest in 
 their welfare. 
 
 This concourse of the principal people of the Nestorian 
 Church, greatly facilitated our study of their character. For 
 a fortnight or more, we were engaged almost all day long in 
 receiving deputations from this tribe and that, from one 
 village and another, or in informal conversations with in- 
 dividuals and groups of them, in our own room, or under 
 the pleasant shade of the grove of fine trees in the church- 
 yard. Several of the people spoke English, so that we had 
 no lack of interpreters, and were able, when it seemed 
 desirable, to check one interpreter by another. It was the 
 mountaineers especially whom we saw here; there was a large 
 deputation from Oroomiah, but we saw more of the Persian 
 section of the people in a subsequent visit to their own 
 country, and I shall speak of them hereafter. These 
 mountaineers whom we saw, were doubtless the most 
 favourable specimens of their people, and were seen at their 
 best, but we saw enough of the lower class of the people 
 also, in their villages, to enable us to form an opinion of the 
 character and circumstances of the people generally. The 
 impression they produced upon us was a most favourable 
 one. Physically, they are a fine manly race, with good 
 physiognomy, picturesquely dressed, and armed to the 
 teeth ; with frank courteous manners, naturally intelligent, 
 affectionate, with a strong love of their country and their 
 religion. If there is a question whether the Nestorian race is 
 one likely to repay pains bestowed in trying to educate and 
 elevate them, I have no hesitation in saying it is a fine race, 
 which is abundantly worthy of, and which will amply repay, 
 any help which England shall give them. 
 
 Among the mountaineers, the present system of education 
 and the machinery for imparting it, are both very defective.
 
 T4 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 The educational course consists in learning to read in 
 Old Syriac. Then the scholars read and learn by rote the 
 Psalter, read the Gospels and Epistles, always in Old Syriac, 
 and then having read them they go back and learn to trans- 
 late them into modern Syriac. But probably few children 
 continue long enough under tuition to do more than learn 
 to read and say by rote part of the Psalter. 
 
 The educational machinery is of the simplest ; during the 
 winter months the village Priest receives at his own house 
 any children who are sent to him as pupils, and is paid by a 
 present according to the means and liberality of the parents. 
 In Oroomiah the educational course and machinery are 
 different ; they will be spoken of hereafter. The higher 
 education is effected as in the middle ages in Europe ; the 
 students resort to some teacher who has acquired a reputa- 
 tion for learning; e.g. Rabban Jona is accounted the most 
 learned man of the nation at present ; the Patriarch, 
 several of the Bishops, and others of the people who 
 have attained to some degree of education, have been 
 his pupils. 
 
 As to the future educational scheme, the Patriarch was 
 very decided in desiring that Old Syriac, the classical and 
 not the vulgar language of the nation, should continue to be 
 used as its vehicle. They have an extensive and fine litera- 
 ture in Old Syriac, and no literature in the modern vulgar 
 tongue. The difference between the two was represented as 
 not sufficient to present any great difficulty. I asked, " In 
 reading the Psalter, could a person acquainted only with 
 Modern Syriac gather its meaning ? " " Often ; there would 
 often be only a few words different." " How many words ? " 
 " Perhaps five in a verse of fifteen words." " Please read a 
 verse to the servant there " (having ascertained that he only 
 spoke vulgar Syriac). He read Matthew xxiv. 1,2, and the 
 servant understood it, except one word. In Oroomiah, 
 however, I found the use of Old Syriac deprecated as a 
 great hindrance to education. Books might perhaps be 
 printed in double columns, Old and Modern Syriac. 
 
 All the people with whom I have conversed seem assured 
 that the people will value an improved education, and will 
 send their children in fair numbers and with tolerable regu-
 
 THE NE3T0RIAX HIERARCHY. 15 
 
 larity to be educated. They seem agreed that the course to 
 adopt is first to establish a central institution where the 
 teachers may be taught and trained, and then to establish 
 schools in the larger villages. There are already a certain 
 number of Nestorians qualified intellectually to aid as school- 
 masters, and only needing some training in the methods of 
 education and school management. In the mountains many 
 of the people are too poor to pay regular school fees, and 
 the schools will need to be considerably subsidized. In 
 Oroomiah the people are more able to pay, the chief men of 
 the villages have been in the habit of contributing towards 
 their maintenance, and the schools in their villages will be 
 more nearly, though far from entirely, self-supporting. 
 
 I took pains to gather information on the ecclesiastical 
 affairs of the Nestonan Church, and some notes upon them 
 may be interesting. 
 
 The Hierarchy consists of:— 
 
 1. MarShimoon, Catholicos and Patriarch of the Eastern 
 Regions. 
 
 2. Mar* Hnant Jsu (Mattran), Metropolitan. He has 
 jurisdiction over three Bishops, Mar Johannan, Mar Sor 
 Jsu, and Mar Dinchha, who have not appropriated Sees, but 
 all four exercise their office in the territory of Bishamisdin. 
 
 Also the following Bishops : — 
 
 Mar Serghes of Jelu, Mar Slewa of Gawar. In Oroomiah 
 three, Mar Goriel, Mar Johannan, and Mar Jonan (and two 
 vacant, Mar Isha and Mar Ouraham) ; these exercise their 
 office in defined districts, but have no territorial designation. 
 Mar Jsu, Mar Javilah, and Mar Johnan, of Berwer. Alar 
 Yussuf, of Djezerah, who joined the American Missionaries 
 and married, is now disowned by the Nestorian Church. 
 Formerly there were two other Bishops in Djezerah, but 
 their succession has not been filled up. This makes twelve 
 Bishops in the actual exercise of their office. 
 
 * The word Mar, which so frequently appears, means " Lord ; " Mar 
 Shimoon, the "Lord Simon ;" Mar Goriel, the "Lord Gabriel," &c. 
 The word also means " Saint ;" Mar Georghes, is "Saint George ; " in 
 the feminine, Mart Mariam, is " Saint Mary." 
 
 f Some of the proper names are curious, Hnan Isa means " Mercy 
 of Jesus ; " Sor Isu, " Servant of Jesus."
 
 l6 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 3. There are two Archdeacons, one in Tyari, one in 
 Tehoma. The number of Priests (as collected from the list 
 of parishes, &c, given in an appendix) is 190, but the list 
 may not be quite complete. 
 
 4. Since a Priest does not celebrate Holy Communion 
 ■without the assistance of a Deacon, there must be at least as 
 many Deacons as Priests ; there are probably considerably 
 more. 
 
 5. The minor offices of Sub-Deacon (Hupatdiacona) and 
 Reader (Karuyah) are also recognized, but since no one was 
 pointed out to me as a Sub-Deacon or Reader, I imagine 
 that they are practically obsolete. 
 
 The Patriarch and Bishops are maintained partly by 
 endowments in property, partly by tithes (whose payment is 
 voluntary). Many of the village churches are endowed with 
 a field, or with a vineyard, part of the produce of which is 
 paid to the Priest, and he also receives voluntary offerings. 
 Some of the churches have considerable property which is 
 farmed to a Serder (guardian or warden). The Patriarch 
 nominates the Serder, and receives a present; the Serder 
 takes charge of the repairs of the church, the cost of divine 
 worship, &c. He of course makes a handsome profit out 
 of his holding ; and it is considered by some a grievance that 
 so small a portion of the profit of the church lands goes to 
 the maintenance of the Priest. 
 
 The Deacons have some share in certain customary 
 offerings ; but the ecclesiastical revenues of both Priests 
 and Deacons are quite insufficient for their maintenance ; 
 and they all practice some secular employment also ; the 
 Priests, I think, almost universally agricultural or pastoral 
 employment only. 
 
 The offices of Patriarch and Bishop are hereditary, that 
 is to say, the Bishop does not marry, but his successor is 
 nominated out of his own family, usually a nephew. This 
 successor is usually selected at an early age, and is nut 
 allowed to eat flesh. [The Bishops neither marry nor eat 
 iiesh.j The successor to the present Patriarch is already 
 nominated in the person of Kaiser, a son of Nathan, and 
 cousin of the Patriarch, a boy of about thirteen or four- 
 teen. He is being educated with his cousin Isa by a
 
 PLAN OF CHURCHES. 
 
 n 
 
 private tutor,* but no special deference seems to be paid 
 to him. 
 
 The churches are usually arranged as in the accom- 
 panying plan. A is the nave, which in a few churches is 
 divided into a body and aisle. B is the chancel ; the arch 
 between the two portions of the church is very narrow, and 
 
 J L 
 
 o 
 
 B 
 
 C 
 
 
 
 i=i 
 
 E=5j 
 
 i U e u 
 9 h 
 
 / 
 
 'A 
 
 
 i i 
 
 ■ 
 
 a curtain hangs before it during part of the time of the cele- 
 bration of the Holy Communion. C is a part of the building 
 screened off to serve both as baptistery and sacristy. The 
 font is usually narrow and deep, and children are baptized 
 always by immersion, by plunging them feet foremost and 
 overhead into this miniature well. In this part of the 
 
 * I examined these two boys, and found that they are intelligent boys 
 and that pains is taken with their education ; but they are far behind 
 English boys of the same age.
 
 1 8 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 building is often the oven in which the breads for Holy 
 Communion are baked. They are made, with special 
 leaven preserved for this purpose, in thick round cakes, 
 about two and a half inches broad, and half an inch thick, 
 stamped with a cruciform device. In many of the churches 
 a low wall or screen dd runs across the church three or four 
 feet west of the chancel wall, e are the steps up to the 
 chancel, / the steps to the sacristy, i a kind of embrasure 
 in the wall at which the cup is administered in Holy Com- 
 munion. The altar j is seldom elevated more than by a 
 foot pace, and has often a stone step in front for the 
 celebrant. At h and g are two tables called the Table or 
 Altar of the Prayers and of the Gospel. On the former 
 is placed the Book of Anthems, &c, on the latter the 
 Book of the Gospels, with a cross laid on the cover. A 
 third table sometimes stands at e, with a cross laid on a 
 cushion. The building is usually small and usually very 
 dark, having perhaps only one small window in the west 
 gable, and is very scantily furnished. 
 
 The offices for daily prayer and Holy Communion have 
 been partly published by Dr. Badger. I may add a few 
 notes as to the external characteristics of the services. 
 
 Holy Communion is celebrated on Holy Days at a very 
 early hour, usually before sunrise, even in the height of 
 summer. The service is very long, though (in the moun- 
 tains) there is very rarely a sermon. The words of the 
 service are accompanied by a considerable amount ,of 
 ceremonial. A large proportion of the people attend, and 
 actually communicate. In the administration the Sub- 
 Deacon stands at the south side of the chancel arch, con- 
 cealed behind the curtain, holding the paten, and the Priest 
 distributes the bread, from this side of the arch ; the people 
 come up one by one and receive standing ; some receive 
 into the mouth, some into the hand ; the communicant then 
 goes over to the north side of the chancel arch or to the 
 opening at i, where the Deacon administers the cup. The 
 deacon holds the large semi-globular chalice with a napkin, 
 the communicant holds the end of the napkin under his 
 mouth while he drinks, and wipes his mouth with it when he 
 has partaken ; boys and girls communicate in one kind (I
 
 OFFICES AND VESTMENTS. 1 9 
 
 think the bread given to the children is sprinkled with a few 
 drops of wine). 
 
 At daily prayer all stand, there are no seats in church, 
 even for the clergy, not even a Bishop's seat in his own 
 church ; the officiating Bishop or Priest stands on the north 
 side of the nave towards the east end ; if there is a second 
 to take part in the service, he stands on the other side of 
 the nave, the Deacons cluster round the Table of Prayers, 
 the congregation stand behind them, the men in front, the 
 women behind, or the men on the north the women on the 
 south side. 
 
 The vestments worn by the clergy are interesting. It has 
 been maintained that the first distinctively clerical vestments 
 worn were the tunic and orarium for Deacons, the tunic, 
 orarium, and pallium for Priests and Bishops, and that 
 the earliest use of the chasuble which can be clearly 
 shown is of the sixth century. The Nestorian clergy use 
 the tunic, girdle, and orarium for Deacons, and the tunic, 
 girdle, orarium and pallium for Priests and Bishops. The 
 tunic (which they call Soudra d'oumra, shirt of the church) 
 is of white linen or calico, with one or more purple and 
 red crosses on the breast and back, the pallium, called 
 chadra (tent) is of white linen or calico, with a cross at 
 each upper angle and one on the back. The girdle (zonard) 
 and orarium (purard) are of narrow woven material, blue 
 and white ; the Deacon wears the stole crossed over the right 
 shoulder and only long enough for the ends to be tucked 
 into the girdle ; the Priest wears it crossed over the breast, 
 and of the same length ; the Bishop wears a broader and 
 longer stole falling down to the ankles. But it is also 
 remarkable that in the ordinary office for morning and 
 evening prayer the officiating minister, be he Patriarch, 
 Bishop, or Priest, wears no distinctively clerical vestment at 
 all, only his ordinary out- door dress ; neither is there any- 
 thing in the ordinary dress to constitute it a clerical cos- 
 tume ; a Priest often wears a turban of dark colour, but 
 in other respects he dresses and carries weapons like a 
 layman. The Deacon, reading the Evangelion, will, however, 
 during his reading, put on a girdle and an orarium over his 
 ordinary dress.
 
 20 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 I conversed frequently with several of their most learned 
 people on the question on which Nestorius was condemned 
 by the Council of Ephesus. They define that they hold 
 in the Unity of Christ, two natures, and two knuma, in one 
 parsopa. They explain that knuma has not the same mean- 
 ing as our word person, but means rather essence ; while 
 they say that the word parsopa does express nearly that 
 which we mean by person. These statements left on my 
 mind a strong persuasion that their theologians maintained 
 the assertion of two knuma as necessary to guard the truth 
 of the whole and perfect humanity of Christ. The modern 
 Nestorians at all events believe that there are two whole and 
 perfect natures, the Divine and human natures, united, not 
 by confusion of substance, but by unity of parsopa, in one 
 Christ. One of their service books has the two phrases 
 " The Divine Nature clothed itself with the human nature." 
 " There is one Son only, not a [Divine] Son and a [human] 
 Son, making two." — Dr. Badger, ii. 41. 
 
 The proceedings at Kochanes concluded with a meeting 
 of the Patriarch, the Bishops, and some of the Patriarch's 
 most influential advisers, in which the consultations which 
 had been going on during the previous fortnight were 
 recapitulated, and their conclusions put into shape. These 
 conclusions were embodied in two documents, one from the 
 Bishops only, the other from the people generally, both 
 written in Syriac, which I had the honour at once to forward 
 to the Archbishop. Their substance, I believe, will be 
 found to correspond with a memorandum which I made 
 during the meeting, of which the following is a copy : — 
 
 " The plan which we think best adapted to our wants, 
 and in which we beg his Grace, the Archbishop, to help us 
 with English clergymen to carry out, is as follows : — 
 
 "A training college with a normal school, to be estab- 
 lished in some central place which shall be considered most 
 convenient. 
 
 " It is hoped that in time branch establishments may be 
 planted in various places {e.g., Oroomiah, Asheetha, Mosul), 
 and it is wished to plant one immediately in the important 
 city of Oroomiah. 
 
 " For this purpose we ask for two experienced English
 
 GAWAR — DIZA. 2 I 
 
 clergymen, and one medical man, and two trained school- 
 masters. 
 
 " We are anxious to have a printing press, type, &c, that 
 we may supply school books to the schools, and other 
 books for the use of the people generally. 
 
 " Lastly, we beg the Church of England out of its abund- 
 ance to supply our lack of means to accomplish these 
 plans, which will be so great a blessing to our Church and 
 nation." 
 
 One point on w r hich the meeting could not come to any 
 decision was the locality in which the training college should 
 be situated, and the question was left open for further con- 
 sideration. The two great sections of the people, the 
 mountaineers and the men of Oroomiah, are, geographi- 
 cally, some distance apart. The situation (at Asheetha or 
 Julamerk) which would be most convenient to the moun- 
 taineers would be inconvenient to the Oroomians, while 
 the situation in the city of Oroomiah would be dis- 
 advantageous to the mountain tribes. The one place which 
 seemed to suggest itself as offering the least difficulties is 
 the plain of Gawar. This plain lies between the mountains 
 and Oroomiah ; it is large and fertile enough to afford cheap 
 subsistence, and high enough to be healthy in climate. 
 When the American Missionaries of Oroomiah some years 
 ago attempted to extend their work among the mountain 
 tribes,* they chose this place as the site of their mission- 
 house and school. I shall state presently the result of a 
 visit to the place. 
 
 We resumed our journey on Wednesday, July 25th, leav- 
 ing with regret the pleasant mountain valley where we 
 had enjoyed so long a rest from travel and discomfort, 
 and where every [hour of the day had been filled with 
 interest. Two days of pleasant travelling, through fine 
 mountain scenery, brought us to the plain of Gawar, a fine 
 fertile plain about eighteen miles long from west to east, 
 and averaging about six miles from north to south, studded 
 
 * They abandoned the place (I was told by many of the people) 
 because the mountain tribes were unwilling to receive them, and their 
 work consequently came to nothing.
 
 2 2 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 with villages, some Nestorian, but the majority Koordish 
 (usually the two races inhabit separate villages). 
 
 We stayed for the night at Diza, the largest village of the 
 plain, the Bazaar or Market, and the seat of the Kaimakam 
 (Governor), and station of the troops. It was this village 
 the American Missionaries chose as their base of operations 
 among the mountain tribes, and erected some buildings here 
 for a mission house and school, which I examined with a 
 view to the possibility of their furnishing a home for the 
 contemplated institution. The buildings, which are in the 
 town, consist of about thirty rooms, surrounding three court- 
 yards, built in native style; not very good rooms, but 
 sufficient according to native ideas to accommodate a 
 large number of students and scholars. I think they are 
 in substantial repair, but needing some outlay upon them. 
 I do not like either the situation in the town or the kind 
 of buildings, but the Americans thought them sufficient 
 for their purpose ; and if it be resolved to establish the 
 college at Gawar, they might afford at lest a temporary 
 home for it. The whole plot of ground is about 39 yards 
 in length, by about 30 yards in width on one side and 24 
 on the other. 
 
 The buildings are the property of Priest John of Diza, 
 who would be glad to let or sell them for the purposes 
 of a College. 
 
 Two days after we crossed the hills which divide the 
 Turkish and Persian Empires, paying black mail for a safe 
 conduct through them, from the Koordish tribe which makes 
 them unsafe for travellers ; and on July 30th we descended 
 the last spur of the mountains, and entered upon the large 
 and beautiful plain of Oroomiah. It was a ride of five 
 or six hours to the city. I had previously, acting on the 
 advice given me by those who knew the customs of the 
 country, forwarded to the Governor of Oroomiah a letter of 
 introduction with which the Persian Ambassador in London 
 had been good enough to furnish me, and I received a 
 message that the Governor had appointed me a lodging, 
 and would send some one out to meet me and conduct me 
 to ti. I was, however, quite unprepared for the kind of re- 
 ception which awaited us. Some of our Nestorian friends
 
 RECEPTION AT OROOMIAH. 23 
 
 from the city and villages rode out as far as to the village 
 where we had spent the previous day (Sunday) to escort us 
 in. Others continually joined us on the road. As we 
 approached the city we formed a large cavalcade of 200 
 or 300 horsemen. Outside the city we were met by a 
 deputation consisting of the son of the Acting-Governor, 
 the son of the Chief Military Officer, the brother of the 
 Surperast (the Governor of the Christians), two caparisoned 
 horses, and a train of attendants. The Nestorians of .the 
 city naturally came out in considerable numbers, the Jews 
 formed a group on one side of the road, the people nocked 
 to see the procession out of curiosity. In short we found 
 ourselves the objects of a demonstration quite unexpected 
 and quite undesired as far as I personally was concerned ; 
 but I rejoiced in it as a demonstration likely to be useful* to 
 our Nestorian friends. They are habitually despised as a 
 nation by the Mussulmans, their Bishops and Chiefs are 
 accustomed to be "snubbed"' by the officials. On this 
 very occasion, when the Patriarch's invitation to the Bishops, 
 Priests, and Maleks of Oroomiah, to meet me at Kochanes 
 became known, the Surperast had threatened the Bishops 
 and Maleks with fine and imprisonment if they went to 
 Kochanes, and the common people had corporal punish- 
 ment to expect. One Bishop had braved the threat, all the 
 Maleks but one yielded to it, and some of the Priests slunk 
 out of the city by roundabout ways. They were in con- 
 siderable alarm about what would happen to them on their 
 return, and delayed their return until they could come in 
 my company. It was therefore a great day for the 
 Nestorian nation when they could enter into the city 
 bringing in a kind of triumph an English clergyman who 
 had been sent with messages of friendly sympathy, and 
 offers of assistance from the Archbishops of the Church of 
 England ; one of their Bishops on each side of the English- 
 man, and a cavalcade of their people behind him ; received 
 with ceremonial welcome by the government officials, and 
 had in honour of all the people. It was a kind of Nestorian 
 triumph. 
 
 We were taken to lodge in a house of the late Governor's ; 
 and there for three or four days we received visits from
 
 24 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 morning to night, and conversed with all kinds of people, 
 and obtained all the information we could about the country 
 and the people in general, and the Nestorians in particular. 
 
 Afterwards, the city and our lodging being unhealthy, 
 and one of our party sharply attacked by fever, we removed 
 six miles to the neighbouring hill of Seir (where the 
 Americans have their summer residence), and pitched our 
 tents and made our head-quarters there. From thence I 
 undertook a series of visits through some of the principal 
 Nestorian villages of the plain. In this way I endeavoured 
 to obtain information, and form an opinion upon the con- 
 dition and character of the Persian Nestorians, and their 
 educational needs. 
 
 The plain of Oroomiah, stretching about fifty miles north 
 and south, and the salt lake which borders it on the east, 
 are set in a frame of mountains, on some of which patches 
 and lines of snow are still remaining in the middle of 
 August. The plain is very fertile, well-watered and well- 
 wooded ; it is very beautiful now, and in spring must deserve 
 its name of " the Paradise of Persia." It is thickly dotted 
 over with more than 1,000 villages, of which 104 are in- 
 habited by Nestorians. 
 
 The Nestorians of the plain differ much in character and 
 circumstances from those of the mountains. They are a less 
 picturesque and interesting people, more " civilized," the 
 necessaries of life are more abundant and more easily 
 obtained in the fertile plain than in the mountains, so that 
 they are not so poor. On the other hand the people here 
 complain that they suffer much more oppression at the hands 
 of their Mussulman neighbours and masters, than their 
 brethren of the mountains. 
 
 Some of these oppressions it would be difficult to remedy. 
 The land tenure resembles that of the feudal system of the 
 middle ages of Europe, and gives the landlord abundant 
 opportunities of bearing heavily on the tenant. Where the 
 landlord is (as is universally the case here), a Mussulman 
 and the tenant is a Christian, it is to be expected that the 
 inferior will have to suffer many petty wrongs and vexations. 
 Again the Central Government is comparatively feeble, and 
 this mountain border of the kingdom seems to suffer much
 
 GRIEVANCES. 25 
 
 from lawlessness and misrule. While we have been resident 
 here the whole neighbourhood has been agitated by a small 
 war between two tribes of Koords, one of them mustering 
 5,000 men ; and I have come into personal contact with four 
 cases of villages plundered, and men killed or wounded. 
 There is also much oppression and extortion on the part of 
 the Government officials, and in the collection of taxes. 
 
 Three of the grievances of which the Persian Nestorians 
 complain are probably capable of remedy. 
 
 1. If a Christian woman should become a Mussulman, 
 she inherits the property of her family, and this claim is 
 stretched sometimes to the property of collateral relatives, 
 as well as of parents. Consequently, it is not uncommon 
 for a Christian girl to be seduced or carried off by force by 
 a Mussulman, who marries her and thereupon claims the 
 property of her family. 
 
 2. The evidence of a Christian is not received in a court 
 of justice against the testimony of a Mussulman. 
 
 3. The Government is beginning to impress Christians 
 into the military bands of the army, whereas by ancient law 
 or custom they pay a special poll tax in consideration of 
 being entirely exempt from military service. 
 
 The Nestorians here cling with great tenacity to their 
 religion, and are diligent in attendance upon its outward 
 observances, e.g.. there is daily morning and evening 
 prayer in all the churches, which (at least in the evening), 
 are regularly attended by a fair proportion of the people. 
 Preaching here is common (general I think) on Sundays, 
 and the people perhaps hold their religion more intelli- 
 gently than their mountain brethren. 
 
 In all the 104 villages of the plain, there is perhaps not 
 a single school open at this moment, and in the winter 
 months the number of (Nestorian) schools is very few 
 indeed. Yet there is a considerable desire among the 
 .people for the establishment of schools ; there are a number 
 of men qualified to teach in them ; but they want some one 
 to organize and superintend the working of a system of 
 village schools ; and I think that a clergyman and a trained 
 schoolmaster in the city, and a little help in money, would 
 suffice to create and carry on a system of schools all over
 
 20 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 the plain which would do an excellent work among the 
 people. 
 
 My report would be incomplete without some statement 
 as to what is being done here already by foreign agencies, 
 viz., by the French Roman Catholics and the American 
 [Congregational] Board of Foreign Missions. 
 
 The Roman Catholic establishment consists of a Bishop, 
 7 French Priests and 3 native Priests, 8 Lazarists and 16 
 Sisters ; of whom the Bishop, 4 French, and 3 native Priests, 
 4 Lazarists, and some Sisters, are in Oroomiah ; 1 priest in 
 Tehooma (in the mountains) ; and the rest in Salmast. In 
 Oroomiah, city and plain, they have about 200 persons 
 converts, in all the mountains and this plain, and Salmast, 
 about 200 houses. They offer many advantages in the 
 way of protection from local oppression, education, and 
 kindness, but they seem to be making little progress among 
 the people. 
 
 Of the American Missionaries, I desire to speak with 
 fairness and respect, but I am very much surprised at the 
 small number of their adherents after fifty years of work, 
 when I am assured that not more than 300 families can be 
 reckoned as having embraced their membership ; and I am 
 struck by the attitude taken up by many Nestorians who 
 formerly were under their instruction and influence. I think 
 the facts may be explained thus. The older American 
 Missionaries here sought to do that which we are now 
 seeking to do, to educate the people and help them to 
 improve themselves, without trying to make proselytes and 
 establish a separate body. They did very much for the 
 people, and everywhere I have come upon the traces of 
 their work, in intelligent men, who desire general education 
 and improvements in their Church, while they still venerate 
 and cling to that Church with its grand past history, and its 
 claims upon their fidelity. 
 
 All the older American Missionaries are dead or gone, 
 and within the last few years have been succeeded by 
 younger men, who are said to pursue different measures and 
 to have different aims. I desire to speak of these gentlemen 
 with all fairness, and I certainly feel towards them much 
 personal kindness and gratitude. As I approached the city
 
 AMERICAN CONGREGATIONAL MISSIONARIES. 27 
 
 they were kind enough to send me an invitation to occupy 
 their house in the city. They paid me a visit immediately 
 on my arrival. It was convenient to us to pitch our tents 
 near their house in Seir, where we had recourse to the 
 skill of their medical member; and we received much 
 kindness from them. 
 
 Still, it is my duty to report fairly that the present 
 American Missionaries here, appear to me, from all I have 
 heard of them, to hold decided nonconformist views and 
 naturally to desire to win others to these views. Among 
 the new steps which the American Missionaries have taken, 
 are these : 
 
 They refuse to receive as " members " any persons who 
 will not become total abstainers. 
 
 They refuse to baptise the children of any who are not 
 " members." 
 
 The old American Missionaries, when they had trained a 
 man as a preacher, procured his ordination by his Bishop ; 
 the present Missionaries have begun to procure for their 
 preachers " ordination ; ' at the hands of one of the Priests 
 in their interests. 
 
 They are beginning to build chapels of their own, and in 
 other ways to form a separate religious body. 
 
 The Nestorians are strongly attached to their ancient 
 Church, and hold their distinctive Church principles with 
 great tenacity; I think it is therefore easy to understand why 
 many of those who were the pupils of the earlier American 
 Missionaries are alienated from their successors, and why 
 these seem now to be making little way among the 
 people. 
 
 The education of the Oroomiah Xestorians is entirely in 
 the hands of the Americans. In about a score of the larger 
 villages where there is the best opening for schools, and 
 where the people are desirous to have them, the Americans 
 have (very wisely) stepped in and offered their aid. I 
 believe they offer to find the teacher and his stipend, if the 
 village will do all the rest. These schools are open only in 
 the winter months. The Nestorians who are alienated from 
 the present American Missionaries, are naturally unwilling 
 to leave the education of the children in their hands.
 
 2 8 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 On the eve of my departure from Seir, two members 
 of the American Mission, Mr. Labrie and Mr. Whipple, 
 paid me a visit and had a long conversation. First they 
 gently deprecated interference with the work they had been 
 carrying on for more than forty years. It was easy to reply 
 that if we came, it would be on the repeated invitation of 
 the Nestorian Church (as represented by all its Bishops, and 
 nearly all its clergy, and its chief men), which of course had 
 a right to seek for counsel and assistance from the English 
 Church ; that it was natural that they should seek assistance 
 from us, and that we should afford it, seeing the many 
 reasons there were why they should feel special confidence 
 in us, and we a special interest in them. Then the Mis- 
 sionaries sought my concurrence in the outlines of an 
 arrangement between the English and the American agencies, 
 e.g. , that we should not establish a school in villages where 
 they already had one, or afford inducements to their 
 agents to enter into our service. I replied that my 
 mission was simply one of inquiry, and that I had no au- 
 thority to enter into any such arrangements. On being 
 pressed to give some indication of the course likely to be 
 taken by any English clergyman who might be sent out, 
 I very carefully abstained from saying anything which could 
 possibly embarrass the future. My belief is, that the people 
 of the villages where there are already schools, will at 
 once seek to put them under English control, and that 
 a considerable number of those who have formed both the 
 American and the Papal connexions will return to their own 
 Church, 
 
 I made inquiries both in the mountains and in Oroomiah 
 as to the existence of ancient MSS. Since Beder Khan Beg 
 30 years ago sought out the Nestorian books and destroyed 
 them, there are comparatively few left in the country. Of 
 these the majority are not the property of private individuals, 
 but of the churches. Since some of them have been pur- 
 chased by Europeans, the people have formed a high esti- 
 mate of their pecuniary value, and I was unable to make 
 any purchases. Rabban Jona, the most learned man of 
 the nation, told me of the oldest MSS. with which he was 
 acquainted, of which the following is a memorandum : —
 
 OLD MANUSCRIPTS. 20 
 
 Two Histories of St. Anthony, by Palladius, both of 7th 
 or 8th century. One belonging to a church in Tyari, the 
 other to a church in Jelu ; both at present in the custody 
 of Rabban Jona. 
 
 A New Testament (Peshito version) of the 7th century, in 
 the church of Schwaoota, Baz. 
 
 A MS. of the Four Gospels, of the 2nd century (?), which 
 Mr. Taylor, the consul of Erzeroum, took to England. 
 
 A MS. of the Prayers of the Nestorian Church, of the 
 10th century, in the church of Argil, Baz. 
 
 MSS. chiefly theological, of the 12th and 13th centuries, 
 are not infrequent. 
 
 A MS. Prayer-Book in the possession of Mar Johanan, at 
 Gaviland, of about the 12th century (Shamasha Joan, of 
 Oroomiah, tells me) is an evidence that the later books 
 have been somewhat interpolated. 
 
 An historical book in three parts, (1) The History of the 
 Kingdom from Nebuchadnezzar ; (2) Of the Nations and 
 Countries ; (3) Of the Priesthood, brought down to the 
 middle of the 17th century, is in the possession of the 
 Patriarch of the Jacobites. 
 
 The modern Nestorian MSS. are very fine and interesting. 
 They retain all the characteristics of MSS. of the 7th or 8th 
 centuries, the fine large characters and the Byzantine style 01 
 ornamentation. There are a number of Scribes at Ashetha, 
 a cousin of the Patriarch at Kochanes also, who write and 
 illuminate in this antique style. 
 
 When I suggested that S.P.C.K. might be willing to 
 print some books for them for Educational use, I was met by 
 the request that we should rather send them out a printing 
 press and other requisites for printing for themselves. 
 
 On Tuesday, August 14th, we started from the plain of 
 Oroomiah on our journey to Tabreez. We had consented 
 to go via Tabreez, though a little out of our way, in the hope 
 that we might find the new English Consul arrived there ; 
 and five of the chief Nestorians of Oroomiah begged to be 
 allowed to accompany us thither, having business in which 
 they sought the Consul's assistance. We arrived at Tabreez 
 on Saturday, August 17th, and these few days spent in the 
 constant society of Nestorians, and living and travelling
 
 30 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 exactly as they do, has not been the least instructive part of 
 our intercourse with them. 
 
 On our arrival at Tabreez we found that the English 
 Consul had not yet arrived ; the French Consul acting for 
 him declined to enter into the matters which I desired to lay 
 before him ; so that the object of our detour by Tabreez was 
 lost. We took up our quarters in a couple of rooms of the 
 British Consulate, and found lodging for our Nestorian 
 friends in the town. Received a polite message and pre- 
 sent of sweetmeats from the Governor, but were obliged to 
 decline his offer of a visit on the following day. 
 
 On Wednesday, August 21st, we started on our return 
 journey via Tiflis. In the town we found a considerable 
 Nestorian population. The poorer Nestorians go in large 
 numbers to Russia, much as the Irish used to come to 
 England at harvest-time, in search of work ; and some of 
 them settle in Russia ; about Eriwan, for example, there are 
 two or three Nestorian villages, and about Tiflis others. 
 These settled Nestorians have for the most part conformed 
 to the Russian Church. 
 
 Tiflis is the centre of the floating Nestorian population. 
 Here I was told there are as many as 5,000 of them, 
 chiefly sojourners of the poorest class, who stay six months, 
 a year, two years, and then return to Oroomiah and 
 Koordistan ; but some have settled here, and some of these 
 are in a higher social position, e.g. merchants in the bazaar, 
 etc. I made the acquaintance of some of these Tiflis 
 Nestorians, and found that they had lately formed a com- 
 mittee for the purpose of establishing here some kind of 
 training college in which promising young Nestorians 
 might receive the earlier part of their education, thence 
 be transferred to Europe for some years, and then return 
 as teachers of their own countrymen. They purposed to 
 send agents over Russia and Europe to collect the funds 
 necessary for the establishment and maintenance of this 
 scheme. The committee was good enough to hold a special 
 meeting to hear a report from me of the object and results 
 of my journey. I ventured also to suggest what seemed to 
 me the objections to their plan in any case, and the special 
 objections to their prosecuting it in the event of a training
 
 TIFLIS — CONSTANTINOPLE — CONCLUSIONS. 3 I 
 
 college being established in Koordistan. I understood them 
 in reply to express gratitude at the prospect of the establish- 
 ment in Koordistan of such an institution as they had been 
 contemplating, and a resolution to suspend all further action 
 with respect to their own plans, and a willingness to give 
 what aid they could in support of those which their people 
 generally had adopted. 
 
 At Constantinople, where we arrived on the 7 th Sep- 
 tember, I had an interview with the Rev. Mr. Curtis (at Mr. 
 Bullock's suggestion) and discussed with him the possibility 
 of making the school at that place available m aid of 
 Nestorian education. I expressed a strong opinion, and I 
 understood Mr. Curtis to concur in it, that young men to be 
 trained to work among their countrymen were often unfitted 
 for such a future by a few years' residence under European 
 influences, and that it would be better that Nestorian young 
 men intended to be schoolmasters, should be educated in 
 the contemplated training college among their own people. 
 
 The conclusions to which I have been brought are briefly 
 these : — 
 
 The Nestorian people are a fine race of people, of a 
 natural intelligence and a moral character which afford 
 abundant promise that anything which your Grace may be 
 pleased to do to help them to educate and elevate themselves 
 (and then perhaps as a consequence to introduce reforms 
 into their Church) will be received with gratitude, will be met 
 by local effort, and will produce great and good results. 
 
 I think the plans which they have suggested (see page 20) 
 are suited to their circumstances, and I hope that it will be 
 possible to carry them out without curtailment. I suppose 
 that about 2,000/. a year would be barely sufficient for this 
 purpose. I suppose that the two Societies, S.P.G. and 
 S.P.C.K., would probably, at your Grace's request, give 
 500/. each for some years, and that the remainder could be 
 raised by the usual appeals to the Church. 
 
 I beg to suggest that the head of the Mission should be 
 not merely a respectable clergyman, or a fair tutor, but that 
 he should be a man of exceptional ability, qualified to act 
 prudently in the political relations in which he will find
 
 32 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 himself, and capable of promoting tenderly and wisely the 
 numerous reforms needed in this ancient Christian body. 
 
 I beg to call special attention to the present position 
 of the " Chaldean " portion of the Nestorian people. They 
 have always been uneasy and unsettled in their relations 
 with Rome. They have continually resisted the attempts 
 which have been made to induce them to abandon their 
 own ancient customs and conform to those of Rome, and 
 have from time to time threatened to resume their indepen- 
 dence. The Chaldean Patriarch and a considerable number 
 of his clergy and people have refused to accept the Infalli- 
 bility dogma, and there is, I am told, a strong disposition at 
 the present time among them to break openly with Rome. 
 An able English clergyman at Mosul just now might 
 perhaps exercise a considerable influence upon the course 
 of events. 
 
 I beg also to be allowed to point out that throughout 
 those parts of the East which I visited, among Armenians, 
 Jacobites, Nestorians, and " Protestants," there was a general 
 disposition, more or less pronounced, to look to the Church 
 of England for sympathy and help. I submit that it is our 
 duty not only to deliver these Eastern Christians from 
 oppression, but also to respond to their desire for aid in the 
 improvement of their sytem of education, and for counsel 
 and encouragement in the direction of religious reforms 
 and Church revival. 
 
 From a Missionary point of view, it is worth while to 
 consider that the Christianity which the Mohammedans of 
 Eastern Europe and Western Asia see and know is that of 
 these Eastern Churches, and that to elevate these Churches to 
 a higher educational and religious standard cannot but have 
 its effect upon the non-Christian populations in contact with 
 them. The Nestorians used to be an energetic, enterprising 
 Missionary Church, which carried the Gospel into the wilds 
 of Tartary and Tibet, and into China, and as far south as the 
 coast of Coromandel and Ceylon. I was struck with the 
 frequency with which the Nestorians mentioned to me as 
 an inducement to England to help them, that they were 
 still willing and desirous to preach the Gospel again in these 
 countries of the further East.
 
 conclusions. 33 
 
 I submit that in the present attitude of the affairs of the 
 Eastern Christians, the presence here and there among 
 them of well-read, sensible English clergymen would be 
 productive of great advantage to the cause of Christ ; and 
 that it might be desirable for the Church to endeavour to 
 induce Government to appoint a certain number of Consular 
 Chaplains, not only for direct ministrations to English people 
 living in the East, but for this indirect purpose of giving "aid 
 and comfort " to the Eastern Churches. 
 
 I beg to express my feeling that, situated as we English 
 Christians are on the hither side of the Western Continent, 
 the vast proximate bulk of the Patriarchate of the West has 
 almost prevented us from catching sight of the other great 
 Patriarchates of the East; that the existence and history of 
 these other Patriarchates, which are as ancient as that of 
 Rome, and which never for a moment have yielded to her 
 claims, are an invaluable evidence of the historical falsity 
 of those claims ; and that it is our policy to. give these 
 Eastern Churches countenance and support, and to make 
 their history popularly known. 
 
 EDWARD L. CUTTS.
 
 34 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 STATISTICS OF THE NESTORIAN DIOCESES. 
 
 Diocese and Bishop. 
 
 . u 
 
 u 
 
 £ 
 
 > 1 
 
 Diocese and Bishop. 
 
 *J 
 
 43 
 
 23 
 
 2 
 
 40 
 
 ~ 
 
 36 
 
 22 
 
 1 
 
 28 
 
 ■s.g| 
 
 1,067 
 
 972 
 290 
 
 2,888 
 
 Diocese of Mar Shi-1 
 moon the Patriarch ...J 
 
 Diocese of Mar Serg-~| 
 hees of Jelu / 
 
 Diocese of Mar Sleewa) 
 
 88 
 38 
 56 
 
 81 
 37 
 43 
 
 2,274 
 1,650 
 1.497 
 
 Diocese of Mar Hnan-] 
 Jsu the Metropolitan 
 and his Suffragans . ... 1 
 Diocese of M ar Johanan 
 Diocese of Mar Johnan 
 Diocese of Mar GorieL. 
 
 290 
 
 248 
 
 10,638 
 
 
 
 The European reckoning is five to a family ; but among 
 the Nestorians the married sons of a family often continue 
 to reside in their father's house, and the average number 
 of a family will be more than five. Ainsworth (Travels in 
 Syria, &c.) reckons the number at eight; I tested the 
 number in several large groups of my visitors, and should 
 be inclined to put it at seven or eight. Taking seven as 
 the number, those 10,638 families would give a population 
 of 74,466, exclusive of the "Chaldean" part of the 
 nation. 
 
 It will interest some to see, in the following summary of 
 the Dedications of the Churches who are the popular 
 Saints of the Nestorian calendar, and the degree of their 
 popularity.
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 35 
 
 There are Churches Dedicated to 
 
 Mar Gewer 63 
 
 Mart Mariam 61 
 
 Mar Kuriakus 26 
 
 Mar Yohannan 13 
 
 Mar Moses 2 
 
 Beni Shmooni 8 
 
 Rabban Yacoub 1 
 
 Rabban Sada 1 
 
 Mar Saba 5 
 
 Mar Shimoon 9 
 
 Mar Sarapion 1 
 
 Mar Burur 1 
 
 Mar Isak 1 
 
 Mar Ouraham 3 
 
 Mar Nathaniel 1 
 
 Kadishta 1 
 
 Mar Serghees 5 
 
 Rahan Maraziz 1 
 
 Rabban Barburatu 1 
 
 Mar Mari 1 
 
 Mar Addi 2 
 
 Mar Shalita 12 
 
 Mar Mastreena 2 
 
 Mar Yacoub 2 
 
 Mar Hanania 1 
 
 Mar Stepanus 7 
 
 Mar Slewa 4 
 
 Mar Daoud 1 
 
 Serp* Zeruanda 2 
 
 Rabban Pithun 1 
 
 Mar Kanania 1 
 
 Mar Mikael 1 
 
 Mar Aziza 1 
 
 Mar Abdishu 1 
 
 Mar Yusuf 2 
 
 Rabban Bar Somuro 1 
 
 Mar Thoma 4 
 
 Mar Be-Isu t 
 
 Mar Karde 1 
 
 Mar Talai 1 
 
 Mar Schoona 2 
 
 Mar Isu _ 1 
 
 Mar Od Tsu 3 
 
 Mar Heskiel 1 
 
 Mar Johnan ... 2 
 
 Mar Daniel 1 
 
 Mar Sor Isu 4 
 
 Mar Goriel 3 
 
 Matacha Goriel in Knania 1 
 
 Mar Zeia 1 
 
 Petrus Poulis 1 
 
 Mar Aura 1 
 
 ? 16 
 
 Serp in Armenian = Saint. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 THE APPEAL FROM THE NESTORIANS. 
 
 Within the last ten years numerous appeals from the 
 Nestorians have been received by the Archbishops of 
 Canterbury. The most complete statement of their con- 
 dition and their wishes is found in a letter addressed in 
 1867 to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of 
 London, and sent from the Patriarch, Bishops, Clergy and 
 Laity, through Mr. C. A. Rassam, British Consul at Mosul. 
 The entire document may be found in the Colonial Church
 
 36 APPENDIX B. 
 
 Chronicle for 1868, pp. 134-137. The following extracts will 
 show the nature of its contents : — 
 
 " To the most revered and zealous Fathers, the elect of 
 the Holy Ghost .... the holy ministers, elect primates, 
 orthodox patriarchs, watchful shepherds, the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury and the Right Reverend the Bishop of London, 
 who follow after the life of the Crucified One which leads to 
 heaven, and who dwell in perfect peace and security within 
 the dominions of her glorious Majesty, the most excellent 
 Queen Victoria : 
 
 " We desire to represent to you our abject condition, our 
 spiritual destitution, and our lack of the means of instruc- 
 tion, trusting that you may condescend to listen to the 
 appeal, and to relieve our necessities for Christ's sake. 
 In so doing, we take the liberty of submitting to you the 
 four principal causes which have reduced our community to 
 its present low condition, and which, moreover, threaten its 
 existence. 
 
 " First, you are undoubtedly well acquainted with the 
 past history of our community. At the beginning it was 
 highly flourishing .... and continued to prosper for many 
 generations. ... At length .... the Eastern Mohammed, 
 assailed it in front, and the Western Mohammed, that is, the 
 Pope, assailed it from behind and left it prostrate. The 
 former devoured its outward substance, and the latter its 
 internal economy, and both gloated over its misery 
 
 " The second cause of our present abject condition is the 
 spiritual ignorance prevailing among our people 
 
 "The third cause is the deplorable decay of learning 
 among us. Our ancient books have been destroyed, and 
 we have no scribes or printing presses to replace them ; no 
 schools wherein to educate our youth. Our old seminaries 
 have either been taken from us, or have become the resort 
 of the vain and the wicked. The learned have perished 
 from amongst us, and no students are rising up to fill their 
 places 
 
 " The fourth cause is our isolated and forlorn condition. 
 The people of Israel, after a captivity of seventy years, were 
 restored to their own land ; but our captivity has lasted 700
 
 APPENDIX C. 37 
 
 years, and yet no one has remembered us ; and now we 
 would lift up our eyes unto the hills, hoping that help may 
 come. But if we look to the hills of Russia, we discover 
 that they are covered with images and idols ; if to those of 
 Rome, we see [the Western] Mohammed holding sway 
 there ; if to those of America, the prospect does not suit 
 
 our views, neither is it adapted to our wants Our 
 
 people, moreover, are not well affected towards their pecu- 
 liar tenets. But in looking to England we are all of one 
 mind, and find comfort and hope in the anticipation of 
 receiving succour from the great City of London. Hence 
 we implore the Lord Jesus Christ, and cast ourselves at 
 your feet who are His disciples, beseeching you to com- 
 passionate the condition of our people, who are wandering 
 over our mountains like sheep without a shepherd. . . . ." 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN TO THE REV. E. L. CUTTS, IN 
 APRIL 1876. 
 
 The Archbishop of Canterbury requested the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel and the Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge to supply the necessary funds for the 
 journey of Commissioners, to be deputed by His Grace to 
 visit the Assyrian Christians. The two Societies willingly 
 agreed, as they had on a similar occasion in 1842, to place 
 a sufficient sum at His Grace's disposal. Soon afterwards, 
 the Rev. E. L. Cutts, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Haverstock 
 Hill, London, was appointed by the Archbishop, and left 
 England, accompanied by Mr. W. H. Cutts, and by a 
 Nestorian Deacon, George, in April 1876. Mr. Cutts's 
 instructions were as follows : — 
 
 1. To testify to the Patriarchs, Mar Shimun and Mar 
 Ignatius, and the Bishops and Clergy of Kurdistan, Chal- 
 daea, and Mesopotamia, the good-will of our Church towards 
 them, and the desire which is felt in England to see their
 
 38 APPENDIX D. 
 
 Churches restored to a flourishing condition as branches of 
 the True Vine ; taking care to explain to them the doctrine 
 and discipline of the Church of England, and to assure 
 them that she claims no jurisdiction or authority over them 
 or over any of the Churches of the East. 
 
 2. To inquire what assistance could be given to the 
 Patriarch, Bishops, and Clergy in the work of education, and 
 to consider and report in detail w T hat steps could be taken 
 with their approval and co-operation in the improvement of 
 existing schools, and the establishment of new ones, and in 
 the elevation of the condition of the people generally. 
 
 3. To make distinct inquiries as to their wants in regard 
 to Holy Scriptures in the vernacular tongue, and in regard 
 to educational books and appliances. 
 
 4. To make inquiries as to any manuscripts in the 
 possession of the people which may be of theological or 
 historical value. 
 
 5. To make inquiries as to the state and condition of the 
 Churches in Chaldsea, Kurdistan, and Mesopotamia, their 
 prospects, and their relations with other Christian commu- 
 nities. 
 
 6. To report on these subjects to the Archbishops of 
 Canterbury and York. 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 THE NESTORIANISM OF THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Badger, who was deputed by Archbishop 
 Howley and Bishop Blomfield to visit the Nestorians in 
 1842, and whose intimate and profound acquaintance with 
 the language, tenets, and character of these people is well- 
 known, bears this testimony in a paper read at the Church 
 Conference, Liverpool, 1869, and printed in the Colonial 
 Church Chronicle for 1869, page 416, &c. 
 
 " We should bear in mind when approaching the subject 
 of Nestorianism, that [the great opponent of Nestorius],
 
 APPENDIX D. 39 
 
 Cyril had, as Hooker says, 'avouched' in his writings 
 against the Arians, that ' the Word, or Wisdom of God, 
 hath but one nature, which is eternal, and whereunto He 
 assumed flesh ; ' which declaration, although not so meant, 
 was 'in process of time so taken, as though it had been his 
 drift to teach that even as in the body and soul, so in Christ, 
 God and man made but one nature? ■ — an error which was 
 subsequently condemned by the Council of Chaicedon. 
 Bearing these things in mind, and also the different uses 
 which conflicting theologians had made of the almost cog- 
 nate terms ovtria and vicoaraate, there is a priori ground for 
 believing that Nestorius's formula of ' two natures and two 
 vnooTcxaELQ ' in Christ was designed to combat the fearful 
 error, which obtained so extensively afterwards, of the con- 
 fusion of the Divine and human natures in our Blessed Lord. 
 Nestorius denied to the last that he held two distinct persons 
 in Christ ; and Besnage, La Croze, Thomas a Jesu, and 
 Mosheim, have defended him against the charge of heresy. 
 
 " But the question which more immediately concerns us 
 is, whether the so-called Nestorians of the present day hold 
 the heresy attributed to Nestorius ? My own solemn con- 
 viction, after a careful study of their standard theology, is 
 that they do not. Fortunately, some of the most eminent 
 divines have come to the same conclusion, since even 
 Assemani, as Gibbon justly remarks, ' can hardly discern 
 the guilt and error of the Nestorians ; ' 2 and our own learned 
 Richard Field, writing two centuries and a half ago, says : — 
 1 But they that are now named Nestorians acknowledge that 
 Christ was perfect God and perfect man from the first moment 
 of His conception, and that Mary may rightly be said to be 
 the mother of the Son of God, or of the Eternal Word, but 
 think it not fit to call her the Mother of God, lest they 
 might be thought to imagine that she conceived and bare 
 the Divine nature of the three Persons — the name of God 
 containing Father, Son, and Holy Ghost' 3 (That, I beg to 
 remark by the way, is the main argument of the so-called 
 Nestorians against the use of the word Biotokoq, which, ren- 
 
 1 Book v. chap. 52. 
 
 2 Decline and Fall, chap. 47, note. 
 
 3 Of the Church, Book III. chap. I.
 
 40 APPENDIX D. 
 
 dered in Syriac into ' Mother of God,' is much stronger than 
 the Greek title, or its Latin equivalent Z>ci/>ara, implying 
 that the Blessed Virgin was as much the parent of the 
 Divinity as of the humanity of Christ.) Field then goes 
 on to say :— ' Neither do these Christians so say there are 
 two persons in Christ, as if the human nature did actually 
 exist in itself, but only to imply that there is a potential 
 aptness in it so to exist, if it were left unto itself. Yet 
 the form of words which they use is not to be allowed, 
 for it savoureth of heresy, and took beginning from heresy.' 
 Therein, also, I fully concur with the profound divine, and 
 I have every reason to believe that in the event of any 
 response on our part to their overtures for intercommunion 
 with us, the so-called Nestorians would forego their present 
 formula, and adopt that of the Council of Ephesus."
 
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