Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/177

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 155 fish. Their present numbers are esteemed from fifty to four- score thousand souls, the remnant of a populous church, which has gradually decreased under the oppression of twelve centuries. Yet in that long period some strangers of merit have been converted to the Monophysite faith, and a Jew was the father of Abulpharagius,^"^^ primate of the East, so truly eminent both in his life and death. In his life, he was an elegant writer of the Syriac and Ai*abic tongues, a poet, physician, and historian, a subtle philosopher, and a moderate divine. In his death, his funeral was attended by his rival the Nestorian patriarch, with a train of Greeks and Armenians, who forgot their disputes and mingled their tears over the grave of an enemy. The sect which was honoured by the virtues of Abul- pharagius appears, however, to sink below the level of their Nestorian brethren. The superstition of the Jacobites is more abject, their fasts more rigid, ^"^^ their intestine divisions are more numerous, and their doctors (as far as I can measure the degrees of nonsense) are more remote from the precincts of reason. Something may possibly be allowed for the rigour of the Monophysite theology ; much more for the superior in- fluence of the monastic order. In Syria, in Egypt, in ^Ethiopia, the Jacobite monks have ever been distinguished by the austerity of their penance and the absurdity of their legends. Alive or dead, they are worshipped as the favourites of the Deity ; the crosier of bishop and patriarch is reserved for their venerable hands ; and they assume the government of men, while they are yet reeking with the habits and prejudices of the cloistei*.^^^ III. In the style of the Oriental Christians, the Monothelites of m. The every age are described under the appellation of Maronifes,^'^^ "^°^ '*' The account of his person and writings is perhaps the most curious article in the Bibliotheca of Assemannus (torn. ii. p. 244-321, under the name of Gregorius Bar-Hehraeus). [See Appendix i.] La Croze (Christianisme d'Ethiopie, p. 53-63) ridicules the prejudice of the Spaniards against the Jewish blood, which secretly defiles their church and state. 1-^ This excessive abstinence is censured by La Croze (p. 352) and even by the Syrian Assemannus (torn. i. p. 226, torn. ii. p. 304, 305). i'^5 The state of the Monophysites is excellently illustrated in a dissertation at the beginning of the iid volume of Assemannus, which contains 142 pages. The Syriac Chronicle of Gregory Bar-Hebraeus, or Abulpharagius (Bibliot. Orient, tom. ii. p. 321-463), pursues the double series of the Nestorian catholics and the maphrians of the Jacobites. ^'■^^ The synonymous use of the two words may be proved from Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 191, 267-332) and many similar passages which may be found in the methodical table of Pocock. He was not actuated by any prejudice against the Maronites of the xth century ; and we may believe a Melchite, whose testi- mony is confirmed by the Jacobites and Latins.