Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/178

156 THE DECLINE AND FALL a name which has been insensibly transferred from an hermit to a monastery, from a monastery to a nation. Maron, a saint or savage of the fifth century, displayed his religious madness in Syria ; the rival cities of Apamea and Emesa disputed his relics, a stately church was erected on his tomb, and six hundred of his disciples united their solitary cells on the banks of the Orontes. In the controversies of the incarnation, they nicely threaded the orthodox line between the sects of Nes- torius and Eutyches ; but the unfortunate question of one will or operation in the two natures of Christ was generated by their curious leisure. Their proselyte, the emperor Heraclius, was rejected as a Maronite from the walls of Emesa ; he found a refuge in the monastery of his brethren ; and their theological lessons were repaid with the gift of a spacious and wealthy domain. The name and doctrine of this venerable school were propagated among the Greeks and Syrians, and their zeal is expressed by Macarius, patriarch of Antioch, who declared before the synod of Constantinople that, sooner than subscribe the two wills of Christ, he would submit to be hewn piece-meal and cast into the sea.^<^" A similar or a less cruel mode of per- secution soon converted the unresisting subjects of the plain, while the glorious title of Mardaites,^^ or rebels, was bravely maintained by the hardy natives of mount Libanus. John Maron, one of the most learned and popular of the monks, assumed the character of patriarch of Antioch ; his nephew Abraham, at the head of the Maronites, defended their civil and religious freedom against the tyrants of the East. The son of the orthodox Constantine pursued, with pious hatred, a people of soldiers, who might have stood the bulwark of his empire against the common foes of Christ and of Rome. An army of Greeks invaded Syria ; the monastery of St. Maron was de- sti'oyed with fire ; the bravest chieftains were betrayed and murdered ; a)id twelve thousand of their foUoAvers were trans- planted to the distant frontiers of Armenia and Thrace. Yet the humble nation of the Maronites has survived the empire of Constantinople, and they still enjoy, under their Turkish 1"" Concil. toin. vii. p. 780. The Monothclite cause was supported with firmness and subtlety by Constantine, a Syrian priest of Apamea (p. 1040, &.C.). ^■'^ Theophanes (Chron. p. 295, 296, 300, 302, 306 [sub h.^. 6169, 6176, 6178, 6183]) and Cedrenus (p. 437, 440 [p. 765, 771, ed. Bonn]) relate the exploits of the Mardaites. The name (Mat'd, in Syriac rcbellavit) is explained by La Roque (Voyage de la .Syrie, torn. ii. p. 53), the dates are fixed by J^agi {.V). b-jd. No. 4-14, A.D. 685, No. 3, 4), and even the obscure story of the patriarch, John Maron (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient, torn. i. p. 496-520), illustrates, from the year 686 to 707, the troubles of mount Libanus,