Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/167

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 145 .Ethiopic, are consecrated in the service of their respective churches ; and their theology is eni-iched by domestic versions ^^^ both of tile scriptures and of the most popular fathers. After a period of thirteen hundred and sixty years, the spark of con- troversy, first kindled by a sermon of Nestorius, still burns in the bosom of the East, and the hostile communions still main- tain the faith and discipline of their founders. In the most abject state of ignorance, poverty, and servitude, the Nes- torians and Monophy sites reject the spiritual supremacy of Rome, and cherish the toleration of their Turkish masters, which allows them to anathematize, on one hand, St. Cyril and the synod of Ephesus, on the other, pope Leo and the council of Chalcedon. The weight which they cast into the downfall of the Eastern empire demands our notice, and the reader may be amused with the various prospects of I. The Nestorians ; II. The Jacobites ; ^^ ' III. The Maronites ; IV. The Armenians ; V. The Copts ; and VT. The Abyssinians. To the three former, the Syriac is common ; but of the latter, each is discriminated by the use of a national idiom. Yet the modern natives of Armenia and Abyssinia would be incapable of conversing with their ancestors ; and the Christians of Egypt and Syria, who reject the religion, have adopted the language, of the Arabians. The lapse of time has seconded the sacerdotal arts ; and in the East, as well as in the West, the Deity is addressed in an obsolete tongue, unknown to the majority of the congregation. I. Both in his native and his episcopal province, the heresy l The Nesto- of the unfortunate Nestorius was speedily obliterated. The Oriental bishops, who at Ephesus had resisted to his face the arrogance of Cyril, were mollified by his tardy concessions. The same prelates, or their successors, subscribed, not without a murmur, the decrees of Chalcedon ; the power of the Mono- ^^^ I shill not enrich my ignorance with the spoils of Simon, Walton, Mill, Wetstein, Asseniannus, Ludolphus, La Croze, whom I have consulted with some care. It appears, i. That, of all the versions which are celebrated by the fathers, it is doubtful whether any are now extant in their pristine integrity. 2. Tliot the Syriac has the best claim ; and that the consent of the Oriental sects is a proof that it is more ancient than their schism. ^'• In the account of the Monophysites and Nestoiuans, I am deeply indebted to the Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana of Joseph Simon Assemannus. That learned Maronite was dispatched in the year 1715 by pope Clement XI. to visit the monasteries of Egypt and Syria, in search of Mss. His four folio volumes, published at Rome 1719-1728, contain a part only, though perhaps the most valuable, of his extensive project. As a native and as a scholar, he possessed the Syriac literature; and, though a dependent of Rome, he wishes to be moderate and candid. VOL. V. 10