doctrine in question. This is what happened in Persia. The Christians imbibed Mazdæan ideas against celibacy. Side by side with Nestorianism comes a second taint on the Church of Persia—the total abolition of celibacy of the clergy. Alone among the old Churches that of Persia dropped all laws of celibacy. This Synod of Beth Lapaṭ began. It declared marriage lawful for everyone, even for priests after ordination, even for bishops. And Bar Ṣaumâ set the example by marrying a nun.[1]
But the Synod of Beth Lapaṭ was a schismatical act of Bar Ṣaumâ against the Katholikos. He hoped to become Katholikos himself after Babwai's execution. Probably, he would have done so; but in that year his protector King Plruz died (484), and he lost his chance. Instead Acacius[2] was appointed, as usual, by the king (Balash, 484–488). Bar Ṣaumâ would not recognize him. But in 485 another synod was held at Beth ‘Adrai, and here he had to submit to him. The Synod of Beth Lapaṭ was annulled; it has no place among the canons of the Nestorian Church. However, at Beth ‘Adrai a confession was drawn up which is at least suspect of Nestorianism,[3] and the abolition of celibacy was maintained. From now these two things go hand in hand throughout Persia. We may also notice that Zeno's Henotikon (482, below, p. 193) had just been published, so that, more than ever, Monophysism seemed the religion of the empire, and the only alternative. In 486 Acacius held another synod at Seleucia, in which he condemned Monophysism[4] and renewed the abolition of celibacy. Soon after this Acacius was sent on an embassy to Constantinople. Here he declared that he was no Nestorian, had only rejected Monophysism, and was quite willing to excommunicate Bar Ṣaumâ. When he came back, Bar Ṣaumâ was dead (between 492–495), killed, it is said, by monks with the
- ↑ In 499 another synod declared that "the Katholikos and the minor priests and monks may marry one wife and beget children according to the Scriptures," Wallis Budge: The Book of Governors, i. p. cxxxii.
- ↑ Aḳaḳ, a fellow-disciple of Ibas at Edessa, also one of the Persians who fled from the empire. They all had wonderful nicknames; Acacius was the "Strangler of Oboles," Bar Ṣaumâ the "Swimmer among Nests," and so on (see Labourt, op. cit., for a collection of these names, p. 132).
- ↑ Quoted in Labourt: op. cit. p. 262–263.
- ↑ The formula is in Labourt, pp. 147–148; it is correct from a Catholic point of view.
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