centuries there were formidable schisms among the Jacobites, resulting in no less than four rival Patriarchs.
In 1292 the Patriarch Ignatius IV died. His name had been Philoxenus or Nimrod.[1] His election had been disputed and he is said to have been ordained by force (in 1283).[2] When he died the quarrel revived and three men were made Patriarch, each by a party. They were Constantine Metropolitan of Meliṭine, Michael Archimandrite of Gawikāth and Bdarzâke[3] Bar Wahīb of Mardīn. Michael and Bdarzâke both took the name Ignatius, according to what was already the custom (see p. 338). Constantine was killed the next year by the Kurds; Michael reigned at Sis in Cilicia, Bdarzâke at Mardīn and Ṭur 'Abdīn.[4] But other rivals spring up, so that for a time there seem to have been four lines, at Mardīn, Sis, at the monastery of Mâr Bar Ṣaumâ, and at Ṭur 'Abdīn. Then two were left, Ignatius Mas'ūd at Ṭur 'Abdīn and Ignatius Noah at Mardīn (1493-1509). Mas'ūd retired to a monastery in 1495, forbade his followers to choose a successor to him, and exhorted them to submit to Ignatius Noah. This they did; so Noah (who was Ignatius XII) at last united all the sect under his authority.[5]
During all the Middle Ages elections bought for money and bribery of all kinds were common.[6]
In the 14th century especially the Jacobites were persecuted by Moslems; from that time their sect shrank to a small body. In the 16th century they consisted of only fifty thousand poor families; in the 17th their Patriarch had five Metropolitans and about twenty bishops under him. From that time begins the Uniate Syrian Church, of which in our next volume. Meanwhile the Mafrian was no longer really the head of the Eastern Jacobites, but had become a titular Metropolitan, second to the Patriarch and something like his Vicar-General (p. 340).
Their relations with the Copts are interesting. They profess
- ↑ Ib. i. 782.
- ↑ Ib. 780.
- ↑ Bdarzâke = "The conqueror scatters," or it may be Arabic: Badr zakāh, "Splendour of Purity."
- ↑ Barhebræus, i. 782-792.
- ↑ Ib. i. 847.
- ↑ For the Jacobite successions see Chabot: "Les Évêques Jacobites" in the Revue de l'Orient. chrét. 1899, pp. 444-451, 495-511; Lequien: Or. Christ. ii. 1357-1408, and, of course, Barhebræus, vol. i.
