Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/231

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THE NAME "CHALDEAN."
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The suspension of the annual remittances to the Bishops from the Society of Lyons, together with the revolutions which have taken place in Italy and in France, and the effect which these political changes have had upon the diplomatic agents of the latter kingdom in Turkey, rendering them in many instances less zealous in forwarding the views of the Latin missionaries, have combined to weaken the attachment of the Papal Eastern communities to Rome. These influences, joined with a love of independence, and a strong traditional attachment to their ancient rights and rituals, which have been encroached upon and altered since their submission to a foreign supremacy, have tended to make the Chaldeans more and more restless under the Papal yoke; and I am persuaded that an offer of friendly assistance from our Church to enable them to carry out their desires for a radical reform would be hailed with gratitude by two or more of their Bishops, and by many of the most influential members of their community. It would not be prudent to mention names; but thus much may be said, that several of the clergy at Mosul and a number of the villages have expressed to me their readiness to enter upon the task whenever the Church of England, as a Church, shall offer to co-operate with them in restoring the Chaldeans to the pure Catholic faith, and in otherwise endeavouring to raise the standard of true and vital religion and intellectual science among them.

I shall now make a few remarks upon the two names, Nestorians and Chaldeans, which I have used throughout this work to designate the followers of the doctrine of the Two Persons in our blessed Lord after the teaching of Nestorius in the fifth century and the modern seceders therefrom to the Church of Home. Ainsworth in his "Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, &c.," styles the Nestorians "Chaldeans;"19 and Mr. Layard in his "Nineveh and its Remains" adopts the same nomenclature, which he attempts to defend. Let us now see how the statements of these authors are borne out by facts. In the first place, then, I beg to observe that the term "Chaldean" is not once used in any one of the ancient Nestorian rituals to designate a Christian community. The Gezza contains the services proper for two festivals commemorative of the Greek and Syrian Doctors, in the latter of which Nestorius,

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