| 345 of English influence. At length the combination we have described was formed, and those alone who were innocent have fallen victims to the intrigues of men who announced themselves to them as the ministers of Christ and the teachers of civilization. Strict justice compels us to state that the Americans are in this instance without blame. They established themselves first in the mountains, and their efforts were successfully directed to the improvement of the inhabitants, without any ulterior political design. But, as it is, one of the most ancient and most interesting sects in the world-interesting from its origin, from its language, and from the purity of its Christianity-has been sacrificed to the religious quarrels of American Independents, English Puseyites, and French Roman Catholics.
Letters received in Boston state that it is probable the mother and only one brother of Mar Shimon, the Nestorian Patriarch, have been slain; that three other brothers have been taken prisoners, and two have fled to Persia. Dr. Grant, whose life has been considered in danger, is safe at Mosul.'
In the above statements we see the deplorable effects of christian diplomacy, christian intrigue, and christian proselyting [proselytizing]. This much injured, and according to every christian testimony, this good, and virtuous people have been made the dupes of those fiery bigots who, when they could not accomplish their designs, in causing them to submit to their faith, have excited the jealousies of government, and offered them up as a sacrifice to their malice.-For the information of our readers, relative to this people, we publish the following from Buck's Theological Dictionary.
NESTORIANS,
"The followers of Nestorius, the bishop of Constantinople, who lived in the fifth century. They believed that in Christ were not only two natures, but two persons, of which the one was divine, even the eternal word; and the other, which was human, was the man Jesus: that these two persons had only one aspect: that the union between the Son of God and the son of man was formed in the moment of the virgin's conception, and was never to be dissolved: that it was not, however, an union of nature or of person, but only of will and affection. (Nestorius, however, it is said, denied the last position;) that Christ was therefore to be carefully distinguished from God, who dwelt in him as in his temple; and that Mary was to be called the mother of Christ, and not the mother of God.
One of the chief promoters of the Nestorian cause, was Barsumas, created bishop of Nisibis, A. D. 435. Such was his zeal and success that the Nestorians who still remain in Chaldea, Persia, Assyria, and the adjacent countries, consider him alone as their parent and founder. By him Pherozes, the Persian monarch, was persuaded to expel those Christians who adopted the operations of the Greeks, and to admit the Nestorians in their place, putting them in possession of the principal seat of ecclesiastical authority in Persia, the see of Seleucia, which the patriarch of the Nestorians had always filled, even down to our time. Barsumas also erected a school at Nisibis, from which proceeded those Nestorian doctors who, in the fifth and sixth centuries, spread abroad their tenets through Egypt, Syria, Arabia, India, Tartary, and China.
In the tenth century, the Nestorians in Chaldea, whence they are sometimes called Chaldeans, extended their spiritual conquests beyond Mount Imaus, and introduced the Christian religion into Tartary properly so called, and especially into that country called Karit, bordering on the northern part of China. The prince of that country, whom the Nestorians converted to the Christian faith, assumed, according to the vulgar tradition, the name of John after his baptism, to which he added the surname of Presbyter, from a principle of modesty; whence it is said, his successors were each of them called Presbyter John, until the time of Gengis Khan. But Mosheim observes, that the famous Prester John did not begin to reign in that part of Asia before the conclusion of the eleventh century. The Nestorians formed so considerable a body of Christians, that the missionaries of Rome were industrious in their endeavors to reduce them under the papal yoke. Innocent IV. in 1246, and Nicholas IV. in 1278, used their utmost efforts for this purpose, but without success. Till the time of pope Julius III. the Nestorians acknowledged but one patriarch, who resided first at Bagdad [Baghdad], and afterwards at Mousul; but a division arising among them, in 1551, the patriarchate became divided, at least for a time, and a new patriarch was consecrated by that pope, whose successors fixed their residence in the city of Ormus, in the mountainous parts of Persia, where they still continue, distinguished by the name of Simeon; and so far down as the seventeenth century, these patriarchs preserved their communion with the church of Rome, but seem at present to have withdrawn themselves from it. The great Nestorian pontiffs, who form the opposite party, and look with a hostile eye on this little patriarch, have, since the year 1559, been distinguished by the general denomination of Elias, and reside constantly in the city of Mousul.-
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