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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
The earliest extant sources of Syrian Christianity reveal a powerful spirit of self-consciousness for independence. This desire is imprinted on every page of the historical records. That which stands at the very forefront of Tatian's thought is profoundly instructive for our purposes: it is his dislike, nay more his hatred, fore everything bearing a Greek or Roman label. This spirit shows itself in whatever direction we look. Syrian gnosis is the least hellenized of all. The pattern of Christian life carries its own attributes of sovereignty in every respect. Autonomy is the hallmark of the early Syrian conception of the church. Theological thought travels along quite independent lines in accord with that genius—even in the works of Aphrahat written decades after the Council of Nicea.
1. See Vööbus, A., History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient: A Contribution to the History of Culture in the Near East, I (Louvain, 1958), CSCO Subsidia, 14, pp. 31ff.Google Scholar
2. See Vööbus, A., “Methodologisches zum Studium der Anweisungen Aphrahats,” Oriens Christianus, 46 (1962), pp. 25ff.Google Scholar
3. See Vööbus, A., History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient, II (Louvain, 1960), CSCO Subsidia, 17, pp. 314f.Google Scholar
4. Ibid., pp. 256ff, 292ff.
5. It is with awe and pride that the Syrians at the high-water mark of this advance became convinced that God himself spoke Syriac.
6. See Vööbus, A., History of Syriac Literature, I (in press).Google Scholar
7. Vööbus, A., History of the School of Nisibis (Louvain, 1965), CSCO Subsidia, 26.Google Scholar
8. See Vööbus, , History of Asceticism. ……, I, pp. 209ff; II, pp. 70ff.Google Scholar
9. See Vööbus, A., Syrische Kanonessammlungen: Ein Beitrag zur Quellenkunde. I: Westsyrische Originalurkunden, 1, A (Louvain, 1970), CSCO, 35, pp. 165ff.Google Scholar
10. See Lebon, J., Le monophysisme sévérien (Louvain, 1909).Google Scholar
11. Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum, ed. E. Schwartz, (Berolini et Lipsiae, 1914ff.), 3, pp. 76f.Google Scholar
12. Ibid., 3, pp. 77ff.
13. About the discovery of a new source on Severus, see Vööbus, A., “Découverte d'un memra de Giwargi, évêque des arabes, sur Sévère d'Antioche,” Le Muséon, 84 (1971), pp. 433ffGoogle Scholar. About the discovery of another new source on Severus, see Vööbus, A., “Ein Panegyrikus von Severus von Antiochein von Qyriaqos,” Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft, 42 (in press).Google Scholar
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15. More than forty bishops were expelled from their sees (Chronicon anonymum ad A.D. 846 pertinens), ed. E. W. Brooks (Louvain, 1904), CSCO, Syr. 5, pp. 225ff.Google Scholar
16. Incerti auctoris chronicon anonymum Pseudo-Dionysianum vulgo dictum, ed. J. B. Chabot (Louvain, 1933), CSCO, Syr. 53, p. 27.Google Scholar
17. Rhetor, Zacharias, Historia ecclesiastica, ed. Brooks, E. W. (Parisiis, 1924), CSCO, Syr. 39, p. 82.Google Scholar
18. Candidates from the Syrian Orient even went as far as Constantinople to obtain ordination; “and he would return perhaps after a year of days without gaining any satisfaction from his labor, as I saw happen to many” (John, of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints, ed. Brooks, E. W., 2. Patrologia Orientalis, 18 (Paris, 1924), p. 522).Google Scholar
19. That they consecrated some of them secretly was of very little help in view of the situation (Ibid., pp. 515f.).
20. Regarding him see also the discovery of an unknown biography of Jaqob of Serug. Vööbus, A., Handschriftliche Überlieferung der Mēmrē-Dichtung des Jacqōb von Serūg: Sammlungen, 1 (Louvain, 1972), CSCO Subsidia 39, pp.5ffGoogle Scholar. He was banned in 521 (Eliya, , Vita Johannis episcopi Tellae, ed. Brooks, E. W. (Parisiis, 1907), CSCO, Syr. 7, pp. 80ff)Google Scholar. After this he resided for some time in the Monastery of Mar Zakkai near Callinicus.
21. John, of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints, 2, pp. 516ff.Google Scholar
22. Vita Johannis episcopi Tellae, pp. 1ff.
23. John, of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints, 2, p. 519.Google Scholar
24. Ibid., pp. 519f.
25. Ibid., p. 518.
26. The Oriental lightheartedness in dealing with numbers is shown by the figure given — 170,000! (Ibid., p. 522).
27. Mika'ēl, , Chronique, ed. Chabot, J. B. (Paris, 1910), 4, p. 270.Google Scholar
28. Eliya, , Vita Johannis episcopi Tellae, pp. 23ff.Google Scholar
29. This company of about seventy monks came from the monasteries of Amid and its surroundings (John, of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints, 2, p. 521).Google Scholar
30. Ibid., p. 520.
31. Vööbus, A., Syrische Kanonessammlungen: Ein Beitrag sur Quellenkunde, I, 1, A, pp. 156ff; 1, B (Louvain, 1971), pp. 263ff.Google Scholar
32. Canon I, op. cit., 1, A, p. 158.
33. It was necessary to curb the wild and the exotic in ecclesiastical practice and to specify the qualifications of monks to make them eligible for the priesthood (see Canon XI). See Syriac and Arabic Documents, ed. A. Vööbus (Stockholm, 1960), p. 58.Google Scholar
34. See Vööbus, , Syrische Kanonessammlungen, I, 1, A, pp. 156ffGoogle Scholar; 1, B, p. 267.
35. Rhetor, Zacharias, Historia ecclesiastica, II, 6,2, p. 82.Google Scholar
36. They were able to stay there for more than a year.
37. At first they did not go; they wrote to the emperor and received a new invitation.
38. This document is preserved in Rhetor, Zacharias, Historia ecclesiastica, 9.15, pp. 115ff.Google Scholar
39. Inter alia it rejects Eutyches on the one hand and the council of Chalcedon on the other.
40. Even cells were created in this place to satisfy the needs of the reclusi (see John, of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints, 2, pp. 676ff).Google Scholar
41. de Maronia, Innocentius, Epistola de collatione cum Severianis habita, Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum, 4.2, pp. 169ff.Google Scholar
42. Both parties were represented by a six-man delegation. The Monophysites were represented by Sargis of Cyrrhos, Thomas of Germanicia, Philoxenos of Doliche, Peter of Theodosiopolis, Johannan of Tella and Nonnos of Circesion.
43. See Stein, E., Histoire du Bas-Empire (Paris-Bruxelles-Amsterdam, 1949), 2, pp. 378 ff.Google Scholar
44. See Schwartz, , Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum, 4.2, p. xxvi.Google Scholar
45. John, of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints, 17, pp. 18ffGoogle Scholar. See Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum, 3, pp. 139, 148, 181.
46. In 553 they utilized the panic caused by an earthquake in order to stage a mass demonstration against the Chalcedonians (see Chronicon paschale, ed. L. Dindorf (Bonnae, 1832), p. 629).Google Scholar
47. Consecrated in June 535.
48. In the year 535.
49. He was able to promote the cause of Monophysitism for one year. He also influenced the newly appointed patriarch, Anthimus.
50. He was invited to Constantinople to participate in the conference.
51. The man who organized the band of monks and who directed the agitation on a large scale was perhaps Menas whose merits earned the patriarchal seat. This has been suggested by E. Schwartz.
52. Monks in Constantinople, used as an assault detachment, sent a delegation to Rome (Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum, 3, p. 141).
53. Particularly Palestine and Syria II.
54. Rhetor, Zacharias, Historia ecclesiastica, 9.19, pp. 135ff.Google Scholar
55. Ibid., 9.19, pp. 136ff.
56. John, of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints, 2, p. 521Google Scholar. See also a letter written about 530 in Draquet, R., “Une pastorale anti-julianiste des environs de I 'année 530,” Le Muséon, 40 (1927), pp. 83ffGoogle Scholar. This addition rests on Ms. Br. Mus. Add. 14,663, which unfortunately has preserved only the first part of the document. A tireless search for new manuscript sources has revealed the only complete text preserved in Ms. Mardin Orth. 350. See Vööbus, A., Syriac Manuscripts from the Treasury of the Monastery of Mär Hananyd, or Deir Za'f arän (Stockholm) (in press).Google Scholar
57. Whether Justinian indeed did all this because he saw in the pope a help against Theodora (see Schwartz, E., Zur Kirchenpolitik Justinians (München, 1940), pp. 44f.)Google Scholar cannot be discussed here.
58. According to the official account of the Roman curia (Gesta pontificorum Romanorum, ed. T. Mommsen (Berolini, 1874), p. 142)Google Scholar, the orthodox pope conquered the tyrannical heretic Justinian. This is a distortion; there was no resistance at all.
59. The consecration by the pope on March 13, 536, was itself an unheard-of event.
60. Epistolae imperatorum, pontificum, aliorum, ed. O. Günther (Vindobonae, 1895-1898), CSEL, 35, pp. 338ff.Google Scholar
61. May 2 to June 4, 536.
62. Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum, 3, pp. 26ff.
63. This was regardless of the assurance of guarantee given to him. However, Theodora salvaged him from the worst and helped his escape.
64. August 6, 536, which sanctioned the decrees of the synod.
65. Novella XLII of August 6, 536.
66. For this crime his hand had to be chopped off.
67. Concerning this man, see Lebon, J., “Ephrem d'Amid, patriarche d'Antioche,” Mélanges Ch. Moeller (Louvain, 1914), 1, pp. 197ffGoogle Scholar.; Downey, G., “Ephraemius, Patriarch of Antioch,” Church History, 7 (1938), pp. 365ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
68. Namely Aleppo, Qenneshrin, Mabbug, Serug, Edessa, Shura, Callinicus and the rest of the frontier area, Reshaina, Amid and Tella.
69. Rhetor, Zacharias, Historia ecclesiastica, 10.1, p. 175.Google Scholar
70. Ibid., 10.1, pp. 174ff.
71. See a moving account of the horrors and endless vexations of the monasteries of Amid in John, of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints, pp. 607ff.Google Scholar
72. Some were burned alive (Ibid., p. 524). About Presbyter Qura of Amid, Rhetor, Zacharias, Historia ecclesiastica, 10.3, p. 173.Google Scholar
73. Ibid., 10.1, pp. 174f.
74. The extraordinarily cold winter multiplied the agony of the calamities, and many died (Ibid., 10.1, pp. 174f.).
75. Eliya, , Vita Johannis episcopi Tellae, pp. 58ff.Google Scholar
76. He was detected by some functionaries with the aid of a “strangulator of the robbers” (Malalas, Johannes, Chronographia, ed. Dindorf, L. (Bonnae, 1831), p. 382).Google Scholar
77. He was dragged off to Antioch where he spent the remainder of his life in imprisonment and died on February 6, 538.
78. About him see Vööbus, , Syrische Kanonessammlungen, I, 1, A, p. 178ff.Google Scholar
79. Under the pretext of illness Johannan obtained permission from Theodora to live separately in a villa. From this base he slipped out on his secret mission tours (John, of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints, 2, pp. 530ff.).Google Scholar
80. From Cyprus he sent a letter with the canons to the Syrian abbots in the Orient (see Vööbus, , Syrische Kanonessammnlungen, I, 1, A, pp. 175ff.).Google Scholar
81. Mika'ēl, , Chronique, 4, p. 309.Google Scholar
82. John, of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints, 2, p. 522.Google Scholar
83. Op. cit. 3, pp. 153f., p. 228. About the discovery of new manuscript sources on Jaqob Burdana, see Vööbus, A., “Neue handschriftliche Funde über die Biographie des Ja' qōb Būrdcānā”, Ostkirchliche Studien, 22 (1973).Google Scholar
84. Hirtha of the Arabs, op. cit., 2, p. 693.
85. Op. cit., 3, p. 154.
86. He was from Tella and was educated in the Monastery of Phesiltha (op. cit., 2, p. 690).
87. His territory extended from the Persian border to Constantinople (Ibid., p. 693).
88. Op. cit., 3, p. 154.
89. Op. cit., 2, p. 623.
90. Ibid., p. 623.
91. John of Ephesus believes that 100,000 is not too high a figure for the number of his ordinations (Ibid., pp. 696f).
92. The Synodicon in the West Syrian Tradition, ed. A. Vööbus, CSCO (in press).Google Scholar
93. The time granted for his work was quite lengthy. He died on July 30, 578. About the bishops he consecrated, see Honigmann, E., Évêques et évêchés monophysites d'Asie antérieure en VIe siècle (Louvain, 1951), CSCO Subsidia, 2, pp. 178ff.Google Scholar
94. John, of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints, 2, p. 697.Google Scholar
95. Eugenios of Isauria and Conon of Cilicia. The first became the metropolitan of Tarsus (Ibid., p. 697; see op. cit., 2, pp. 155f.).
96. A large number of consecrated bishops appears in connection with the time of the great pest, Pseudo-Dionysios, (Historia ecclesiastica, p. 110)Google Scholar. It has been wrongly assumed that this section is simply a copy of the work of John of Ephesus.
97. About this question, see A. van Roev. “Les débuts de l'église jacobite,” in Grillmeier, A.–Bacht, H., Das Konzil von Chalkedon, 2 (Würzburg, 1953).Google Scholar
98. The consecration of Sargis as patriarch of Antioch has been placed in 538 (Šanda, A. in Philoponus, Johannes, Opuscula monophysitica (Beryti Phoenicum, 1930), p. 6)Google Scholar, about 547–50 according to Jü;licher, A., “Zur Geschichte der Monophvsitenkirche.” ZntW, 19 (1925), p. 37Google Scholar. But this event actually took place later, about 557 (see Brooks, E. W., “The Patriarch Paul of Antioch and the Alexandrian Schism of 575,” in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 30 (1930), p. 469).Google Scholar
99. About this document and the newly unearthed manuscript sources, see Vööbus, , Syrische Kanonessammlungen, I,1, A, pp. 167ff.Google Scholar
100. Mīka'ēl, , Chronique, 4, p. 312.Google Scholar
101. See also Honigmann, , Évêques et évêchés monophysites, pp. 171f.Google Scholar
102. John, of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints, 3, pp. 156ff.Google Scholar
103. Jaqob consecrated bishops and archbishops also in Egypt, Asia Minor and the island of Chios.
104. When he consecrated his former fellow brother of the Monastery of Phesiltha is not clear. In any case this must have taken place about 558: shortly before that time Johannes Philoponos dedicated his work to him (Philoponos, Johannes, Opuscula monophysitica, pp. 81ff.).Google Scholar
105. Sargis died about three years later. It was Theodosius, the former patriarch of Alexandria, who after a sedisvacance of three years wrote to Jaqob and asked to consecrate Paul to the vacant seat of Antioch (Documenta ad origines monophysitarum illustrandas, ed. J. B. Chabot (Parisiis, 1908), CSCO Syr. 18, pp. 89f).Google Scholar
