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Besides the regular monastic priests, there are several convents in Mesopotamia, the monks of which are not priests, but style themselves onks of the order of St. Anthony. The habit of these Nestorian monks is an open black cassock, which is girt round them with a leathern surcingle, and a gown over it, the sleeves of which are very large. They wear no capuche, but a purple turban instead of it. At midnight, morning, and evening, they repeat the church service, but spend the remainder of the day in tilling their grounds.

Churches.

When

The churches belonging to the Nestorians are divided by balustrades, or rails; and one part of them is always allotted for the peculiar service of the women. The font is erected on the south side. they say their prayers and pay their adoration to the Supreme Being, they always turn their faces towards the east. Before the entrance into these churches, there is, generally, a large court, with a very small door. This court was originally the place appointed for the reception of penitents, and was made use of as a bar to te profane, in order to prevent them hearing and seeing the different proceedings and ceremonies of the Christian assemblies.

Independently of the fasts which are generally observed by the Christians of the Greek Church, the Nestorians keep one in particular, which continues three days; it is called the Fast of Nineveh, Fast of because they therein imitate the repenting Ninevites, who did penance for their sins for three days after the preaching of the prophet Jonas. This fast is the introduction to their Lent.

Nineveh.

The Christians of Syria and Mesopotamia have added to their calendar one festival in commemoration of the penitent thief, which is not observed by the Roman Catholic Church; it is called by them LASS-ALJEMIN, that is, the Thief on the right hand. This falls upon the octave of Easter.

Religious Bathing.

The bathing of the Syrian Christians in the river Jordan must be reckoned amongst their religious customs, but the ceremony itself is very idle and ridiculous. These people, however, practise it as an act of devotion, and Christians of all denominations, as Greeks, Nestorians, Copts, &c., wash themselves naked in the river with great solemnity, in commemoration of Jesus Christ and his baptism. In this instance, they concern themselves as little in regard to the difference of the sexes, as of the sects; for men and women jump promiscuously into the river, and plunge down to the bottom. Some of the most zealous devotees dip their handkerchiefs in the sacred stream; others carry a quantity of the water away with them in bottles; and the very dirt, sand, and grass that grows upon the banks, are all looked upon as sacred relics.

The nuptial ceremonies of the Syrians are very singular and remarkable. The bridegroom is conducted to the house of the bride on horseback, between two drawn swords, which are carried by two Nuptial Ceremonies. men, one before and the other behind him. The relations, friends, and acquaintance of the bride receive him with their flambeaux lighted, and music preceding them, accompanied with songs, acclamations, and other testimonies of general joy. On the wedding-night bridegroom gives his spouse an uncourteous kick, and commands her off his shoes, as a token of her submission and obedience.

When a Christian dies at Bagdad, the neighbours assemble, in order to perform his funeral obsequies. At their return from the place of interment, a handsome collation is always prepared for their refreshment at the house of the deceased, where every one is welcome without distinction, insomuch that sometimes a

Funeral Obsequies.

hundred and fifty, or more, appear at these funeral entertainments. The next day, the company meet in order to pray together over the grave of the deceased, which is likewise repeated on the third day; when there is another public entertainment provided for them, and in general the same welcome is given to all as before. These ceremonies are repeated on the seventh day, the fifteenth, the thirtieth, and the fortieth, after the decease. At Damas, the Christian women sing and weep over their dead. Thevenot saw a company of these female mourners, accompanied by two men with lighted candles in their hands, howling over the dead, and beating their breasts to express their sorrow. Every now and then they made a halt; then fell into a ring, and snapping their fingers, as if they were playing with castanets, danced and sung to the sound, whilst others kept time in hideous howlings. The ceremony concluded with mutual testimonies of respect; after which they departed, dancing and snapping their fingers as before. Nearly the same ceremonies are observed at Rama on similar occasions. Father Le Brun says, "that they weep for about half an hour over the grave of their deceased friends; then rise and fall into a ring, as if they were going to dance to the brawls.”—Two of them after this quit the ring, and planting themselves in the middle, there make a thousand grimaces, howling and clapping their hands. After this frightful noise, they sit down to drown their sorrow in tears. All the female mourners that Le Brun saw, relieved each other. Those who had finished went home, and others supplied their place. When these women stood up in order to form themselves into a ring, they covered their heads with a black veil.

Sec. 3.-Christians of St. Thomas.

With regard to the origin of the Christians of St. Thomas, who inhabit the coast of Malabar and Travancore, there exists much difference of opinion. The Portuguese, who first opened the navigation of Origin. India, in the fifteenth century, and found them seated there for ages, assert that St. Thomas, the apostle, preached the gospel in India, and that these are the descendants of his proselytes.

The Christians of St. Thomas declare themselves descendants of one MAR THOMAS or THOMAS CANA, an Armenian merchant, who settled at

Thomas.

Opinion of the Congranor. Mar Thomas married two wives, and had Christians of St. issue by each. The children by the former were heirs to all his effects and lands, which were situate in the southern part of the kingdom of Congranor; and those of the latter, who was a negro-slave converted to the Christian faith, inherited the settlement of which their father died possessed in the north. In process of time, his descendants became very numerous, and constituted two considerable branches, which were never united nor allied to each other. The issue of his first wife, from whom the nobility are descended, look down with disdain on the Christians of the other branch, and carry their aversion to so

high a pitch, as to separate themselves from their communion, and to contemn the ministry of their priests. Mar Thomas, whom these Christians look upon as their common parent, flourished, according to the general notion, in the tenth century; but M. la Croza thinks that he lived in the sixth. These Christians enjoyed so many valuable privileges under the sovereigns of the country, and grew so powerful, that they at length elected kings out of their own nation and religion. They continued in this state of independence till the death of one of their sovereigns, who leaving no heir to the throne, they adopted a young idolatrous prince who was his neighbour, and appointed him to be his successor.

Dr. Buchanan's account.

The Rev. Dr. Buchanan, vice-provost of the college of Fort-William, who visited these Christians in 1806, and counts fifty-five churches in Malayala,* denies that they are Nestorians, and observes that their doctrines " are contained in a very few articles, and are not at variance in essentials with the doctrines of the church of England. They are usually denominated Jacobita,+ but they differ in ceremonial from the church of that name in Syria, and indeed from any existing church in the world. Their proper designation, and that which is sanctioned by their own use, is Syrian Christians or The Syrian Church of Malayala." Yet the Doctor remarks, that they acknowledge "the Patriarch of Antioch," and that they are connected with certain churches in Mesopotamia and Syria, 215 in number, and labouring under circumstances of discouragement and distress; but he does not say whether it is to the Greek or the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch that they are subject.‡

In respect to their religious ceremonies they observe at Easter a kind of public collation, which bears some affinity with the Agapa of the primitive Christians. This feast or entertainment consists Religious Customs. generally of nothing but a few herbs, fruits, and rice; and is made in the fore-court before the church-porch. The priests at those times have a double, and the bishop a triple portion of what is provided. To these Agape, we must add another ceremony, called by the Christians of St. Thomas their CASTURE, which is said to be an emblem, or symbol, of brotherly love. During the time they are in the church, they take hold of the hands of one of their most ancient CACANARES, or priests, and in that posture receive his benediction.

These Christians have holy water placed at their church-doors, with which they make the sign of the cross, repeating at the same time a prayer in commemoration of Nestorius. It is merely a little common water mixed with a small quantity of mould, taken out of the road through which St. Thomas had travelled. In case they have no such mould, they throw a few grains of frankincense into it. We have before observed, that they have not only crosses, but pictures or representations of them, hung up in their churches; and the priests likewise carry a

Malayala comprehends the mountains and the whole region within them, from Cape Cormorin to Cape Illi: whereas the province of Malabar commonly so called, contains only the northern districts, not including the country of Travancore.

Their Liturgy, Dr. B. tells us, is derived from that of the early church of Antioch, called "Liturgia Jacobi Apostoli."-And, according to Mr. Gibbon, the "Jacobites themives had rather deduce their name and pedigree from St. James the Apostle."

All religions.

crucifix in procession, obliging the devotees who assist to salute it. This act of devotion has been embraced even by the Pagans. There are also crosses erected not only in their streets and high roads, but in the most solitary places. They are erected on a pedestal, in which there is a hole or cavity, large enough to contain a burning lamp; and the Indians frequently contribute towards the oil that is spent to support these lamps.

The use of bells is prohibited amongst those Chaldeans who live under the authority and jurisdiction of the Indians; because the sound of those instruments, in their opinion, is offensive and incommodious to their idols: the ancient Pagans were no strangers to this idle notion.

It is a common practice among the Indian Christians, out of devotion, to lie all night in their churches; and the same custom was frequently observed by the ancient idolaters. The posture of these Indians, when they say their prayers, is prostration with their faces to the ground.

A description of their dances may be properly enough introduced in this place. The men dance by themselves, and the maidens and married women also by themselves, with all imaginable modesty and decorum. Before they begin, they not only make the sign of the cross, but sing the Lord's Prayer, with a hymn in commemoration of St. Thomas. The Indians, likewise, amongst whom these Christians live, make dancing a part of their divine worship; and it is well known that it was a principal ornament, and an essential act of devotion, at the festivals of the ancient Pagans. With regard to their songs, the subject of them is always either the virtues of their saints, or the heroic actions of their ancestors.

General account.

Sec. 4.-Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Jacobites. Were we to include under the denomination of Jacobites all the MoNOPHYSITES of the Levant,—that is, all those who are charged with the heresy of acknowledging but one nature in JESUS CHRIST,-it must be acknowledged that their sect would be very extensive; for then we must reckon the Armenians, Cophti, and the Abyssinians, amongst the number. But there are very few who can strictly and justly be termed Jacobites, and they, for the most part, reside in Syria and Mesopotamia. There are not above 40 or 45,000 families of their persuasion; and even they themselves are divided in point of principle; some of them being reconciled to the Church of Rome, and others continuing in a state of separation. The latter have two patriarchs, who generally act in direct opposition to each other: one of them resides at Caremit, and the other at Derzapharam; independently of whom, there is another patriarch attached to the Church of Rome, who resides at Aleppo, and is dependant on, and absolutely under the jurisdiction of the court of Rome. As to the articles of their belief, the Monophysites, in general, (whether Armenians, Cophti, or Abyssinians,) maintain the doctrine of Dioscorus, with respect to the unity of the nature and person of JESUS CHRIST, and to that degree of exactness, that, in order the more clearly to express their belief, they make the sign of the cross, according to Brerewood, with one finger only, whereas the other Easterns make use of two for this reason, they are looked upon and treated as heret e though in reality there is no other difference but in point of terms bet them and the divines of the Latin Church. This is readily acknow

Doctrines.

by the most learned men amongst them at this very day; and is evident from the conferences which Father Christopher Roderic, the pope's legate in Egypt, had with the Cophti, on the subject of reconciliation between the two churches. They ingenuously confessed, that the only reason of their making use of such terms, was purely to testify their abhorrence and detestation of the Nestorians; for that, in reality, they were of the same opinion with the Latin Church, and freely owned the two natures of JESUS CHRIST. They further insisted that the mystery of the Incarnation was more clearly explained by their asserting the unity of Christ's nature; because there is but one JESUS CHRIST, who is both God and man. On the contrary, the Latins speak of these two natures as if they were severed from one another, and did not constitute one real whole.

It is in this sense, likewise, that Dioscorus, who softened some of the harsh terms which were made use of by Eutyches, declared his opinion that JESUS CHRIST was a compound of two natures; although he was not in himself two distinct natures, "which," says Father Simon, "appears an orthodox notion:" for they will not acknowledge that there were two distinct natures in JESUS CHRIST, for fear of establishing two Christs. The whole of this mighty disagreement arises, however, from the different construction which each party puts on those two terms, nature and person. To which may be added, the ambition of not swerving in the least from a position once laid down, and which was the principal reason why Eutyches maintained his opinion with so much obstinacy: from which it appears, that the terms he uses ought not to be understood in their most strict and rigorous sense, but be construed and restrained to that idea which he entertained of admitting but one CHRIST, and consequently but one nature, after the union of the two natures, the divine and human, in such a manner as is incomprehensible to our weak understandings.

In regard to all other points, relating either to the faith or ceremonies of the Jacobites, the accounts which Brerewood has given us of them are not always strictly just. For instance, they neither deny a Ceremonies. state of purgatory, nor reject prayers for the dead, as he peremptorily asserts upon the authority of Thomas the Jesuit; but their notions in those particulars are the same as those of the Greeks and other oriental nations. Neither is it true that they consecrate the sacrament with unleavened bread; the Armenians, and, according to Alvares, the Ethiopians, only excepted; for the true Jacobites, of whom we are speaking, make use of leavened bread. Gregory XIII. who purposed to found a college at Rome for the Jacobites, there being one antecedently erected for the encouragement of the Maronites, would no doubt have indulged them, as well as the Greeks, with the administration of the sacrament with leavened bread; but in regard to confession, the assertion that it is not practised amongst them, is likewise a gross mistake; for as it is not looked upon by them as of divine institution, it is consequently very much neglected. Brerewood says that they confess their sins to God alone, and not to a priest, except upon some extraordinary occasion. His assertion, however, about circumcision, must be false, unless he means to refer to a few amongst the Cophti and the Abyssinians; and even they look on it rather as an ancient custom than a religious ceremony.

A great distinction ought, however, to be made between the Jacobites,

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