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
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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.
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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).
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37. At first they did not go; they wrote to the emperor and received a new invitation.
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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.
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59. The consecration by the pope on March 13, 536, was itself an unheard-of event.
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.).
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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.
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