Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/831

 NE TEMERE

759

NETHERLANDS

Nestorian Church; it, wanted theological schools of its own, in order that its clergy might be able to hold their own in theological argument, without being tempted to study in the orthodox centres of the East or in the numerous and brilliant schools which the Monophysites were now establishing. Barsa<ima opened a school at Nisibis, which was to become more famous than its parent at Edessa. The rector was Narses the Leprous, a most prolific writer, of whom little has been preserved. This university consisted of a single college, with the regular life of a monastery. Its rules are still preserved (see Nisibis). At one time we hear of 800 students. Their great doctor was Theodore of Mopsuestia. His commentaries were studied in the translation made by Ibas and were treated almost as infallible. Theodore's Canon of Scripture was adopted, as we learn from " De Partibus DiviniE Legis" of JuniUus, (P. L., LXVIII, and ed. by Kihn), a work which is a translation and adaptation of the published lectures of a certain Paul, professor at Nisibis. The method is Aristotelean, and must be connected with the Aristotelean revival which in the Greek world is associated chiefly with the name of Philoponus, and in the West with that of Boethius. The fame of this theological seminary was so great that Pope Agapetus and Cassiodorus wished to found one in Italy of a similar kind. The attempt was im- possible in those troublous times; but Cassiodorus's monastery at Vivarium was inspired by the example of Nisibis. There were other less important schools at Seleucia and elsewhere, even in small towns.

Barsatima died between 492 and 495, Acacius in 49(5 or 497. Narses seems to have lived longer. The Nestorian Church which they founded, though cut off from the Catholic Church by political exigencies, never intended to do more than practise an autonomy like that of the Eastern patriarchates. Its heresy con- .sisted mainly in its refu-sal to accept the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon. It is interesting to note that neither Junilius nor Cassiodorus speaks of the school of Nisibis as heretical. They were probably aware that it was not quite orthodox, but the Per- .sians who appeared at the Holy Places as pilgrims or at Constantinople must have seemed like Catholics on account of their hatred to the Monophysites, who were the great enemy in the East. The official teach- ing of the Nestorian Church in the time of King Chosroes (Khusran) II (died 628) is well presented to us in the treatise "De unione" composed by the energetic monk Babai the Great, preserved in a MS. from which Labourt has made extracts (pp. 280-87). Babai denies that hyposlasis and person have the same meaning. A hypostasis is a singular essence (oi)<ria) subsisting in its independent being, numerically one, separate from others by its accidents. A person is that property of a hypostasis which distinguishes it from others (this seems to be rather "personality" than "person") as being itself and no other, so that Peter is Peter and Paul is Paul. As hypostases Peter and Paul are not distinguished, for they have the same specific qualities, but they are distinguished by their particular quaUties, their wisdom or otherwise, their height or their temperament, etc. And, as the singular property which the hypostasis possesses is not the hypostasis itself, the singular property which dis- tinguishes it is called "penson".

It would seem that Babai means that "a man" {individuuni vagum) is the hypostasis, but not the person, until we add the individual characteristics by which he is known to be Peter or Paul. This is not by any means the same as the distinction between na- ture and hypostasis, nor can it be asserted that by hyposlasis Babai meant what we should call specific nature, and by person what we should call hypostasis. The theory seems to be an unsuccessful attempt to justify the traditional Nestorian formula: two hypos- tases in one person. As to the nature of the union,

Babai falls on the Antiochene saying that it is ineffable, and prefers the usual metaphors — assumption, in habitation, temple, vesture, junction — to any defini- tion of the union. He rejects the conimunicatio idio- malum as involving confusion of the natures, but allows a certain "interchange of names", which he explains with great care.

The Persian Christians were called "Orientals", or "Nestorians", by their neighbours on the West. They gave to themselves the name of Chaldeans; but this denomination is usually reserved at the present day for the large portion of the existing remnant which has been united to the Catholic Church. The present condition of these Uniats, as well as of the branch in India known as "Malabar Christians", is described under Chaldean Christians. The history of the Nestorian Church must be looked for under Per.sia. The Nestorians also penetrated into China and Mongolia and left behind them an inscribed stone, set up in Feb., 781, which describes the introduction of Christianity into China from Persia in the reign of T'ai-tsong (627-49). The stone is at Chou-Chih, fifty miles south-west of Si-an Fu, which was in the seventh century the capital of China. It is known as "the Nestorian Monument".

For bibliography see Cvril of Alexandria; Ephesus, Coun- ciL of; Dioscurus, Bishop of .\lexandria. Here may be added, on I: Gahnier, Opera Marii Mercatoris, II (Paris, 1673); P. L., XLVIII. 669; Tillemont, Memoires, XIV; Assemani, Bibtiolheca Orient., Ill, pt. 2 (Rome, 1728); Loofs in Realency- ktopddie, s. v. Nestorius; Fendt, Die Christotogie des Nestorius (Munich, 1910); Batiffol in Revue Biblique, IX (1900), 329-53; MEKCATiin Thealog. Revue, VI (1907), 63; Lvdtke iaZeitschr./iir Kirctiengesch., XXIX (1908), 385.

On the early struggle with Nestorianism: Assemani, Bihliotheca Orientalis, III, parts 1 and 2 (Rome, 1728) ; DouclN, Histoire du Neslorianisme (1689).

On the Persian Nestorians: the Monophysite historians Michael Syrus, ed. Cbabot (Paris, 1899) and Barhebr.eus, edd. Abbeloos and Lamy (Paris. 1872-77); the Mohammedan Sahh.vstani, ed. Cureton (London, 1842); and especially the rich information in the Nestorian texts themselves; Gismondi, Maris Amri et Slibce de patriarchis Nestorianis commentaria, e codd. Vat.; the Liber Turris (Arabic and Latin, 4 parts, Rome, 1896-99); Bedjan, Histoire de Mar Jab-Alaha {IS17), patriarche, et de Raban Sauma (2nd ed., Paris, 1895) ; Synodicon of Ebedjesu in Mai, Scriptorum vett. nova, coll., X (1838); Braun. Das Buck der Synhados (Stuttgart and Vienna, 1900) ; Chabot, Synodicon Ori- entate, ou recueil de Synodes Nestoriens in Notes et Extraits, Synhados (Stuttgart and Vienna, 1900); Chabot, Synodicon Ori- entate, ou recueil de Synodes Ntslurinis in Notes et Extraits, XXXVn(Pari3,1902);GoiDl, Os/.';-. .■' '- I. h undBischo/sitze in Zeitschrift der MmgenlUndl. <,, ' 'M. XLIII, 388;

Idem, Gli statuti delta scuola di .\ / - ' ''xt) in Giornale

delta Soc. Asiatica Ital., IV; Adv\i S. in u, ( In "u nine de Seert, his- toire Nestorienne (Arabic and French), an<I (.'iiuse de la fondation des ecotes (Edessa and Nisibis) in Patrologia Orientalis, IV (Paris, 1908) ; Budge ed.. The Book of Governors, by Thomas Bishop of Marga, Sip (Syriac and Eng.) (2 vols.. London, 1893). The best general history is by Labourt, he Christianisme dans VEmpire Perse (Paris, 1904). — See also Petermann and Kessler in Real- encyklop., s. v. Nestorianer; Funk in Kirchenlez., a. v. Nestorius und die Nestorianer; Duchesne, Hist, ancienne de t'Eglise, III (Paris, 1910). — On the "Nestorian Monument", see Parker in Dublin Review, CXXXI (1902), 2, p. 380; Carus and Holm, The Nestorian Monument (London, 1910).

John Chapman.

Ne Temere. See Clandestinity; Makrtagb, Moral and Canonical Aspect of.

Netherlands (Germ. Niederlamle; Vt. Pays Bas), The. — The Netherlands, or Low Covuitries, as organ- ized Ijy Ch;u-lcs V, under whom the Burgundian era ended, comprised practically the territory now in- cludcii in Holland and Belgium, thenceforth known as the Spanish Netherlands. For the previous history of this country see Burgundy and Charles V. Shorn of the northern provinces by the secession of Holland as the Commonwealth of the United Provinces (L')79), the Spanish Netherlands, on their cession to Austria (1713-14) were reduced to the provinces now em- braced in Belgium, subsequently called the Austrian Netherlands.

The Spanish Netherlands. — When Philip II by the abdication of his father, Charles V (q. v.), became sovereign of the LowXIountries and took up the gov- ernment of the Seventeen Provinces, he found them at