Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/55

43 FROOF FURNISHED BY ASSEMANI. 43 to Christianity long before the time of this Nestorian patriarch. How, in fact, could a metropolitan see be created in a country, in which Christianity had not made considerable progress, and in which there were not already several episcopal sees ? The creation of a metropolitan supposes a flourishing church already esta- blished ; and this could not be till after a considerable lapse of time. But if we suppose, with the authors referred to by Ebedjesus, that the metropolitan see of China was founded by Achoeus, Archbishop of Seleucia, towards the year 411, we are fully justified in giving credit to the tradition which dates the propagation of the Christian faith in China from the time of the Apostles themselves ; and it is not surprising that Ar- nobius, who lived in the third century, should have counted the Seres or Chinese amongst the nations who, in his time, had received the Gospel. One of the most conclusive arguments, however, which tend to prove the antiquity of Christianity in China, has been furnished by Assemani, in his very erudite work.* This learned Orientalist quotes from Amrus the list of metropolitans subject to the Patriarch of Seleucia, and in this catalogue the metropolitan see of China is reckoned with that of India. f It may, therefore, be inferred that the two were established about the same time, for Ebedjesus says expressly, " The primacy of the sees is determined by the priority of time, in which the patriarchs lived who founded them." J Now the proofs of the antiquity of Christianity in India rest on the most solid foundation. X Assem. vol. iii. p. 346.
 * Assem. vol. ii. p. 413. 1
 * China occupies the thirteenth place, and India the fourteenth.