Page:Introduction to the Assyrian church.djvu/155

Rh of Ardashir, and Papa, afterwards metropolitan of B. Lapat. It adds a touch of nature to the history to find that the oriental student of theology was human enough to give nicknames to his fellows, and these lads were known one to another as "Bean-maker," "Dagon," and "Piggy"! Bar-soma's own sobriquet was "Swimmer among the nests."

During the episcopate of Ibas (435–457) one Marun of Dilaita, an Assyrian from the district of Mosul, was head of the college, and the whole atmosphere was pronouncedly "dyophysite"—something, that is to say, which its enemies (and its enemies were rapidly becoming the dominant theological party) would call "Nestorian." The question whether the bishop himself was or was not a "Nestorian," as we understand the term, is one that we may be thankful to leave undisturbed. The fact that one and the same letter of his was accepted as orthodox by one œcumenical council (the fourth) and condemned as heretical by the fifth, may suffice to show how impossible it is to apply the clear-cut distinctions that a later age thinks it can draw, to the men who were actually engaged in the conflict. In looking at a landscape from a distance it is easy to say "that rock lies on the hillside, and that other in the valley." On the spot, one sees that it is a misuse of terms to say "here valley ends and hillside begins."

At Edessa Bar-soma shared the stormy fortunes of his chief, and was expelled with him from school and city when the notorious "" sent Ibas into exile. The fact that one who must have been still comparatively young was marked out for condemnation by what was meant to be an œcumenical synod, is evidence that he already attained a reputation—of a kind. When Ibas was acquitted at Chalcedon and returned to his see, his