Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/221

Rh We accordingly departed from Italy and reached Diarbekir in safety, and were soon followed by the newly-appointed Vicar Apostolic who died in that city a few days after his arrival. Some further correspondence ensued which resulted in the confirmation of Mutran Hanna in the patriarchal dignity, and a pallium was sent to him from Rome with which he was invested at Baghdad a little more than a year before his death, which took place in that city, 1841."

I must now recall to the reader's mind the condition exacted from Mutran Hanna on his first recognition by Rome, namely, that he should not consecrate any of his relations to the Episcopal office. This was effectually to abrogate the order of succession to the Patriarchate which had so long obtained among the Nestorians. There can however be no doubt that very many of the Chaldean proselytes were still attached to the old régime, and considered the destruction of the Beit-ool-Ab, or Patriarchal family, as an invasion of their ancient rights and privileges. There is every reason to believe that Mutran Hanna sympathized with them in this respect, not only from a feeling of family pride, but because at heart he was opposed to many of the encroachments of Rome, as the frequent complaints made against him by the Latin missionaries, and those of his own people over whom they had acquired supreme influence, fully testify. But he was under restraint, and the non-fulfilment of the required condition would inevitably have led to his immediate deposition, and to the more perfect subjection of the entire body of the Chaldeans to the See of Rome. Hence he dared not openly provide a successor from his own family; however, he went so far as to ordain one of his nephews priest, and in 1834 this individual was taken by his father and another uncle to Mar Shimoon, Patriarch of the mountain Nestorians, who consecrated him Metropolitan at Ooroomiah, with the title of Mar or Mutran Elîa, and appointed him Bishop over the Nestorians in the neighbourhood of Amedia. The prevailing opinion is, that this was done by the advice of Mutran Hanna, who, being himself prohibited from consecrating his nephew, conceived this scheme, in the hope that after his death the succession might be continued in the old line. Mutran Elîa, who was doubtless a consenting party to the plot, abjured Nes-