Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/250

196 sionaries simply to admit the Nestorians into the bosom of the Catholic Church, and to supply them with spiritual teachers who would lead them in the paths of primitive truth, our Church at home might look on and bid them speed; but when we know that Rome will rule them with a rod of iron as she did our forefathers,—when we know that she will corrupt the purity of Christian doctrine and practice, and lead those who are now astray yet further from truth and righteousness, the Church I am persuaded will feel it her duty to prevent, as far as in her lies, such sad and deplorable consequences. And if so, as I said before, I do not think that she can accomplish this task more effectually than by beginning with a reformation at Mosul on the plan which has already been laid down. After some time, priests might be sent from the town to the villages in the two provinces alluded to, where they might establish schools and lead the Nestorians back into the Church. This would be a comparatively easy task; for it is not so much because the Romanists receive the council of Ephesus and anathematize Nestorius that the Nestorians are backward to join their ranks, but because of the new and unheard-of doctrines which they are required to believe in order to become 'Catholics.' If, therefore, they saw a reformed church agreeing with them in doctrine and discipline, saving the heresy of Nestorius, there can be little doubt that a speedy union with their brethren would be effected. It is not improbable that the aged Mutran Yoosef of Jebel Joodi might be enlisted in this work, in which case the whole of his diocese would soon follow his example."

The above quotation will give my readers some idea of the nature of our proceedings at Mosul up to the middle of February, 1843. The roads to the Tyari country being impassable at this season, I had given up all intention for the present of visiting Mar Shimoon, especially as I deemed it the more prudent course to await the result of Mohammed Pasha's charges against the American missionaries at Asheetha, which represented them as Englishmen who were building a castle in the mountains, and bribing the Nestorians to throw off their allegiance to the Sultan. But on hearing that the Patriarch was at this time in lower Tyari, and that no political disturbances were likely to occur in central Coordistan during the winter, I determined to