Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/189

Rh nance, (whereby in the place of a mortal deceased, another is raised up,) the seventh sacrament." See Appendix B. Part IV. c. 1. Extreme unction is unknown to the Nestorians; but the Chaldeans have adopted it from the teaching of Rome.

It appears to me, that the later Nestorian theologians, for want of a better reason, and in order not to be behind the Eastern and Western Churches in this respect, thought proper to make their sacraments amount to the sacred number of seven, and in order to effect this, chose out such doctrines and practices current among them as they deemed best suited for this nomenclature. Little indeed can be said in favour of the selection of the Holy Leaven, and the sign of the life-giving Cross, wherewith they have replaced Matrimony and Extreme Unction. The tradition whereon their use of a peculiar Leaven in the composition of the bread of the Eucharist is based, has already been given under Chapter XXIX. and Mar Abd Yeshua in Appendix B. Part IV. c. 6. confirms the same; but in the remarks of this author thereon, he neither attributes to it the form nor the efficacy of a sacrament. Moreover it is not mentioned as such in any of the Nestorian rituals, neither indeed have I found in these any allusion to a particular Leaven to be used in the bread of the Supper, except in the "office for the renewal of the holy Leaven, which is called Malka," a work referable to the twelfth or thirteenth century.

However this may be, it is certain, (as might be expected in a people among whom ignorance has been gradually increasing for so long a period,) that this tradition is now very strictly observed by the Nestorians, and the renewal of the Leaven takes place yearly with great solemnity. It is hardly worth while to give a translation of the entire office, which consists chiefly of psalms and prayers to for His blessing upon the partakers of the Holy Communion; but I give the following openingrubric entire because it contains a list of the ingredients of which the sacramental bread is compounded. When the leaven in a church is nearly expended, "on the Thursday before Easter, two parts of pure and well sifted flour called Smeeda, and two parts of the finest and best salt, shall be brought and laid upon