Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/85

Rh, be praise for ever and ever."—From the Warda, and appointed to be read on any of the festivals commemorative of the Blessed Virgin.

See also Appendix B. Part III. c. iv.—vii.

I have quoted thus largely under this article, because it comprises the chief doctrine for which the Nestorians are adjudged to be heretical. What Nestorius himself believed, it boots not to inquire, our object being to arrive at a clear knowledge of what his so-called followers have held, and still hold, respecting the Person of our Blessed.

That they believe Nestorius to have been orthodox on this important article of faith, and are persuaded that they agree therein with him, is perfectly plain from several passages in the above extracts. But it is equally clear that they may be as wrong in one of these respects as they are in the other: for they may not really hold what Nestorius held, notwithstanding their assurance to the contrary. This assurance, however, leads them to cherish a regard for his person corresponding with their estimate of his merits both as a teacher of the truth, and as a sufferer in its behalf. Yet this regard has not exceeded the reverence in which they hold Athanasius, Chrysostom, and other famous saints of the Church. His name, it is true, is frequently mentioned in their rituals, as is also that of Theodorus; but neither is specially canonized,16 and both are commemorated on the same festival, styled the "festival of the Greek Doctors," in the service for which most of the eminent fathers of the primitive Church are recorded. And although their reputed followers do not scruple to confess themselves Nestorians, still if the term is applied to them by way of reproach, as if they had left to follow a mere man, they are ever ready to resent the imputation, and to vindicate themselves by denying that they are Nestorians in any such acceptation of the term. The apology of Mar Abd Yeshua conveys their sentiments on this head most fully: "The Easterns, however, who never changed their faith, but kept it as they received it from the Apostles, were unjustly styled 'Nestorians,' since Nestorius was not their Patriarch, neither did they understand