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EVERAL ways of arranging a book about the Uniate Churches suggest themselves, none of them absolutely the best. As far as rank or dignity go, all branches of the one Church of Christ are equal, except that those which use the Roman rite have a certain precedence. The others are absolutely level. Nor does the classification now used at Rome make for clearness, as we shall see. Perhaps the simplest way in this book will be to keep the same order as that of the preceding volumes, since there is a Uniate Church corresponding to each of the schismatical Churches.

So the first part describes the Byzantine Uniates, who correspond to the Orthodox. Part II is about the Chaldees, corresponding to the Nestorians. Part III includes all the Uniates converted from the various Monophysite sects. Lastly, Part IV is about the one Uniate Church which has no schismatical counterpart, the Maronites.