CHALDEA
559
CHALDEAN
tenth century B. c, and sent colonies as far as
Macedonia and even Italy. From 506 B. c. to the
reign of Alexander the Great it was alternately the ally
and enemy of Athens. In 194 B. c. it fell into the
power of the Romans. Justinian fortified it; tin-
Arabs captured it in 880, but it was reconquered by
the Byzantines, and during the Middle Ages its trade
was extensive. It was captured by the Venetians
in 1209 and by Mohammed II. 12 July, 1470. Since
1833 it has formed a part of the Kingdom of Greece.
Chalcis has to-day about 10,000 inhabitants. Le-
quien (II. 214) mentions eleven bishops of Chalcis
from the fourth to the eighteenth century. The see
was originally a suffragan of Corinth, then of Athens;
finally it became an independent metropolis. The
Greek titular bears to-day the double title "Chalcis
and Caryetia " (from Carystus). The Lati ■ bishops
bore in the thirteenth century the title of Negropont
(Lequien, III, 845; Eubel, I, 384). On 8 February,
1314. the see was united by Clement V to the Latin
Patriarchate of Constantinople and remained so till
the sixteenth century, when it was again indepen-
dently established. Chalcis in Thrace was another
see, suffragan of Heracleia (Lequien, I, 1149); its
site has not been identified. A third Chalcis, known
by the sojourn of St. Jerome, was a bishopric de-
pending on Seleucia Pieriffi in Syria Prima (Lequien,
II. 7"v>). This city is often mentioned in Jacobite
documents under its native name Kinnesrin.
Leake, Northern Greece, II, 254-266; Baumeister, Topo-
izzt /■ r I ns> I Euboia; Dondorff, De rebus Chalcidicis
i H :i!1p, 1855); Obkriummi ii. Chaleis, in Paci.y-Wissowa,
Real-EnneJopiidie, III, 207S-20XS; Smith, Diet, of Greek and
Roman Geogr. (London, 1S7S), I, 599-600.
S. Vailhe.
Chaldea. See Babylonia.
Chaldean Christians, the name of former Nes- torians (see Nbstorianism) now reunited with the Roman Church. Ethnologically they are divided into two groups (Turco-Persian and Indian), which must be treated apart, since in their vicissitudes one group differs considerably from the other. The first group is usually known as Chaldeans, the second as Christians of St. Thomas (see Syro-Malabar Church).
I. Name and Territory of Chaldeans. — Strictly, the name of Chaldeans is no longer correct; in Chaldea proper, apart from Bagdad, there are now very few adherents of this rite, most of the Chaldean popula- tion being found in the cities of Kerkuk, Arbil, and Mosul, in the heart of the Tigris valley, in the valley of the Zab, and in the mountains of Kurdistan. It is in the former ecclesiastical province of At5r (Assyria) that are now found the most flourishing of the Cath- olic Chaldean communities. The native population accepts tie- name of Atoraya-Kaldaya (Assyro-Chal- deans), while in the neo-Syriac vernacular Christians generally are known as Syrians. The territory now occupied by these Chaldeans belonged once to the ancient Sassanid Empire of Persia, later ( Imayyad and
then the Abbassid Caliphs of Islam. Turkish and
Mongol inva ions, and later efforts to reconstruct
the former Kingdom of Persia shattered effectually the earlier political unity of this region; since the end of the sixteenth century tie- territory of the Chaldeans has been under Turkish or Persian rule. In fact, how- ever, a number of the mountain tribes are only nominally subject to either.
II. Chaldeans m Turks* and Persia. — From the
fifth century, the Persian Church quietly, almost un- consciously, adopted the Nestorian errors. Pri to that period, its relations with Rome had been insig- nificant owing to distance, language, racial temper, and a certain ardour of nationalism begotten by the almost perpetual wars with the Roman Empire. I |> to the end of the Middle Aires, there also lay between Persia and Rome another, and insuperable, obstacle the Byzantine Church. It is true that at the end of
the seventh century a Nestorian prelate, Sahdona, ac-
cepted the Council of Chalcedon and returned to
Christian orthodoxy, but this implied only a renewal
of union with the Melchite (Orthodox Greek) Church
of Antioch and the Fast, by no means a recognition
of the supremacy of the Pope of Old Rome. The
present Chaldeans do not therefore descend from
Sahdona. It was not until the thirteenth century
that the political revolutions of Central and Farther
Vsia permitted closer relations between the Nestorian
Christians and the Roman Church, whose missionaries
then reached the valley of the Tigris by way of the
new Latin principalities. Innocent IV, an earnest
promoter of the Eastern missions, had sent two
Dominicans to Sabhrisho'ibn-al-Masih, the Cathol-
icos of the Nestorians. Through his vicar Ard
(perhaps Adda!) the catholicos sent to Rome a pro-
fession of faith and a theological treatise by the Arch-
bishop of Nisibis, Iso'yahb bar Malkon (1247). The
result of this mission is unknown; certainly Makkika
and Denha, successors of the aforesaid catholicos
pursued the matter no further. Yahbalaha III, how-
ever, elected in 1281, sent to the pope, in his own
name and in that of Argun, King of the Tatars, the
Chinese monk, Barsauma (1287). Nicholas IV wel-
comed the Nestorian envoy and sent him home with
many gifts for the catholicos, requesting kind treat-
ment for such Dominican missionaries as might trav-
erse his province.
In 1304 the same Yahbalaha took advantage of the return ti Rome of the Dominican James to address to Benedict XI a profession of faith dated from the city of Maraga. The frightful disturbances of the fourteenth century interrupted these friendly rela- tions. Towards the middle of the fifteenth century the office of catholicos became hereditary and passed from uncle to nephew in the same family. Mean- while the Nestorian communities, dispersed through- out the former Arabian Empire, cut off from all com- munication with their natural religious centre, dwin- dled to insignificant proportions or disappeared alto- gether. In 1445 Andreas, Archbishop of Colossae, was sent by Eugene IV to reconcile with Rome the Nestorian prelate Timothy, known as the Archbishop of Tarsus, but then resident in Cyprus. After obtain- ing from this prelate certain modifications of the Nes- torian Liturgy, Andreas forbade the Latin Christians of Cyprus to treat the Chaldeans as heretics. In 1551 the Catholicos Simeon bar Mama was succeeded by his nephew, Simeon Denha. According to a cus- tom then about a century old, the latter was conse- crated by Henanisho, the only remaining metropoli- tan. A numerous anti-synod met at Mosul, convoked by the Bishops of Arbil, Salamas, and Aderbaidjan. In agreement with the principal laymen they chose for bishop a monk of the monastery of Rabban-Hormizd 8 i I bar Daniel, known as Sulaqa (Ascension). Probably at the suggestion of some hat in missionary,
eni linn to Rome, where he received i pi copal consecration from Julius III, with the title of Pa- triarch of the Chaldeans. On his return to his own
i atry, Sulaqa consecrated two metropolitans and
three bishops. In the meantime, the aforesaid Nes- torian catholicos, Simeon Denha, won over the Pasha of Diarbekir; John Sulaqa was imprisoned and later on (1555) was put to death. The united Chaldeans \bdishcV. the Metropolitan
of Djeziret ibn-Omai (Beit Zabdal), who went to Rome (1502) during the pontificate of Pius IV, re- ceived there the pallium, and was invited to assist at the Council of Trent. He declined this honour, hut addressed to the assembly a profession of faith that was read at the twenty-second session. He returned to 1. ,4 after a few years died
among them at Seert (1507). The patriarchal office remained vacant for some time. Though very little is known of Aitalaha, the successor of Abdishd', it is
