Page:Lesser Eastern Churches.djvu/357

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THE JACOBITES
335

new Monophysite Patriarch sends an announcement of his succession and "Synodical letters" to his brother Patriarch, asking for his prayers and inter-communion. This custom began when Athanasius I of Antioch and Anastasius I of Alexandria made peace (p. 222).

A great quarrel, which however did not lead to a schism, occurred when Cyril III (Ibn Luḳlus) of Alexandria (1235-1243 or 1250) ordained a Coptic Metropolitan for Jerusalem. This was certainly a wrong done to Antioch. The frontier of the two Patriarchates does not seem to have been very clearly marked (Barhebræus says it was at al'Arish);[1] but in any case Jerusalem would belong to Antioch. The Jacobites had a Metropolitan there (p. 328). They remonstrated and their Patriarch, Ignatius (David) II (1222-1252), as a kind of revenge, ordained a bishop for Abyssinia. Eventually the Copts promised that their bishop of Jerusalem should not use jurisdiction beyond the frontier of Egypt (which they said was at Gaza).[2] In spite of this they keep a Metropolitan of Jerusalem at Jaffa, who orders the affairs of their colony in Palestine (p. 256). About 1840 Mr. J. W. Etheridge visited the Jacobites and wrote an account of their Church.[3] Mr. G. P. Badger, when visiting the Nestorians in 1842 (p. 118), also examined the Jacobites and wrote an interesting account of them.[4] He wanted Anglicans to missionize this body; but, so far, hardly any such attempt has been made. In 1892 Mr. Oswald H. Parry visited the Jacobite Patriarch, to see what prospect there might be of an Anglican mission to his people (no doubt on the lines of the mission to the Nestorians);[5] but nothing seems to have come of it. There is a small Low Church mission in Jerusalem, conducted by a lady, which makes a few converts. But American Protestants are active among the Jacobites. American Congregationalists and Presbyterians have divided Mesopotamia between themselves, and have mission stations at most centres.

  1. Barhebræus, i. 657.
  2. Barhebræus, i. 656-664; Renaudot, 579-580; Assemani: loc. cit. § vi. The Franks supported the Copts in this quarrel.
  3. Etheridge: The Syrian Churches (Longmans, Green, 1846).
  4. Badger: The Nestorians and their Rituals (Masters, 1852), i. chap. vi. pp. 59-65, etc.
  5. Parry: Six Months in a Syrian Monastery (London, 1895), pp. 312-313.