nationalities to their creed; and especially that extraordinary man, Jacob Baradaeus, in recognition of whose prodigious efforts, sustained for more than thirty years, the title of Monophysites was abrogated in favour of that of Jacobites. After an ascetic seclusion of fifteen years at Constantinople he was (in 543) ordained Bishop of Edessa by Theodosius, the exiled Patriarch of Alexandria; and thereafter he pursued his labours untiringly throughout the Asiatic provinces, returning continually from his round to the Imperial or Egyptian capital, where the centres of the sect were maintained. Concealed under a variety of disguises and penetrating the most inaccessible regions, he walked thirty or forty miles daily to win over converts. During all this time he eluded the vigilance of those who were eager to capture him, either to obtain the reward offered by the Emperor, or to satiate the rancour of the Orthodox. The ordination of two Patriarchs, twenty-seven bishops, and one hundred thousand lesser clergy is recorded as the fruit of his activities.[1] About the same time, Theodora, in conjunction with Theodosius, despatched a missionary to Nubia, who was successful in gaining the favour of King Silco of that country, and even caused a rival, who was acting in the interests of Justinian, to be dismissed with a rebuff.[2] At the petition of Arethas, prince of the Ghassanides, the Empress also procured the ordination of a bishop for Bostra, a populous town in the north of Arabia.[3] Thus, before her death in 548,
- ↑ Two lives of him in John Eph., Com., pp. 160, 206. A modern life by Kleyn, Leyd., 1882.
- ↑ The particulars in John Eph., Hist. (Smith), p. 250 et seq.
- ↑ John Eph., Com., pp. 162, 206. In the Semitic, Arethas = Harith-ibn-Gabbala. Duchesne has treated of Christian missions to the south of the Empire at some length; Mis. chrét. au sud de l'emp. rom., 1896.
