We shall then have to subdivide the Byzantine Uniates into further classes, the Melkites, Ruthenians, and so on.
Next in our order we take the Uniates who have been converted from the Nestorian Church. These form a homogeneous group under one Patriarch. For them we need not seek a new name. By friend and foe they are called universally the Chaldees. This name is not a very happy one really. "Chaldee" suggests rather the inhabitants of the second Babylonian Empire, which passed away centuries before there was any Christian Church at all. But here we have at least the advantage of universal use, and of the official language of Rome.
Next comes the small body of Copts who have returned to the Catholic Church. Since "Copt" is merely a national name connoting in itself no theological position, we need have no difficulty in using the common term Catholic Copts or Uniate Copts for these people. The few Abyssinian Catholics are hardly yet a Uniate Church at all. The converts from the Jacobite sect cannot be called "Catholic Jacobites." That is as absurd as "Catholic Nestorians." Nor is it ever used. These are generally called Catholic Syrians or Syrian Uniates. At Rome they distinguish between the "Ritus antiochenus Syrorum purus," the "Ritus antiochenus Maronitarum," "Ritus Syrorum Malabaricus." This is unnecessary; nor is the idea of a "pure" Syrian rite opposed to, apparently, impure ones, happy. This classification is the remnant of old days when the history of the Eastern rites was but little understood. One rite is not in any real sense more "pure" than another. We shall find simpler and more correct terms for each Uniate Church than these. "Syrian Uniate," then, means the body of Catholics converted from the Jacobites.
Nor is there any difficulty about the name Malabar Uniates." Armenian Uniate or Armenian Catholic is equally plain. Perhaps here the word "Uniate" is better than "Catholic," since there are a few Armenians (by blood) who are Latins.
Lastly, we have the Maronite Church. Here, too, there is no discussion about the use of a name applied to them by everyone. But in this case we do not need any further qualification as Uniate. The Maronites are the one Eastern Church which is entirely Uniate. For centuries, surrounded by schismatics and Moslems, they have been the one entirely faithful outpost of Catholic unity in the East. All are in union with Rome; there is no such thing as a schismatical Maronite.
