NESTOMIANS, a sect of the 5th c., so called from its founder NEsTomus, under which head their distinctive doctrine, as well as their history up to the time of its con demnation, are sufficiently detailed. Of the later history it will be enough to say that, even after the council of Ephesus, Nestorianism prevailed in Assyria and Persia, chiefly through the influence of the well-known school of Edessa. Although vigorously repressed in the Roman empire, it was protected, and probably the more on that account, by the Persians, and ultimately wits established by king Pherozes as the na tional church, with a patriarch resident at Seleucia; its fundamental doctrine as laid down in the synod of Seleucia in 496, being the existence of two distinct persons as Christ. united solely by a unity of will and affection. Under the rule of the caliphs, the Nestorians enjoyed considerable protection, and throughout the countries of the east their community extended itself. Of taunt ConditiOn in:central'Asin, during the medico., cal period, some account will he found under the head of PRESTER JOHN. In the middle of c., their church reckoned no fewer than 00 bishops umler regular metro politans, together with 56 others, whose special dependencies are unknown; but in the destructive career of Tamerlane, they shared the common fate of all the representatives of the eastern civilization. In the 16th c. a great schism took place 'in this body, of which a portion renounced their distinctive doctrine, and placed themselves under the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, to whom, under the title of Chaldean Christians, they have since remained faithful. The others still maintain their old creed and their ancient organization. Their chief seat is in the mountain ranges of Kurdistan. They are at present a poor and illiterate race,. numbering about 140,000, and subject to a patriarch residing at Diz (who is always chosen from the same family,and takes invariably the name of Schamun, or Simon) and 18 bishops. All these are bound to observe celibacy, but
marriage is permitted to the priests and inferior clergy. Their liturgical books recog nize seven sacraments, but confession is infrequent, it' not altogether disused. Marriage is dissoluble by the sentence of the patriarch; communion is administered in both kinds; and although the language of the liturgy plainly implies the belief of transubstantiation. yet, according to Layard, that doctrine is not popularly held among them. The fasts are strict and of very long duration, amounting to very nearly one-half of the entire year. They pray for the dead, but are said to reject the notion of purgatory, and the only sacred image which they use or reverence is that of the cross. The Nestorians of Kurdistan, like the Christians of the Lebanon, have suffered mach from time to time through the fanaticism of the wild tribes among whom they reside. In a massacre in 1843, and again in 1846, many fell victims, and even still they owe much of their secu rity to the influence exercised in their favor by the foreign representatives at the Turkish and Persian courts.
There is another body of Nestorians who have existed in India from the period of the early migrations of the sect, and who are called by the name of Syrian Christians, Their chief scat is in Travancore,where they number about 100,000. Among both bodes of Nestorians, European missionaries, Catholic and Protestant, have of late years endeav ored to effect an entrance. Sac Perkins's Residence of Eight Years in Persia among the Nestorian Christians (Andover, 1843); Anderson's Oriental Churches (1872); and Dean Stanley's History of the Eastern Church.