NESTO'RIANS. The name commonly given to one of the schismatic ehurches of the East, formely large and flourishing. but now small in numbers and with little influence. The name is derived from Nestorins (q.v.). It was first ap plied to them by a theological opponent. Philox enus, Monophysite Bishop of Hierapolis, about the year A.D. 500, and although the Nestorians themselves never adopted the title. preferring to he known as Chahltran or Oriental Christians. it passed into common use and has remained their usual designation. The Nestorians claim an Apostolic origin for their Church, appealing to an ancient tradition according to which the Apos tle Thaddiens is said to have carried the Gospel to King Abgar of Edessa, but this story lacks his torical confirmation. There is no clear evidence of the presence of Christianity in Persia before about 200, when the Bishop of Antioch held con trol over that section of the Chun.h. Under the Neo-Persian kingdom of the Sassanidie (q.v.), in the third century, a new bishopric was estab lished at Selencia-Clesiphon. on the Tigris. which in time assumed ecclesiastical leadership. But it was not until the fifth century that the Nestorians began to call the Bishop of Seleueia their `Cath olieus.' or national patriarch, and still longer before his primacy was acknowledged by the other bishops.
The chief causes which gave rise to the sep arate existence of the Nestorian (.'Lurch, during the lifth century, were as follows: (1) the organization of the Church by a synod of forty hi-imps. held in Ctesiphon in 410, after a severe persecution: 12) the condemnation of Nestorius, in 431; (3) the expulsion of Nestorius's sympa thizers from Edes-a by Bishop Ilabulas. after the Council of Ephesus; (4) the rise of ibis as a centre of Christian learning and theological influence. front 135 onward: and (5) the final (dosing of the school at Edessa by the Emperor Zeno, in 159, on account of its persistent Nes torian leanings. All these things operated to centralize Persian Christianity, and to selmrate it from organic connection with the See of Con stantinople. The Nestorian leaders snceeeded in winning favor with the Persian kings to such an extent as completely to control the ecclesias tical situation. They had been aided in the
earlier stages of their growth by the prestige of adherents like Aphraates, in the fourth century, and lbas, Bishop of Edessa, in the fifth: hut their /most important leader. in the formative period, was Barsunms, one of those whom Rabulas had driven out of Edessa in 431. Barsumas became Bishop of Nisibis, and for more than half a een tury (435159) he guided the fortunes of the Persian ('hurch. wisely administering his See. winning royal favor. and e,taldishing sehools of learning (e.g. at Selencia) to perpetuate the movement to which he had devoted his life.
I)oring the sixth and seventh centuries the Nestorians greatly extended their numbers and influence, reaching out by means of missions into Arabia, Armenia. India, Tartary. Ceylon, and China. An ancient monument, erected in 751 at Si-ngan-fu and discovered by Jesuit missionaries in the so.vent emit h century, hears testimony to the existence of Nestorian Christianity in China from the year 113f . when the mission appears to have been started. In 1142. as it consequence of the Aral) conquest of the Sassanid kingdom. the Nestorian: passed under :Mohammedan rule. But the caliphs granted them a considerable degree of religious toleration. and their Catholieus was treated as if he were patriarch of all the Asiatic Christians under :Moslem rule. Ile took up his residence in Bagdad (in 7021 and there remained as long as the caliphate endured. In Arabia also the Nestorians met with favor in the eyes of their :Mohammedan neighbors. This friendly treatment was possibly due in part to the ex ample of :Mohammed himself. who is said once to have eome into friendly eontaet in Arabia with a Nestorian monk. named Set-gins, from whom lie may have gained some knowledge of Christianity. From a Mohammedan historian of the eleventh eentury we learn that the Nestorian: were then noted for their intelleetual /women. in which they surpassed their orthodox eontemporaries. 'I hey differed somewhat from Catholie Christians in points of ritual observanee. especially those relating to the ealendar. and it has been thought possible that they were influenced by the customs usages of their Jewish neighbors in Babylonia.