236 ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



IV. — Other Oriental Rites 



The rites already described are the principal rites to be met 

 with in the United States ; but there are besides them a few 

 representatives of the remaining Eastern rites, although these 

 are perhaps not sufficiently numerous to maintain their own 

 churches or to constitute separate ecclesiastical entities. 

 Among these smaller bodies are : ( i ) the Chaldean Catholics 

 and the schismatic Christians of the same rite, known as Nes- 

 torians; (2) the Syrian Catholics or Syro-Catholics and their 

 correlative dissenters, the Jacobites, and (3) finally the Copts, 

 CathoHc or Orthodox. All of these have a handful of repre- 

 sentatives in America, and, as immigration increases, it is a 

 question how great their numbers will become. 



( I ) Chaldean or Syro-Chaldean Catholic Rite. — Those who 

 profess this rite are Eastern Syrians, coming from what was 

 anciently Mesopotamia, but is now the borderland of Persia. 

 They ascribe the origin of the rite to two of the early disciples^ 

 Addeus and Maris, who first preached the Gospel in their 

 lands. It is really a remnant of the early Persian Church, 

 and it has always used the Syriac language in its liturgy. The 

 peculiar Syriac which it uses is known as the eastern dialect, 

 as distinguished from that used in the Maronite and Syro- 

 Catholic rites, which is the western dialect. The method of 

 writing this church Syriac among the Chaldeans is somewhat 

 different from that used in writing it among the western 

 Syrians. The Chaldeans and Nestorians use in their church 

 books the antique letters of the older versions of the Syriac 

 Scriptures which are called "astrangelo," and their pronuncia- 

 tion is somewhat different. The Chaldean Church in ancient 

 times was most flourishing, and its history under Persian rule 

 was a bright one. Unfortunately in the sixth century it em- 

 braced the Nestorian heresy, for Nestorius on being removed 

 from the See of Constantinople went to Persia and taught his 

 views. The Chaldean Church took up his heresy and became 

 Nestorian. This Nestorian Church not only extended through- 

 out Mesopotamia and Persia, but penetrated also into India 

 (Malabar) and even into China. The inroads of Moham- 

 medanism and its isolation from the centre of unity and from 

 intercommunication with other Catholic bodies caused it to 



