TOPOGEAPHYj KACES, RELIGIONS, LANGUAGES AND CUSTOMS. 53 



liad succeeded in forming a schism among the Nestorians of 

 Diarbekir, they wanted a name whereby to designate the 

 proselytes. In other instances the national title of the 

 parent body supplied a ready and an unobjectionable ap- 

 pellation. Thus, by prefixing the term 'Catholic,' they 

 adequately, and according to their views, appropriately 

 distinguished the seceders from the Greek, Armenian, and 

 Syrian communities, A difficulty now arose ; the new 

 converts styled themselves ' Sooraye ' and ' Nestoraye.' 

 The Romanists could not call them ' Catholic Syrians ' 

 or ' Syrian Catholics,' for this appellation they had 

 already given to their proselytes from the Jacobites, who 

 also call themselves 'Syrians.' They could not term them 

 • Catholic Nestorians,' as Mr. Justice Perkins, the Indepen- 

 dent American missionary does,* for this would involve 

 a contradiction. What more natural then, than that they 

 should have applied to them the title of Chaldeans, to 

 which they had some claims nationally in virtue of their 

 Assyrian descent." 



Dr. Badger allowed the Armenians, the Greeks, and even 

 the so-called Syrians, to have a name of nationality, and yet 

 the poor " Nestorians " have no nationality whatever, and 

 the important Chaldean community at Diarbekir could only 

 ascribe their origin to religious nomenclature, namely, 

 •" Sooraye " and " Nestoraye," two Chaldean words which 

 mean Syrian and Nestorian. The term " Nestorian " 

 speaks for itself, as every one knows that it is a nick- 

 name given to them in the fifth century, when they 

 refused to accept the edict of excommunication of the 

 council of Ephesus against Nestorius. 



It has been urged also that the primitive church in 

 Babylonia was under the Patriarch of Antioch (which is 

 a Syrian city), because forsooth at one time the election 

 of their "Catholicos" was left to his choice. This assertion 

 has no more connexion w^ith the nationality of individuals 

 than to say that the British are not English but Latins, 

 because at one time the Anglican church was under the 

 jurisdiction of the popes of Rome, or that the Roman 

 Catholics of Ireland are not Irish, because they are eccle- 

 siastically governed by the Vatican, Even if there had 

 been any connexion between the sees of Antioch and 

 Ctesiphon in Babylonia, it was as merely superficial as the 



* Residence in Persia among the Nestorians, p, 171, 



