Page 110 - Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01, by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970). Chapters 1-3

EDESSA A MONOPHYSITE CENTRE 97

lives and of property.1 The Monophysite party, feeling that Heaven had
shown its approval of their cause, ran to stone the bishop; but Asclepius,
like the Administrator of the city, had prudently withdrawn and made his
way to Antioch. He received little sympathy there. Patriarch Euphrasius
took him up to the pulpit and, pointing at the wretched bishop, invited his
congregation to 'come and see this second Noah in his Ark, saved from the
second Flood'. Shortly afterwards Asclepius died.2 In 526 Paul wrote to the
Emperor, accepting the Synod of Chalcedon, and was permitted to return to
his diocese.3
The Monophysites showed remarkable fortitude in adjusting their affairs
to the changed situation. There is extant a document setting out the ecclesi-
astical canons of 'the holy Fathers in time of persecution', regulating the
relationship between Monophysites and the Chalcedonian 'heretics'. Mono-
physite priests were permitted to take refuge in the martyries of their enemies.
They were forbidden to give them communion; they were forbidden to
partake of food with non-Monophysites, and their lay followers were per-
mitted to do so only under duress. Though Monophysitism had been reduced
by persecution to its lowest ebb, it was, nevertheless, able to survive with the
help of Empress Theodora at Constantinople, although her husband,
Justinian, favoured the Melkites. She caused two Monophysites, Theodore
and Jacob, to be consecrated as bishops, the latter to the see of Edessa in 542.
Jacob, nicknamed Burd'aya4 because he wore a horse-cloth as his cloak, is
described as
fulfilling the work of the ministry to all the orthodox believers, not only by organizing
the clergy and by ordaining into priesthood, but also by consoling and comforting and
edifying and strengthening and teaching all the party of believers everywhere. . . .
Whenever he went to any district, he would complete all the works of his ministry in
one night perhaps and one day, and would pass the next night thirty or forty miles or
more farther on; and whenever news of him was heard in one district, and his pursuers
went out after him, the brave man would be found heroically fulfilling his work in
another district, while those who were running after him beat the air in exasperation
and bit their fingers ... He resolutely refused to allow even a travelling companion to
carry any gold or silver or bronze with him or any food upon the journey . . . He would
also not consent to avail himself of the use of an animal for riding or for driving, but
he used to carry out his travelling on foot, since besides being fortified by divine grace
he possessed also a body sound by nature.'5

1 See p. 156 below. 3 There has been much discussion on the
2 Euphrasius himself perished in November motives of Paul. For the most recent analysis
527 when, during the earthquake of Antioch, see T. Jansma, L'Orient syrien x, 1965, 194.
he fell (or was pushed) into a cauldron of According to one Syriac chronicler, Paul was
boiling wax; according to another account, removed as a result of intrigue at court by the
however, he was buried below a ruined house brother of Asclepius, whom he had slighted,
and throughout the day his wailing was heard 4 The cognate form Burd'ana is also fre-
from under the debris. quently found. 5 John Ephes., Lives.
8215452 H

www.knanayology.org