Page 111 - Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01, by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970). Chapters 1-3

98 THE BLESSING OF JESUS AND THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY

Jacob founded new Monophysite churches in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia
Minor, ordaining twenty-seven bishops, and priests in such numbers—the
figure of 100,000 is given—that the patriarch of Constantinople was led to
address to him a friendly remonstrance. So great was the impact of his
personality (he died in 578) that the Monophysites are commonly called after
him the 'Jacobites'. He spent little time in Edessa, but through him Edessa
became famous as a centre of Monophysite doctrine.1 The Melkite party
also continued there; and from this time Melkites and Monophysites had
each their own bishop, churches, and monasteries in the city. A Melkite con-
temporary of Jacob Burd'aya was Bishop Amazonius (or Amidonius), who
built the Melkite cathedral; its beauty is celebrated in a well-known hymn.2
Later Melkite bishops of Edessa were Epiphanius, Severus (killed by the
General Narseh), and Theodosius (or Theodore).
During the later years of Emperor Justinian, the persecution of Monophy-
sites was relaxed. We are told that at the beginning of the reign of Justin II
(565-78) an attempt was made to reunite the two factions of the church; it
failed, and the attack on the Monophysites recommenced. In the reign of
Maurice (582-602) there was a fresh wave of persecution. The Emperor's
nephew, the Bishop of Melitene, came to Edessa and ordered the monks of
the Monastery of the Orientals to accept the Synod of Chalcedon. They
refused, and about four hundred were slaughtered in the moat outside the
South Gate of Edessa.3 Later the scene of the martyrdom was commemorated
by a shrine. Others of the Monophysites were killed, and many were
driven out, as they participated in their services. Melkites took possession of
Monophysite churches and monasteries. In time the persecution was brought
to an end, but only, claimed the Monophysites, through supernatural inter-
vention; an eclipse, an earthquake, plague, and drought, brought home to
the oppressors the wickedness of their deeds.
In 609 the Persian king Khusraw II Abarwez captured Edessa. Against
the wishes of its inhabitants, he imposed on them a Nestorian bishop. At
first the Monophysites were ill-treated, and their bishop, Paul, fled to Cyprus.
Later, however, they were preferred to the Melkite party, who were more
directly identified by the Persian authorities with Imperial Byzantium.
Melkite bishops were, it appears, expelled throughout Mesopotamia; the
Monophysites, on the other hand, were permitted to practice their rites
freely and to reoccupy their churches. A Bishop Yunan was sent from Persia
to minister to the Jacobite community of Edessa. When, after a brief stay at
Edessa, Yunan returned to his own country, he was replaced by a certain

1 Jacob's monastery was that of Pesiltha his body was removed by a ruse and reburied in
near Telia. He died on his way to Egypt to his own monastery. 2 See p. 189 below,
settle a dispute at Alexandria and was buried 3 At that time still called the Gate of Beth
on the Egyptian frontier. In 622, it is related, Shemesh.

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