Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ... XVI OTHER MEANS OF SPREADING CHRISTIANITY The three important factors in the spreading of Christianity in these distant lands of the East were captives, commerce, and monasticism.1 Slaves were not infrequently Christian captives. When they were carried off en masse from the Christian empire, as sometimes happened under Sassanian kings, their ecclesiastical leaders were taken with them. The captivity of the Jews in Babylon is an illustration of this. Commerce was then more than even now the handmaid of the Gospel. The clergy would follow the merchants in order to supply them with the ordinances of the church. And so episcopal dioceses would be established. "Whence has Al-Asha his Christian ideas?" says an Arab poet. "From wine-dealers of Hira of whom he bought his wine; they 1 Thomas of Marga, ii., p. 506. Barhebraeus, Ecc. Chron., p. 125. brought them to him."1 Commercial and colonizing enterprises were made to minister to the cause of missions. The chief aim of the monks was a life of solitude and tranquility, fasting, prayer, and study, but the ascetics of both sexes were moved with the true missionary spirit and lived in communities. The nuns were very often women self-dedicated to a life of good deeds, but wearing plain garments and working in their own homes. The monks who during the reign of the Arab Caliphs did not enjoy full freedom to work among the Muhammadans, did a great work among the pagans in the most uncultivated regions of the East. In many instances the patriarchs, bishops, and priests were dragged out of their cells and ordained, almost by force. In some cases they gave up their offices and went back into their cloisters. Isaac of Nineveh was much against his will consecrated Bishop of that city (660). 1 Wellhausen, ...