Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Propagation of Christianity among the Persians by Maruthas Bishop of Mesopotamia.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter
VIII.—Propagation of Christianity among the Persians by
Maruthas Bishop of Mesopotamia.
About this same time it
happened that Christianity was disseminated in Persia, by reason of the
following causes. Frequent embassies were sent to and fro between the
sovereigns of Persia and the Roman empire, for which there were
continual occasions. Necessity brought it about at that time that the
Roman emperor thought proper to send Maruthas bishop of Mesopotamia,
who has been before mentioned,924
on a mission to the king of the Persians. The king discovering great piety in the man treated him
with great honor, and gave heed to him as one who was indeed beloved of
God. This excited the jealousy of the magi,925
| 925A caste of priests who exercised great influence in
Persia mentioned both in the Old and the New Testament. Cf. Smith,
Dict. of the Bible, art. Magi.
|
whose influence is considerable over the Persian monarch, for they
feared lest he should persuade the king to embrace Christianity. For
Maruthas had by his prayers cured the king of a violent headache to
which he had been long subject, and which the magi had been unable to
relieve. The magicians therefore had recourse to this deception. As the
Persians worship fire, and the king was accustomed to pay his
adorations in a certain edifice to the fire which was kept perpetually
burning, they concealed a man underneath the sacred hearth, ordering
him to make this exclamation at the time of day when the king was
accustomed to perform his devotion! ‘The king should be thrust
out because he is guilty of impiety, in imagining a Christian priest to
be loved by the Deity.’ When Isdigerdes—for that was the
king’s name—heard these words, he determined to dismiss
Maruthas, notwithstanding the reverence with which he regarded him. But
Maruthas being truly a God-loving man, by the earnestness of his
prayers, detected the imposition of the magi. Going to the king
therefore he addressed him thus: ‘Be not deluded, O king,’
said he, ‘but when you again enter that edifice and hear the same
voice, explore the ground below, and you will discover the fraud. For
it is not the fire that speaks, but human contrivance does this.’
The king received the suggestion of Maruthas and went as usual to the
little house where the ever-burning fire was. When he again heard the
same voice, he ordered the hearth to be dug up; whereupon the impostor,
who uttered the supposed words of the Deity, was discovered. Becoming
indignant at the deception thus attempted the king commanded that the
tribe of the magi should be decimated. When this was effected he
permitted Maruthas to erect churches wherever he wished; and from that
time the Christian religion was diffused among the Persians. Then
Maruthas being recalled went to Constantinople; not long afterwards
however, he was again sent as ambassador to the Persian court. Again
the magi devised contrivances so as by all possible means to prevent
the king from giving him audience. One of their devices was to cause a
most disgusting smell where the king was accustomed to go, and then
accuse the Christians of being the authors of it. The king however
having already had occasion to suspect the magi, very diligently and
closely scrutinized the matter; and again the authors of the nuisance
were detected. Wherefore he punished several of them, and held Maruthas
in still higher honor. For the Romans as a nation he had much regard,
and prized good feeling on their part very highly. Nay, he almost
embraced the Christian faith himself, as Maruthas in conjunction with
Abdas bishop of Persia gave another experimental proof of its power:
for these two by giving themselves to much fasting and prayer, had cast
out a demon with which the king’s son was possessed. But the
death of Isdigerdes926
prevented his making an open profession of Christianity. The kingdom
then devolved on Vararanes his son, in whose time the treaty between
the Romans and Persians was broken as we shall have occasion to narrate
a little later.927
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
