The Church of the East Organises at Seleucia-Ctesiphon

The Christians of the Persian empire lived under the Sasanian kings, beyond the Roman frontier. The acts of this synod call it the first assembly of bishops ever held in the land of the Persians, and they recall the years before it as a time of great persecution, when Christians went about in secret. Under Yazdegerd I, the acts say, the churches destroyed by earlier kings were ordered rebuilt, those imprisoned for their faith were released, and the clergy could move freely (Synodicon Orientale pp. 253–254) (Synodicon Orientale pp. 260–261).

Marutha of Maypherkat, a bishop from the Roman side of the border, had come to the Persian court as an envoy of the emperor and had won the king’s regard (Socrates, Church History 7.8). He carried a letter from the bishops of Antioch, Aleppo, Edessa, Tella and Amida. He and Isaac of Seleucia, bishop of the royal capital Seleucia-Ctesiphon, had it translated from Greek into Persian and read to the king, who ordered his governors to send the bishops of the provinces to the capital. Forty were named. They arrived at Epiphany, and on Tuesday 1 February 410 they met in the great church of the city (Synodicon Orientale pp. 255–257) (Synodicon Orientale pp. 257–260).

The letter from the West asked three things: that there be one bishop only in each city, ordained by at least three others; that the feasts of the Nativity and Epiphany, the forty days’ fast and Easter be kept by all at the same time; and that the canons of Nicaea, which Marutha had brought, be received. The canons were read out. Isaac declared anathema on anyone who would not accept them, and all the bishops agreed to sign (Synodicon Orientale pp. 257–260). The acts then give the creed of the 318 fathers of Nicaea in Syriac, with its closing anathemas (Synodicon Orientale pp. 262–263).

Twenty-one canons followed. A new bishop must be ordained by three bishops and confirmed by the bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, whom the canons call catholicos and “grand metropolitan” (Synodicon Orientale canon 1, p. 263). All bishops, of their own will and by the king’s order, are to obey him and his successors (Synodicon Orientale canons 12–13, p. 266). A synod is to meet at the capital every two years (Synodicon Orientale canon 6, p. 264). Below the catholicos stand five metropolitans, at Beth Lapat, Nisibis, Prat of Maishan, Arbela and Karka of Beth Slokh, each with his bishops (Synodicon Orientale canon 21, pp. 271–273). Two of the king’s high officials told the bishops that whoever opposed Isaac and Marutha would be reported to the king and punished (Synodicon Orientale pp. 260–261).

The synod gave the church of the Persian empire a single head, a settled hierarchy and a common rule, received from the bishops of the Roman world but enacted by its own bishops under its own king. Its acts stand first in the collection of the synods of the Church of the East (Synodicon Orientale pp. 253–254).