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Greek influence commenced to be predominant in theology and Church shortly after the time of Aphraates (q.v.) in the fourth century, while political bonds with the empire were dissolved. It was then that the Christological controversies of the Eastern Church raged with greater fury in Syria than in their own land, ultimately causing not only transformation and schism, but well-nigh resulting in destruction. Much of this struggle is discussed in the articles MGNGPHYsITEs; and NESTORIANS. The great extension of the Syrian church may be seen from its inscriptions, which are found as far south as India (Cottayam, in North Travancore), as far east as China (the famous inscription of Singan-fu of 781; see NEsToxIANS, § 2), and as far north as Semiryeshchie. Syrian influence is shown in Central Asia by the Mongolian script, which is from top to bottom in the early Syrian fashion, and still more clearly by the manuscripts discovered in Turkestan in Estrangelo script (though in a number of different languages), these texts, however, being mainly concerned with Manicheism. Syriac literature is exceedingly extensive, the comprehensive character being shown by the four series contemplated and begun in CSCO. Its relation to monasticism is close, and its martyrology is voluminous, much of which is being utilized in the Analecta Bollandiand.

Since the Syrian church stood very close, both in place and language, to the primitive Church, it is evidently very important for the history of liturgy and organization, especially since such sources as the Didascalia are more ancient than the corresponding documents of the West. The Nestorian liturgy is most nearly akin to that of Dionysius the Areopagite (q.v.), yet it contains neither renunciation of the devil (see RENVNCIATIoN) nor a creed (the latter omission scarcely being original). Valuable data for the history of canon law may also be drawn from Syriac literature, as from the Nomocanones of Barhebrieus, Ebed Jesu, and Jacob of Edessa, or the Syro-Roman code of the fifth century edited by K. G. Bruns and E. Sachau (Syri8ch R6misches Geselzbuch, Leipsie, 1880).

The twenty-five metropolitans once possessed by the Nestorian church are now reduced to the patriarch and metropolitan, with three bishops in Persia and seven in Turkey, some of the dioceses being merely nominal. An active propaganda. has been carried on among the Nestorians by the Jesuits at Beirut, the Dominicans at Mosul, and the Roman Catholic mission in Malabar. Comparatively little has been accomplished by the archbishop of Canterbury's Assyrian (East Syrian) Mission or by American Protestant missionaries at Urumiah (see JERUSALEM, ANGLICAN-GERMAN BISHOPRIC IN). No statistics, even approximate, can be given concerning the present numbers, divisions, or institutions of the Syrian Church. (E. NESTLE.)

The foregoing outline should be read in connection with a series of articles in this work (mainly by the same author) exclusive of those named in the text. These articles, which illumine particular epochs and practically display the entire history of the church, deal with Abgar, Apollinaris of Laodicea, Ebed Jesu, Ibas, Jacob of Edessa, Jacob of Nisibis, Jacob of Sarug, Jacobites, John of Dara, John of

Ephesus, Isaac of Antioch, Maruthas, Rabbula, Stephen bar Zudhaile, Syriac Literature, and Theodore of Mopsuestia.

Bxswooserat: For sWroes the first place is taken b3~ CSCO. Other sources are indicated in the articles (and attached bibliographies) referred to in the text. Eng. transls. of various documents are to be found in ANF, vols. viii. and ix., and in NPNF, 2 ser., xiii. 117 sqq.; W. Cureton, Ancient Syriac Documents, London, 1864; Bin Brief Gems an den Presbyter Jesus, aus dem Syrischen, Gotha, 1883; Thomas of Merge, The Book of Governors; the Historia monastica, Bug. transl. by E. A. W. Budge, 2 vols., London, 1893; Doe- Buch der Synhados, Germ. tranel. by 0. Braun, Stuttgart, 1900; Michael the Syrian, " Chron, isle;" ed. J. B. Chabot, Paris, 1900 sqq.; Lettre du catholicos Mar-Aba 11. aux membres de 1'Icole patriarcale, ed. and transl. J. B. Chabot, Paris, 1896; La LEgende de Mar Baum, ed. and transl. J. B. Chabot, Paris, 1893; Jesusdena, La Livre de chastetl, ed. and transl. by J. B. Chabot, Paris, 1896; Vie de JAsm-Sabran, Icrite par Jisua-Yahb d'Adiabi6ne, ed. J. B. Chabot, Paris, 1897; Regula monastica sac. VI. ab Abrahamo et Dadjesu eondita, ed. and transl. J. B. Chabot, Paris, 1898; The Book of Consolations. Pastoral Epistles of Mdr Ish6 Yahbh. Syriac text, with Eng. transl. by P. S. Moncrieff, London, 1904.

For discussion and history consult: F. C. Burkitt, Early Christianity outside the Roman Empire, Cambridge, 1899; idem, Early Eastern Christianity, New York and London, 1904; J. B. Chabot, L'-'sole de Nisa3s, Paris, 1896; idem, Pierre f lbirien, 6vlque de Mayouma, ib. 1896; idem, Vie de Mar Youssef 1., patriarehe des Chaldlem, i b. 1896; E. S. A[ppleyardl, Eastern Churches, London, 1850; A. d'Avril, La Chaldie chrbtienne, Paris, 1864; C. B. Benni, Tradition of she Syriac Church of Antioch, London, 1'871; Jacobites of Ceylon. By a Missionary Apostolic, Colombo, 1889; R. Duval, Hist. d'Edesse, Paris, 1892; L. Hallier, in TU, ix. 1 (1892); A. J. Maclean and W. H. Browne, The Catholicos of the East and his People, London, 1892: G. M. Rae, Syrian Church in India, Edinburgh, 1892; R. Graffin, Patrolopia Syriaca, Paris, 1894; 0. H. Parry, Six Months in a Syrian Monastery, London, 1895; J. G. Gregson, Among the Syrian Christians in Travancore, London, 1897; idem, The Reformed Syrian Church in Malabar, ib., 1899; P. Perdrizet and C. Fossey, Voyage dana la Syrie du Nord, in Bulletin de eorrespondance, xxi (1897), 66 aqq.; G. Voisin, L'Apollinarisme, Louvain, 1901; S. Jamil, Genuina relationes inter sedem apostolieam et Assyri orum orientalium seu Chaldaorum ecclesiam, Rome, 1902 (Lat. and Syr.); W. Bauer, Der Apostolos der Syrer, Giessen, 1903; R. H. Conolly, in JTS, vi (1904), 422-439; A. Harnaek, Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, 2d ed., 2 vols., London and New York, 1908; H. Labourt, De Timotheo I., Nestorianorum patriarcha (7.288.23). Paris, 1904; W. A. Shedd, Islam and the Oriental Churches; their historical Relations, Philadelphia, 1904; 1. Silbemagl, Verfassuny and y eeenwdr*er Beatand s6.mmtlicher %irchen des Orients, Regensburg, 1904; J. R. Harris, The Cult of the Heavenly Twins, chaps. xii.-xiv., Cambridge, 1906; E. Buonajuti, Lucian of Samosata arid the Asiatic and Syriac Christianity of his Times, in New York Review, July, 1906; Bernard Ghobalra al-Ghaziri, Rome et flplise Syrienne Maronits d'Antioehe (617-1631), Beirut, 1906; De L. O'Leary, The Syriac Church and Fathers, London, 1909; G. D. Maleeh, Hist. of the Syrian Nation and the Old Evangelical-Apostolic Church of the East, Minneapolis, 1911. Of the highest value is the detailed literature named under the articles to which attention is called above.

SYRO-HEXAPLAR VERSION. See BIBLE VERsioNB, A, I., 1, § 6.

SYROPULUS, sai-repru-lus (SGUROPULUS), SILVESTER: Historian of the Council of Ferrara, Florence (q.v.); lived in the first half of the fifteenth century. He was one of the five high dignitaries under the patriarch in Constantinople. He was a passionate adherent of his church and averse to all Latin tendencies; but circumstances forced him to take part in the pressing movement for church union under the leadership of Emperor Johannes. At the synod he belonged to the party of