volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

236 Decay of the Jacobite Church in Mesopotamia.
asked if I would not also employ Jacobite scribes to
copy Jacobite works. I explained to him that such
copies as were made I paid for out of my own pocket,
and that the British Museum did not buy modern copies
of manuscripts for their Collections. But, I added, I
want to possess for working purposes copies of all the
chief works of Bar Hebraeus, and if he would kindly
appoint scribes and lend them manuscripts to copy
from I would gladly pay them at the current rate and
provide the paper. This was all arranged in a few
minutes, and then he asked many questions about the
collections of Ss^riac manuscripts in the British Museum,
and especially about the manuscripts of the famous
Nitrian Collection. Why do you not publish some of
these ? Why do you always publish books copied by
Nestorians ? he asked. When I told him that I had been
engaged for years in editing a large work^ of Philoxenus
of Mabbogh, he was much pleased, and said he would
give me his blessing before I left him. Then sending
some of those who were present from the room he began
to talk about the great section of the Syrian Church
of which he was the head, and lamented that it was in
a state of decay, and that its influence was being undermined
by the American and British Missionaries, to say
nothing of the Nestorians. He wanted help from the
Church of England and money to repair the churches
and provide suitable equipment for them, to print
books, etc. What should he do ? I suggested that he
should send a small mission to the Archbishop of
Canterbury and state with precision what he wanted
to do, how much money he needed, and what he proposed
to do with it if he obtained it. And I told him that
I felt sure there were many generous men in England
who would sympathize with him in his endeavour to
maintain the old Syrian Church in an efficient state and
would help him. I reminded him of his reception in
1 " Homilies on Christian Life and Character." I edited it with
an English translation, and it was published by the Royal Society of
Literature in two volumes in 1894.