Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

32 Persian Christians and Yazdgard I 223
Christianity beyond the borders of the Byzantine Empire. Socrates Scholasticus
continued the Church History of Eusebius to the year 439; his work
includes numerous documents, resolutions of Councils, imperial letters as
well as those of bishops and is therefore a reliable source full of important
information. 70 In particular, the author emphasises the crucial role of the
bishop Mārūtā, who in his role as Roman ambassador contributed much
to the good relations between Arcadius and Yazdgard I (9). 71
According to Socrates Yazdgard I gave him permission to build churches
wherever he wanted. Mārūtā managed to restore an organised Christian
community which had been destroyed by the persecutions of ˇ Sāpūr II. 72 His
influence was crucial when as a result of the Synod of Seleucia-Ktēsiphōn
in the year 410, at which Church officials from the Byzantine Empire also
participated, the Persian Church received a new hierarchical organisation
and its own ecclesiastical law. 73 This laid the foundations for a separation
of the Persian Church from the Christian Church elsewhere. After another
Council on Sasanian territory took place in 424, the Persian Church gained
permanent independence from the patriarch in Antioch. 74 The successful
activities of bishop Mārūtā increased the number of Christians in the Persian
Empire considerably. Even members of the Sasanian nobility turned to
Christianity.
However, the growing influence of the Christians in the Sasanian Empire
provoked opposition, above all by the Zoroastrian Magians. Socrates alludes
to religious tensions which eventually led to new persecutions of Christians
towards the end of the reign of Yazdgard I (399–420). 75 The Greek ecclesiastical
historian and bishop of Cyrrhus, Theodoret, provides us with more
detailed information regarding the beginning and the reasons for these persecutions.
His Church History, which covers the period from 325 to 428 and
was completed in 450, is also full of documents and an extremely important
source for the religious history in the East during the fourth and fifth
centuries.
Theodoret, Historia ecclesiastica v.39.1–6
(1) Around this time the Persian king Yazdgard (I) fought his war against the
churches, using the following pretext: there was a certain bishop Abdas, who was
virtuous in many respects. With unnecessary zeal this man destroyed a pyreion.
70 See Leppin 1996. 71 Frye 1983a: 144; Asmussen 1983: 940 and Sako 1986: 59–61.
72 On the fate of the Christians in the Sasanian Empire during the fourth and fifth centuries see Hage
1973: 174–87 and Gero 1981.
73 Sachau 1907: 72–3. 74 On the Council of 424 see Müller 1969: 233 and 1981: 298.
75 van Rompay 1995: 363–75.