Prof. Rocio Daga-Portillo (Ludwig Maximilian University, Germany)

Relations of the Church of the East with the Coptic Church: The Nicaean Canons of Marutha (4th Century) and Other Canons attributed to Nicaea from the Makarius Collection (14th Century)

When presenting the canons of Nicaea, the encyclopaedic work of 14th century Coptic monk Macarius in Mss Mardin 311 and Vat. Ar 149, mentions that the Christians of the East took what they needed from them, because “Christians living in Persia and the Eastern territories, were involuntarily compelled to follow the laws of the Persians. Therefore, they extracted from it what the people needed.” It seems that an extensive corpus beyond the 20 official canons, including the Book of the Kings, and other material, is also attributed to Nicaea. This is mentioned in different sources, such as the Melkite introduction to the 20 Nicene canons in Macarius‘ Compilation, which further mentions that the bishops established numerous canons: “They [the Holy bishops in Nicaea] wrote canons for kings, priests, leaders, administrators, judges, the people of the countries, [all] that benefited [them]. They also wrote sunan (canons) concerning diyārāt (monasteries), their superiors, the inhabitants [of the monasteries], the people living monastic lives – both male and female – soldiers, merchants… They did not leave out any small or big matter and established a sunna (canon) for everything. This was because the king, his archons, dignitaries, and all their troops were Christians and were in need of upholding their faith through sunan (canons) and qawānīn (regulations).” Conversely, the Christian population of Persian territories did not necessitate such canons “as their country opposed Byzantium and they had no other choice than to obey the laws of Persia.” Therefore, “they wrote down what [the Holy Spirit] had inspired them, and agreed upon concerning the orthodox Creed, its duties and prescriptions.” And, “This is the first and longest writing ascribed to the Council that encompasses all the qawānīn (canons) needed by the Christians of the East.” These canons taken to the East have been ascribed to Marutha of Mayyafarqin and contain the 20 official canons of Nicaea as well. In our paper, we try to track down Marutha’s canons in the different Syriac and Coptic authors, such as Ibn al-Tayyib, and ‘Abdisho, from the one side, and Abū Ṣulḥ, Ibn Turayk, Michael of Damietta and Ibn al-ʿAssāl, from the other, submiting them to comparison while trying to understand the historical context and reasons for variations. Moreover, we will take into account the Book of the Kings, which deals with civil laws ascribed to Nicaea, in the cases where these canons were present in those of the East. Hence, we will provide a picture of Syriac and Coptic interactions, as well as the reception of canons ascribed to Nicaea and the channels of their transmission between both Churches. Besides that, we will examine and analyze the issues which were a common concern for both the Church of the East and the Coptic Church, as well as the particular concern of each Church through the prism of the Nicene canons and those canons ascribed to Nicaea.

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