)]

[Footnote 132: The state of the Monophysites is excellently illustrated
in a dissertation at the beginning of the iid volume of Assemannus,
which contains 142 pages. The Syriac Chronicle of Gregory Bar-Hebraeus,
or Abulpharagius, (Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii. p. 321--463,) pursues
the double series of the Nestorian Catholics and the Maphrians of the
Jacobites.]

III. In the style of the Oriental Christians, the Monothelites of every
age are described under the appellation of Maronites, [133] a name which
has been insensibly transferred from a hermit to a monastery, from a
monastery to a nation. Maron, a saint or savage of the fifth century,
displayed his religious madness in Syria; the rival cities of Apamea and
Emesa disputed his relics, a stately church was erected on his tomb, and
six hundred of his disciples united their solitary cells on the banks
of the Orontes. In the controversies of the incarnation they nicely
threaded the orthodox line between the sects of Nestorians and Eutyches;
but the unfortunate question of one will or operation in the two natures
of Christ, was generated by their curious leisure. Their proselyte, the
emperor Heraclius, was rejected as a Maronite from the walls of
Emesa, he found a refuge in the monastery of his brethren; and their
theological lessons were repaid with the gift a spacious and wealthy
domain. The name and doctrine of this venerable school were propagated
among the Greeks and Syrians, and their zeal is expressed by Macarius,
patriarch of Antioch, who declared before the synod of Constantinople,
that sooner than subscribe the two wills of Christ, he would submit to
be hewn piecemeal and cast into the sea. [134] A similar or a less
cruel mode of persecution soon converted the unresisting subjects of
the plain, while the glorious title of Mardaites, [135] or rebels, was
bravely maintained by the hardy natives of Mount Libanus. John Maron,
one of the most learned and popular of the monks, assumed the character
of patriarch of Antioch; his nephew, Abraham, at the head of the
Maronites, defended their civil and religious freedom against the
tyrants of the East. The son of the orthodox Constantine pursued with
pious hatred a people of soldiers, who might have stood the bulwark of
his empire against the common foes of Christ and of Rome. An army of
Greeks invaded Syria; the monastery of St. Maron was destroyed with
fire; the bravest chieftains were betrayed and murdered, and twelv