CHRISTIANS"Nestorianized" there would be less reason to fear the collusion of
its members with the Orthodox Byzantines. His catholicos, Acacius
(484-96), either failed to understand what was at stake or resisted
the subordination of the church to state interests. With the important
border city of Nasibin in ecclesiastical revolt against its bishop, Bar
~awma wrote to Acacius in 484 that "if a letter of excommunication
is not sent promptly by your Fathership and the city is not pacified,
I will not remain in the episcopate of Nasibin; Nasibin itself will not
remain under the great empire of the Persians."36 Half a century later,
when Aniishazadh, a son of Khusraw Aniishirvan, led a revolt in
Jundishapur supported by its inhabitants, the Magians blamed the
catholicos, Mar Aba (540-52). The king commanded the catholicos
to write the Christians in the city to disassociate themselves from the
revolt. Although Mar Aba objected to being made responsible for the
behavior of Christians, he wrote the required excommunication tl)at
led to their desertion of Aniishazadh and the opening of the city gates
to the royal army.37
Prelates were also employed as spies and diplomats. Isho'yahbh of
Arzon provided Hurmizd IV with information about Byzantine troop
movements while he was bishop of that frontier see. As catholicos,
Sabhrisho' arranged for an exchange of prisoners between the By-
zantines and the Sasanians, and the catholicos IshO'yahbh 11 (628-
43) was sent on an embassy to the Byzantine emperor Heraklios with
several of his bishops by the queen Biiran as part of the peace nego-
tiations.^38
The second main consequences of toleration was that it brought
with it the requirement for royal permission to build churches and
monasteries, to practice Christian burial, to promulgate monastic rules,
and to elect the catholicos. Toleration was bought at the expense of
interference by the state in church affairs. Normally, according to the
canons set down in the sixth century, the procedure for the election
of a new catholicos began with the bishop of Kaskar convening the
other bishops of the patriarchal see at Mada'in, followed by the no-
tification and invitation of the metropolitans to attend the election of
a new catholicos. The election was then conducted by the clergy and
lay notables of Seleucia and Ctesiphon and the bishops of the patriar-
chal see, with the approval of the metropolitans. The candidate was
36 Ibid., pp. 528, 535.
37 Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," 11(1), 163.
38 Ibid., 11(2), 438, 493; Thomas of Margha, Governors, 11, 61.