The Mar Shimun of the period fled, during the massacres, to Urumiah, where were settled a number of Chaldeans, but returned later to Julamark, and was pensioned by the Turkish Government, thereby giving up the last remnants of any pretensions to independence that his people might have preserved. His successors have further weakened their positions by giving way to an overwhelming passion for intrigue, and, occupied with these discreditable operations, in which they try to involve American and Protestant missionaries, they have lost most of their hold over the Church, leaving the field open to the energetic assaults of the Catholics. [Sidenote: MASSACRE OF CHALDEANS] In January this year (1909) a new massacre of old Chaldeans occurred in the neighbourhood of S’airt, near Bitlis, a district where the Chaldeans have sunk into such a position of degradation, physical and moral, as to leave them little more than savages. Their priests are in some cases not sufficiently instructed to say the ordinary services, and the people are reported as complaining bitterly that they do not know whom they are supposed to worship, nor what is the significance of the word “Christian.” This condition of affairs has obtained for a long time now. For many years, under the vitiated governmental system of Turkey, the Kurds have been allowed to do as they please with the possessions of the Chaldean peasants, no steps ever being taken against them by the Turks, at once complaisant and afraid. It is a noteworthy fact that under the Shi’a rule of Persia the Chaldeans have prospered, and the miserable creatures they call “Gavarnai,” who come, naked and hungry, fleeing down the mountain slopes from Turkish territory, are almost a different race from the educated and progressive Chaldeans of Urumia and Salmas in Persia. The Roman Catholic Chaldeans in Turkish territory have increased in numbers since the split in 1550, all those about Mosul and in Diarbekr being of that persuasion. However, Roman Catholicism received a shock in 1869, when the Bull of Papal Infallibility was issued, and a section was led by Thomas Ronkus, the Mutran Mallus, and Kas Jacob Naaman, afterwards Archbishop of Bagdad--which was called the New Chaldeans, that split from the Roman Catholics. The clauses of the Bull to which these objected were:-- 1. That a bishop cannot be made without Papal sanction. 2. That three candidates for archbishoprics must proceed to Rome, of whom the Pope will choose one and reject two. 3. All the revenues of the Church are to be sent to Rome.