Synod of Beth Lapat

The Synod of Beth Lapat was council of the Church of the East, held in 484 under the leadership of Catholicos Bar Sauma. The most significant result of the synod was the church's official adoption of the doctrine of Nestorianism. Other decisions made at the council included a disavowal of clerical celibacy.

The adoption of Nestorius' teaching, who had been condemned at the First Council of Ephesus in 431, effectively separated the Church of the East from the Byzantine church. The decisions were clearly aimed at pleasing the Zoroastrian Persian kings, who were at constant war with the now Christian Byzantine Empire: the previous pro-Byzantine Catholicos Babowai had been executed, and the Persians had given protection to Nestorian refugees since 462. As Zoroastrians, they viewed family life sacred and abhorred the monastic movement of the Christians.

The decision did not improve the Persian state policy against the church. Some members of the church left and joined the new Monophysite Church. Already at the episcopal gathering of 544 some of the decisions were reverted.

References

• Wigram, W. A. (2004). An introduction to the history of the Assyrian Church, or, The Church of the Sassanid Persian Empire, 100–640 A.D.. Gorgias Press. ISBN 1593331037.