1 According to Dubois de Montpéreux the fortifications of Edgmiatsin were restored by the Katholikos Simeon between 1763 and 1780 (Voyage autour du Caucase, Paris, 1839–43, vol. iii. p. 360). ↑
2 The true inwardness of this policy did not escape the notice of the French traveller Boré, who, writing in 1838, says: “En s’avançant vers l’Asie Centrale la Russie cherchait à réaliser une pensée politique habilement conçue, qui lui promet pour l’avenir des résultats avantageux. Comme puissance chrétienne, elle se déclare la protectrice de tous les chrétiens assujétis à la double puissance Mahométane qu’elle combattait.... Voilà pourquoi l’on tenait beaucoup encore à enclaver dans l’empire le monastère d’Echemiazin; attendu qu’étant le siège du chef principal de la communion arménienne, on devait tenir dans les liens de son pouvoir spirituel la majeure partie des Arméniens répandus dans les royaumes limitrophes” (Correspondance et Mémoires, Paris, 1840, vol. ii. pp. 36, 37). ↑
3 Monteith, Kars and Erzerum, London, 1856, p. 38. During the campaigns against Persia the convent of Edgmiatsin obtained declarations from both belligerents that their territory should be considered neutral ground. The Russians, however, appear to have made use of it as a base (ibid. p. 133). While at Edgmiatsin I was told that in 1804 the Persians erected a battery upon the roof, which naturally suffered, although I am not aware that the Russians came to any harm from the battery. ↑
4 Morier’s Second Journey, London, 1818, pp. 323 seq. According to Von Haxthausen Russian influence had already become preponderant in the election of a katholikos as early as 1768, when the Katholikos Lukas sought and obtained the sanction of Russia upon his elevation (Transcaucasia, English edition, London, 1854, p. 307). We learn from another source that the Katholikos Ephraim (1809–31) was accorded the special protection of the Tsar, and that he did not assume his functions before receiving the imperial assurance at St. Petersburg that the pontificate of Armenia would ever receive such protection. This same Tsar, Alexander I., loaded the bishops and priests who accompanied Ephraim with honours and presents (Avdall’s continuation of Chamchean’s History, Calcutta, 1827, pp. 519–20). ↑
5 Melikoff is said to have had under his command a body of 2000 Armenian volunteers as well as some 400 officers of the same nationality. See the Reminiscences of a Delegate to the Congress of Berlin in the newspaper L’Arménie for 15th August 1892 (published in London). ↑
6 Nine articles of the Polojenye deal with the election of a katholikos. Upon a vacancy of the Chair it is the duty of the synod to issue invitations to all Armenian dioceses, whether in Russia or elsewhere, calling upon them each to name two deputies, one clerical and one lay, who shall repair to Edgmiatsin after the lapse of a year. These deputies, should they be unable to attend in person, may signify their vote by letter. In addition to the deputies the members of the synod and seven of the oldest bishops of Edgmiatsin have votes ex officio. The election takes place in the church of the Illuminator. Four candidates are chosen by vote in the first place. A second ballot narrows the selection to two. The assembly then appoints three delegates who repair to the Governor-General of the Caucasus and officially communicate the result. The Governor-General transmits the two names to the Emperor through the Minister of the Interior. The Emperor confirms the katholikos and gives him the ukase. After he has taken the oath of allegiance to the Russian throne he is consecrated according to the rite of the Armenian Church.
In Russia there are at present only six dioceses of the Armenian Church; they are specified in the Polojenye. They are:—1. New Nakhichevan and Bessarabia; 2. Astrakhan; 3. Erivan; 4. Tiflis; 5. Karabagh; 6. Shirvan. Kars is at present a vicarate, dependent upon Erivan. In Turkey there are, I am informed, usually no less than fifty-two dioceses; but there are not always bishops to every diocese. In Persia there are two, namely New Julfa and Tabriz. It will thus be seen that the Armenians of Turkey have the preponderant vote, and that the clergy have a small majority over the lay members, to the extent of the synod and seven of the bishops of Edgmiatsin.
At the last election, which took place on the 17th of May 1892, there were present in the church of St. Gregory 72 electors, including the synod and the 7 bishops. The number might have been about 135. But several dioceses appointed the same delegate. The vote for Mgr. Khrimean was unanimous, the second candidate being only nominal.
Other articles of the Polojenye to which I should like to call attention are to the following effect:—The usual Russian provision forbidding proselytising is inserted. The katholikos alone is permitted to make the holy oil. The synod is to consist of four bishops and four archimandrites, all resident at Edgmiatsin. It is to assemble at least twice a week. The katholikos is ex officio a member of synod and presides when he is present. It is not said whether the procurator has a right to be present at the deliberations; but the minutes and decisions must all be submitted to him. All monasteries are to be regulated according to the rule of St. Basil, and to become a monk it is necessary to obtain the sanction of the synod upon the recommendation of a bishop. A married man may become a monk if he have no children under age and if his wife agree to enter a convent. The Church schools are recognised; but their rules and curricula must be submitted to the synod. The synod must in turn submit them to the Minister of the Interior. Finally it is stated that the Armenian clergy are supported by the gifts of the Armenian people, and the nature of these gifts is specified. ↑
7 According to Von Haxthausen (journey in 1843) the synod took the place of the general council of the Church, which it was impossible to assemble. He adds that in 1783 the Patriarch Lukas decreed that it should not consist of fewer than seven members; in 1802 there were nine members (Transcaucasia, English edition, p. 305). ↑
8 Captain Richard Wilbraham, Travels, etc., London, 1839, p. 98. At the time of his visit in 1837 the procurator was actually an Armenian, but quite Russianised. ↑
9 Transcaucasia, German edition, Leipzig, 1856, vol. i. pp. 256 seq.; English edition, pp. 284 seq. Von Haxthausen speaks of the “Grobheit des Procurators.” It is only just to add that the katholikos was absent during his visit. ↑
10 I was shown the documents in the library. The method of the election of the Katholikos Makar affords great sport to the Jesuit Vernier. He hails with delight the constitution of Edgmiatsin into a state prison “où l’élu de la nation demeure sous la garde d’un gêolier Moscovite. Cet élu a fini par déplaire au despote couronné de St. Pétersbourg; le czar vient de rejeter avec mépris l’œcuménique qui avait réuni la majorité des suffrages, et de lui substituer arbitrairement un Russe qui n’a d’Arménien que le nom. Dans quelques années de par le knout, ce nom même disparaîtra, et quelque pape cosaque remplacera l’Arménien russifié et occupera à Edgmiatsin le trône de saint Grégoire. Terrible et juste vengeance de Dieu....” The italics are mine (Histoire du Patriarcat Arménien Catholique, Paris, 1891, p. 285). ↑
11 Sophocles, Œdipus Tyrannus, 1. 58. ↑
12 The new catalogue, which has not yet been printed [September 1900], will contain some 3500 titles. So far as I have been able to ascertain, there already exist two catalogues—(1) that published by the Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 1840, and (2) that by Caréniantz, Tiflis, 1863, 4o [in Armenian]. ↑
13 For a description of this book and its ivory panels see Strgygowski, Das Etschmiadzin-Evangeliar, Vienna, 1891. ↑
14 The institution of the twelve bishops, who reside in the palace of the katholikos and fulfil various offices about his person, dates from the commencement of the Armenian State Church. See Faustus of Byzantium, vi. 5, and Gelzer (Die Anfänge der Armenischen Kirche, in Berichte der K. S. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzic, Phil.-Hist. Classe, 1895). ↑
15 I was informed that the notes are those of the fifth century; but there appears to be no sufficient historical evidence for this belief. The historians, however, speak of this or that vartapet as having been a musician (erajisht). The Katholikos George IV. (d. 1882) transcribed the original notes from the Armenian manuscripts, but brought them into consonance with European methods. ↑
16 So it is known to all the early travellers. Cp. Poser, 1621; Evliya, 1647, “the Three Churches, a great convent built by the Greek emperors”; Rhodes, 1648–49; Tavernier, 1655; Chardin, 1673; Jesuit Missionaries, seventeenth century, Letter of Père Monier; Schillinger, c. 1699; Tournefort, 1701, who notices the inappropriateness of the name. ↑
17 It is given at length by Agathangelus, and may be found in that portion of the treatise to which I shall hereafter allude as “the Acts” (see note on p. 291, infra). There can be little doubt that the legend of the Ripsimians took the place of an old heathen legend, associated with the site at Vagharshapat. There seems to have been a local tradition that the cathedral and the chapels of Ripsime and Gaiane stand upon three rocks, whence in pagan times voices would be heard coming from underlying cavities and returning answers to questions addressed to them. ↑
18 This is probably an anachronism. ↑
19 I interpret him in the sense of there and back. ↑
20 It appears to have been the custom among the Armenians down to comparatively recent times for pious people to place large blocks of stone in front of the entrance to a church by way of offering. Dubois de Montpéreux saw a number of such stones, 6 or 7 feet high, covered with crosses and arabesques, in front of the portal of the cathedral at Edgmiatsin. I do not know what has become of them. ↑
21 Chardin (ed. Langlès, Paris, 1811, 8vo, vol. ii. p. 175). See also Tavernier (book i. ch. iii.). The Jesuit missionaries, however, later on in the seventeenth century, speak of a structure resembling a mausoleum and having four stone columns and an altar in the centre. There can be little doubt that this is an allusion to the erection of Eleazar. ↑
23 History of Architecture, book i. ch. iv. Neo-Byzantine style. His remarks have reference to the shape of the dome and not to the pointed arches of the false arcade, which perhaps argue a much later date. ↑
24 Dubois de Montpéreux, Voyage autour du Caucase, Paris, 1839–43, vol. iii. pp. 372 seq. ↑
25 Ibid. Atlas, series iii. plate 7. ↑
26 See Telfer, The Crimea and Transcaucasia, London, 1876, vol. i. p. 222, and Dubois, op. cit. vol. iii. pp. 382 seq. ↑
27 Strgygowski, Das Etschmiadzin-Evangeliar, Vienna, 1891. I read the large inscription thus:—Ἰησοῦ βοήθει πάντας τοὺς εὐχομένους ὲν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ Ζιβιθαιν (?)—κύριε ἐλέησον τὸν δοῦλον σοῦ Ἀρχίαν—καὶ κύριε Ἐλέησον Ἔλπιδιν (for Ἐλπιδα or Ἐλπιδίαν, the variation of the accusative of Ἔλπις into -πιδιν being not unusual)—Δανίηλ, Τίρερ, Γαρίκινις. The word Ζιβιθαιν is taken as a proper name by Brosset (Voyage Archéologique, St. Petersburg, 1849–51, 3me rapp., p. 16), and by Strgygowski, who supposes it to be the same as Zuithai, found in Armenian writers, e.g. in Faustus of Byzantium, who speaks of a Zuithai as priest of the town of Artaxata during the persecution of Shapur (Faustus, iv. 56). Zuithai would be the priest in whose church the memorial had been placed. As for the three proper names at the end, that of Tirer has been found in an inscription of the thirteenth century. Garikinis denotes the proper name Garegin. ↑
28 It is a matter of surmise that Nerses I. restored the sacred buildings of Vagharshapat after the destruction of that city by the Persian armies in the fourth century (see Faustus, v. 1); but the first restoration of the cathedral of which I can find any certain mention is that of the great Armenian chief Vahan Mamikonean in or about the year 483 (Lazar Pharpetzi in Langlois’ Collection des historiens de l’Arménie, Paris, 1867–69, vol. ii. p. 352. And see Saint-Martin, Mémoires sur l’Arménie, Paris, 1818, vol. i. p. 328). Armenia was at this time struggling to rid herself of the Persian (Sasanian) yoke, having lost her Arsakid dynasty. The katholikos no longer resided at Edgmiatsin, the pontifical seat having been transferred to Dvin in A.D. 452 (Saint-Martin, ibid. vol. i. p. 437); nor does he return until A.D. 1441. In 618 it was again restored by the Katholikos Komitas (Saint-Martin, i. 116, quoting John Katholikos; and cp. Sebeos, Hist. of Heraclius, iii. 25 (in Armenian)), who substituted a dome in stone in place of the earlier wooden one. Certain repairs are attributed to the Katholikos Nerses III., surnamed the builder, A.D. 640–661, I know not upon what authority. After this there ensues a long period, for which we appear to have no records. The katholikos often changes his residence. After the destruction of the Cilician kingdom and in the year 1438 the right arm of St. Gregory, a relic which had become the palladium of the pontifical office, was transferred from Sis, the capital of that kingdom, to Edgmiatsin (Gelzer, article Armenien in Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie, Leipzic, 1896). Saint-Martin places the transfer thither of the seat of the pontificate in the year 1441. In 1442 the Katholikos Kirakos undertook the necessary repairs (Thomas Metsobatzi). We now leap to the reign of Shah Abbas of Persia, who, as is well known, transported a whole colony of Armenians from the valley of the Araxes to the outskirts of his capital, Ispahan. In 1614 this monarch carried off a number of the venerated stones of the church to New Julfa to form the nucleus of a new Edgmiatsin (Arakel of Tauris, ch. xxiv.). The famous monastery fell into woeful neglect. The Katholikos Moses (1629–33) restored it, but added no new feature. His successor Philip renewed the roof (inscriptions, records, etc.). I think I have mentioned subsequent additions. The steps which run round the church were added or extensively restored by the Katholikos Lukas (in 1784). But they have been modified by Makar I. Repairs are ascribed to the pontiffs Astvatsadur, Simeon and Ephraim, the last of whom repaired in 1816 the damages which the Persians had done to the roof by placing a battery upon it. For more detailed information I may refer my reader to a work entitled: Description of the Mother Church of the Armenians, by Vahan Vardapet Bastamean, Edgmiatsin, 1877 (in Armenian and Russian). ↑
29 See the translation of the De Edificiis by Stewart, annotated by Sir Charles Wilson, London, 1896, pp. 73 seq. (Palestine Pilgrims Text Society). ↑
30 John Katholikos, c. xii. And see Sebeos, Hist. of Heraclius, iii. 33. ↑
31 They bear the monograms of Nerses Katholikos and are reproduced by Strgygowski (op. cit.), to whom I refer my reader. I only saw one of them during my stay. ↑
32 Brosset (Bull. Scient. de l’Acad. de Sc. de St. Pétersbourg, vol. ii. 1837) has transcribed the letters and published a valuable little notice on the subject. ↑
33 The circumstance appealed to Brosset as a rare example of religious tolerance (Voyage Arch., rapp. 3, p. 19). ↑
34 Dubois, Voyage autour du Caucase, vol. iii. p. 371. But see Haxthausen, Transcaucasia, p. 287. ↑
35 I was unable to measure each apse; but I was assured that they were all of the same or nearly the same size. The portal is of course not included in the above measurements. ↑
36 Telfer (Crimea and Transcaucasia, London, 1876, vol. i. p. 231) seems to refer to this throne, which he ascribes to Pope Innocent XI., a gift to James IV. (1655–80). ↑
37 See Morier, Second Journey, pp. 323 seq. ↑
38 See Dubois de Montpéreux, op. cit. vol. iii. p. 213, and Neale’s Holy Eastern Church, vol. i. p. 296. The former of these writers informs us that our church of St. Ripsime “a servi de type à une foule d’autres églises,” and the latter has improved upon this statement by asserting that it is “the norm of all Armenian ecclesiastical buildings” (Dubois, vol. iii. p. 380, and Neale, vol. i. p. 293). Leaving Georgia out of account, both these statements are incorrect. ↑
39 Unless we accept Neale’s hypothesis that they served as a narthex. But the narthex is not a feature of the churches of Great Armenia. ↑
40 According to Brosset (Voyage Arch., rapp. 3, p. 82) the diameter of the dome is not less than about 35 feet. The height is given by Neale, op. cit. p. 296, as 104½ feet to the top of the cross. ↑
41 Sebeos, History of Heraklius (in Armenian), part iii. ch. xxv. ↑
42 For the theft and recovery of these relics see Smith and Dwight (Missionary Researches, London, 1834, p. 280), and Brosset (Voyage Arch., rapp. 3, p. 83). ↑
43 Brosset, ibid. p. 82. The date reposes upon the authority of the historian, John Katholikos. ↑
44 According to Agathangelus the third chapel was built upon the site of the wine-press. Further on we are told that it was situated north of the town, and that in it was buried the unfortunate nun who was left behind owing to sickness. ↑
45 Brosset (Bull. Scientifique Acad. Sc. St. Pétersbourg, 1840, pp. 46 seq.) quotes a letter from Nahabet to this effect. ↑
47 Belck, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Berlin, 1893, Heft ii. p. 77. ↑
48 Haxthausen, Transcaucasia, p. 295. ↑
49 Schillinger, Persianische und Ost-Indianische Reise, Nürnberg, 1707. I do not credit the statement of Evliya, who visited Edgmiatsin in A.D. 1647, to the effect that at that time the monastery was inhabited by about 500 monks. ↑
50 Bryce, Transcaucasia and Ararat, note to 4th edition, London, 1896, p. 314. ↑
51 It is interesting to place together the two following passages, the first taken from a modern and representative Armenian source, the second from the work of a German scholar. I translate both from the German. Dr. Arshak Ter-Mikelean, professor of theology in the Academy at Edgmiatsin, writes (Die Armenische Kirche in ihren Beziehungen zur byzantinischen, Leipzic, 1892, p. 9): “The mother church of Gregory was not founded by him nor even by the apostles, who are only mortal men; but the everlasting Founder, the only Head of the Church, Himself descends in glory from Heaven and commands him to build a church after His plan and His directions on a prescribed site in the royal city, Vagharshapat. Christ Himself appears to Gregory in a vision and instructs him what he shall do ...”; and Professor Gelzer draws the inference (Die Anfänge der armenischen Kirche, in Berichte über die Verhandlungen der K. S. Gesell. der Wissenschaften zu Leipzic, Phil.-Hist. Classe, 1895, p. 127): “The ancient capital Vagharshapat ... bears at the present day the name Edgmiatsin, ‘the Only Begotten descended from Heaven,’ in everlasting remembrance that Christ Himself founded the Armenian Church and thereby established her as autokephalous and completely independent of every patriarchate, whether of the East or of the West.” ↑
52 Moses of Khorene mentions St. Bartholomew and St. Simon (ii. 34, in Langlois, Collection des hist. de l’Arménie, Paris, 1867–69, vol. ii. p. 98), and says that the former suffered martyrdom in the town of Arevban, while the other was reputed to have met the same fate in Veriospora. According to Gelzer (article Armenien in Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie, Leipzic, 1896) the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew in Urbanopolis, a town of Great Armenia, was known to Greek writers as early as the fifth century. Urbanopolis, Albanopolis, or Korbanopolis (Armenian, Arevbanos or Arebonos-Kaghak) may perhaps be identified with Arabion castellum, where in fact Vardan (c. 1270) tells us that the saint was murdered. Arabion castellum was a fort on the Stranga, or Great Zab, which Mr. F. C. Conybeare (Key of Truth, Oxford, 1898, p. cii.) connects with the modern Deir, where at the present day the monastery and church of St. Bartholomew stand. I surmise that nothing is known of the site of Veriospora. Moses, following the Edessene tradition, speaks of St. Thaddeus as one of the seventy disciples, relates at length his mission to King Abgar of Edessa (Urfa in Mesopotamia), and speaks of his conversion of King Sanatruk, successor of Abgar, and of his martyrdom in the canton of Chavarchan, called in his day Ardaz, as well-known facts. For St. Jude I rely on Issaverdens (Armenia and the Armenians, Venice, 1878, vol. ii. p. 21), who relates that he was put to death and buried in the city of Urmi in Azerbaijan. ↑
53 Moses of Khorene, ii. 30–36, in Langlois, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 95 seq.; and Saint-Martin, Mémoires, etc. vol. i. p. 127. ↑
54 Professor Carrière (La Légende d’Abgar dans l’histoire de Moïse de Khorène, Paris, 1895) shows that Moses used an Armenian version of the legend of Abgar which commenced to form about the middle of the third century but was subsequently remodelled. The same writer in this work relegates the unfortunate Moses of Khorene, or rather the writer who assumes the mask of this name, to a position inter deos minores and to a period not earlier than the eighth century. He had previously been made to step down several places, and was shivering somewhere in the seventh century. See Gutschmid, Kleine Schriften, Leipzic 1892, iii. p. 335. ↑
55 Faustus of Byzantium, iii. 1, and iv. 3, in Langlois, op. cit. vol. i. pp. 210, 237. ↑
56 Issaverdens, ii. 20, and Saint-Martin, i. p. 131. ↑
57 Eusebius (Hist. eccl. vi. 46, 2), speaking of Dionysius of Alexandria (A.D. 248–265), says, “And in the same manner he writes to those in Armenia over whom Merujan was bishop on the subject of repentance.” For the probable connection of this bishop with the Van country see Gelzer (Die Anfänge, etc. pp. 171 seq.). ↑
58 Mr. F. C. Conybeare (Key of Truth, Oxford, 1898, pp. ci. seq.) discusses the locality of the see of Archelaus. He is called in the Acts of Archelaus bishop of Karkhar (ἐπίσκοποσ Καρχάρων or Κασχάρων), which again is called a city of Mesopotamia, three days’ hard riding from castellum Arabion, a fort on the river Stranga, the modern Great Zab. Karkhar was included in the Roman dominions. May it not have been somewhere in the neighbourhood of Sert? ↑
59 Conybeare, ibid. pp. lviii. and ciii. ↑
61 Conybeare, ibid. p. xcvi. ↑
62 I refer to the long account contained in the Agathangelus treatise (see note infra). ↑
63 Conybeare, op. cit. pp. cxi. cxii. ↑
65 Letter of Lazar Pharpetzi ap. Conybeare, op. cit. p. cviii.; Nerses of Lampron, ibid. p. lxxxv.; Isaac Katholikos, ibid. Appendix vii. p. 171, and pp. lxxvi. lxxvii. ↑
66 Conybeare (op. cit.) gives the gist of the canon of the Council of Shahapivan (pp. cvii. cviii.) and a translation of the canon of John Katholikos at the Council of Dvin and of portions of his tract (pp. 152 seq. in Appendix iv.). ↑
67 Conybeare (ibid. Appendices i. to iv. inclusive) details these various persecutions from the original sources; his discussion of the identity of Sembat is a most interesting contribution to the history of Armenia in the Middle Ages (pp. lxi. seq.). ↑
68 The visit is almost certainly a fable. ↑
69 For some enquiry into the ethnical affinities and earliest history of the Armenians see Vol. II. of the present work, pp. 67 seq. ↑
70 Note especially the interesting incident mentioned by Faustus of Byzantium (v. 4). An ally of the Sasanian king of Persia and a sincere imitator of his example thus addresses his army: “When you get to close quarters with the imperial troops I bid you try your best to make prisoners and avoid bloodshed; we must endeavour to carry them off with us as trophies, and we will make them work for us when we get home as artisans and masons for the construction of our cities and palaces.” ↑
71 Dion Cassius (lxxx. 3) adds this last statement. The preceding are based on Agathangelus (ch. i.). The chronology is that of A. von Gutschmid. See his article Persia in Ency. Brit. and Kleine Schriften, iii. pp. 402 seq. ↑
72 Mommsen (Provinces of the Roman Empire, vol. ii. p. 75) tells us, on the authority of Dion Cassius ap. Suidas, that it was the Roman general Priscus who, after destroying Artaxata in A.D. 163, laid out the city which was called καινὴ τόλις, or, in Armenian, Nor-Kaghak. This latter name is used by Armenian writers of the fifth century alongside of that of Vagharshapat (Edgmiatsin). ↑
73 Herodian (vi. 5, 6) gives us an account of the war waged by Severus, which is not even noticed by the Armenian historian. ↑
74 Agathangelus, ch. ii. Life of St. Gregory. A. von Gutschmid, who throws doubt upon the statement in the Life that St. Gregory was a son of Anak who was taken to Greece, views with a suspicion, which is quite natural, the words of the historian, “one was taken to Persia, the other to Greece.” The territory of the Empire would have been hostile to such protégés of the Persian king. But even if this view be plausible it is surely not necessary to take the words too literally (Kleine Schriften, iii. 380). ↑
75 Elisœus Vardapet (ap. Langlois, Collection des hists. de l’Arménie, vol. ii. p. 206) gives the text of a petition despatched by the Armenian nobles to Theodosius II., in which occurs the following passage:— ... “our king Tiridates, while yet a child, was taken to Greek territory and educated there in order to escape from his cruel and parricidal uncles....” On the other hand, Agathangelus leads us to infer that Ardashir took possession of Armenia after the murder of Chosroes and that it was then that the child Tiridates was taken to Greece. In this statement he comes into conflict with Zonaras, who tells us (xii. 21) that it was only in the time of Gallus (252 or 253) that the Persians were able to possess themselves of Armenia, after the flight of the king, Tiridates. It does not seem open to doubt that it was not Ardashir but his successor Shapur I. who became master of Armenia; and these various sources may perhaps be partially reconciled in the manner suggested by Von Gutschmid (Kleine Schriften, iii. 405) and adopted in my text. Von Gutschmid interprets parricidal in the sense of the uncles having murdered, or helped to murder, not their own father but the father of Tiridates. ↑
76 The campaign of Odaenathus against Shapur is placed in 265 by Robertson Smith (article Palmyra in Ency. Brit.) and in 264 by Mommsen (Provinces of Roman Empire, ii. 104). We learn from Vopiscus (Aurel. 27) that an Armenian contingent was enrolled under the banner of Zenobia against the Emperor Aurelian in 271. What was the attitude of Tiridates during the war? ↑
77 Tiridates was no doubt influenced by the persecutions of the emperors Decius (249–251) and Valerian (253–260). The latter persecution took place during the last three and a half years of the reign of Valerian. ↑
78 Agathangelus is our earliest authority for the reign of Tiridates and for the events connected with the conversion of the Armenians as a nation to Christianity. But the scholars who examined this precious treatise were impressed with the scale and frequency of the interpolations to which the original text appeared to have been subjected; and partly for this reason, partly owing to the former ascendency of Moses of Khorene, full use was not made of the work. In 1877 there appeared in the pages of a German periodical one of those masterpieces of the higher criticism of which German writers now appear to have a monopoly. It is entitled Agathangelos, by Alfred von Gutschmid, and it has been incorporated in the collected edition of Von Gutschmid’s minor works (Kleine Schriften von A. von Gutschmid, Leipzic, 1892, vol. iii. pp. 339 seq.). The author laboured under the disadvantage of not being an Armenian scholar; but he has nevertheless succeeded in discriminating between the various sources from which the treatise, as it has come down to us, has been built up. They are—1. An earliest source which we may call the Life of St. Gregory, and which also contains an account, running parallel, of the reigns of Chosroes and Tiridates down to the conversion of the latter. Von Gutschmid thinks that this writing was composed in Armenian during the pontificate of Sahak, or Isaac, the Great (A.D. 391–442). It seems more probable, however, that it was originally written in Greek or Syriac and subsequently translated into Armenian. 2. A later piece which we may distinguish as the Acts of St. Gregory and of St. Ripsime and her Companions. It is a hagiograph, which Von Gutschmid supposes to have been written about the year 450. It seems to me, however, that a certain passage in Faustus of Byzantium (iii. 13, in Langlois’ translation, “jusqu’à changer même l’image de l’homme en une figure de bête”) points to that author having been acquainted with the Acts; at all events he is familiar with the legend of the Ripsimians. Faustus appears to have written 395–416. To the Acts portion of the Agathangelus treatise belongs a long and possibly independent piece which contains the teaching of St. Gregory; but neither the Greek version nor the extant translations include it, and I am not aware that any consecutive account of its contents has yet appeared. In the Armenian text this last piece takes up over one-half of the treatise as a whole. And finally—3. The Vision or Apocalypse of St. Gregory, in which the saint receives the Divine mandate to build the church at Edgmiatsin. This piece, together with the prologue and epilogue to the whole work, was probably added by a priest of Vagharshapat (Edgmiatsin), who edited the treatise and gave it its present form, publishing it under the pseudonym of Agathangelus. Von Gutschmid thinks that the work as a whole may be assigned to the period of Persian persecution (A.D. 452–456). The fact that Lazar Pharpetzi displays an intimate acquaintance with it under the name of Agathangelus shows that it cannot be placed later than about the close of the fifth century. I do not know, however, that Lazar shows a knowledge of the Apocalypse, or that the statement contained in a Paris MS. can be conclusively disproved, that the Armenian text which has come down to us is a translation made in the seventh century, at the time of the discovery under Komitas of the relics of St. Ripsime, from a Greek original. Von Gutschmid, however, argues against this view (pp. 354 seq.). Ter-Mikelean (Die armenische Kirche, p. 5) supports the view that the work was translated at the close of the fourth century by Koriun from a Greek original (see Langlois, vol. ii. Introduction to Koriun, p. 4); but Von Gutschmid has shown that certain passages have been borrowed from Koriun, and until the Armenian text has been subjected to a searching philological criticism we are not safe in saying more than this. The student will find the various pieces enumerated above distinguished one from another, passage by passage, in the table given by Von Gutschmid (pp. 375 seq.). The latest edition of our present Greek text, which is a translation from the Armenian, is that of De Lagarde (Göttingen, 1887), but the references given in my notes are to that of Langlois. The best translation is that of the Mekhitarists in Italian (Venice, 1843). The French translation in Langlois omits some of the most important passages. As regards the historical importance of the pieces, Von Gutschmid concludes that the Life may be regarded as a source of absolute reliability for the conversion of the king and for the events in Armenia which succeeded the conversion. As regards what took place before that event, it is in the main reliable, although interwoven with legend. The Acts, on the other hand, and the Apocalypse are as good as useless as historical material.
The scholarly study of Von Gutschmid rendered possible Professor Gelzer’s profound and brilliant essay, Die Anfänge der armenischen Kirche, to which I have already alluded (p. 277, note 1) and in which he reviews the work of the Armenian writer known to us under the name of Faustus of Byzantium. ↑
79 See p. 145 of the Italian translation of Agathangelus. Von Gutschmid (Kleine Schriften, iii. 358) is careful to point out the discrepancy in the two sources. While the Acts speak of possession by devils as the malady with which the people of Vagharshapat were afflicted and which caused them to be transformed into animals, the Life only mentions “possession” as one of the diseases which are enumerated. ↑
80 See the Italian translation, p. 153. ↑
81 Sozomen, ii. 8. He places the conversion before Constantine, but does not give the exact date. ↑
82 “With Gallienus (260) there begins for the Christians a long period of peace, lasting about forty years” (Moeller, History of the Christian Church, A.D. 1–600, London, 1892, p. 196). ↑
83 It seems impossible to precise the date of the conversion of Tiridates. The author of the Life in Agathangelus allows thirteen years for the captivity of Gregory, who was imprisoned in the first year of the restoration. But I am not aware that we are able to fix this latter date. The conversion probably occurred about the year 280. ↑
84 Emin, Recherches sur le paganisme arménien, p. 20, note 1. ↑
86 The king himself preached (Agathangelus, Life of St. Gregory, in p. 253 of the Italian translation). ↑
87 I insert the word “years” in deference to Professor Gelzer, who argues (Die Anfänge, etc., p. 166) that if the conversion took place about the year 280, the journey to Cæsarea could scarcely have been undertaken before 285–290. He is wishing to show that the statements contained in a portion of the Agathangelus treatise ascribed by Von Gutschmid to the less reliable source, viz. the Acts, to the effect that St. Gregory was ordained by Leontius, archbishop of Cæsarea, may quite well be true. We know that Leontius subscribed the Council of Nice (325); and his pontificate must have covered a period of forty-five years if St. Gregory was ordained by him in or about the year 280. The Life mentions the visit of Gregory to Cæsarea but not the name of Leontius; and Von Gutschmid, while he regards the visit as historical, views with suspicion the connection with that particular prelate (Kleine Schriften, iii. pp. 415 and 418). That seems to me the sensible view. We learn from an independent source (Gelas. Cyzic. ii. 36, ap. Mansi, ii. p. 929) that in the year 325 and during the lifetime of Saint Gregory and Leontius, Great Armenia was in ecclesiastical subordination to Cæsarea; and the link with the capital of Cappadocia was maintained until the death of the Katholikos Nerses I. about the year 374 (cp. Faustus, v. 29). The later story, to the effect that Tiridates received Christianity from the bishop of Rome (so in the petition of the Armenians in the year 450 to Theodosius, ap. Elisœus in Langlois, ii. 206), is plainly a story with a purpose and must therefore be viewed with suspicion. ↑
88 The car with the white mules is mentioned in the Life, and the escort of sixteen princes in the Acts. ↑
89 A bishop of Sivas with this name was martyred under Diocletian; but this saint will not suit our chronology. Certain features in connection with the cult of the saint—a hind is offered up to him on his name day—have suggested to Von Gutschmid (Kleine Schriften, iii. 414) that Athenogenes was a heathen god of the chase, converted in comparatively remote times into a Christian martyr. A local cult of this nature seems to have attached to Herakles in certain countries; therefore it might quite well have been natural for Gregory to supplant the worship of his Armenian counterpart, Vahagn, at Astishat with that of Athenogenes, the saint corresponding to the god of the chase. This is ingenious but not convincing. The hunting features in the cult of Athenogenes may surely have been derived from his worship at Astishat in place of Vahagn (Herakles). ↑
90 I adopt the Greek version of Agathangelus in this passage in preference to the Armenian text, which has “he laid the foundations of the church and erected an altar to the glory of Christ. It was here that he first commenced to build churches, and erected an altar in the name of the Holy Trinity and added a baptistery.” See Gelzer (Die Anfänge, etc., p. 129). ↑
91 After a second perusal of the passages in Agathangelus and Faustus (in Langlois: Agathangelus, cxiv. and cxv.; Faustus, iii. and iv. 14), I do not hesitate to identify the site of the temples of Astishat—Mount Karke, in face of the great range, Taurus—with the immediate surroundings of the present cloister of Surb Karapet (see Vol. II. p. 177). The view which I shall offer from the terrace of that famous monastery (Fig. 157) will be the view which excited the cupidity of the eunuch Hair; the ash trees in the foreground may be the descendants of the hatzeatz-drakht or garden of ash trees; finally, the confluence of rivers, overgrown with thick forest, to which the eunuch descended and where he met his death, may be represented by the still wooded banks of the Murad in the valley of Charbahur. The identification of the scene of the events narrated in the text with the present monastery of Surb Karapet may be found in the geography attributed to Vardan in Saint Martin (Mémoires, etc., vol. ii. p. 431).
The baptism of Tiridates probably took place on the banks of the Upper Murad upon the site of another existing cloister of Surb Karapet, also called Uch Kilisa, near Diadin (see Smith and Dwight, Missionary Researches, p. 417). ↑
95 Agathangelus, Life of St Gregory, sec. 158. ↑
97 Faustus, v. 31. “The obsequies of the dead were conducted amid loud lamentations, accompanied by trumpets, guitars and harps. Monstrous dances took place, men and women, with bangles on their arms and painted faces, giving themselves up to every kind of abomination.” The picture is coloured by malice, but is vivid. ↑
98 Agathangelus, Life of St. Gregory, sec. 169. ↑
100 Faustus, iv. 14. It seems plain from this chapter that these domains had been bestowed upon the family of Gregory by Tiridates and his successors. ↑
101 Faustus, iii. 15 and 19. The profane delinquents were named Pap and Athenogenes, and the makeshift office-bearers Daniel the Syrian, Pharen and Shahak. The two last-named were formally invested with the office and sent to Cæsarea to be consecrated. ↑
102 Note especially the election of Nerses I., a descendant of St. Gregory who was loth to accept the office. “The numerous troops of all Armenia demanded and proclaimed Nerses as katholikos ... the entire assembly commenced to cry with a loud voice, ‘It is Nerses who must be our pastor.’ Nerses refused to accept the mandate, of which he professed himself unworthy. Nevertheless the assembly persisted in their resolution and continued to cry before the king, ‘No one except Nerses shall be our pastor; nobody but he shall occupy the holy chair!’” The whole chapter (Faustus, iv. 3) is well worth reading, and contains some very vivid portraiture. Nerses was a layman and was raised to the pontificate in one day. He was then sent to Cæsarea to be formally consecrated. ↑
103 Professor Gelzer pertinently observes (Die Anfänge, etc., p. 148) that the Armenian kings in pagan times had been in the practice of placing their own near relatives in priestly offices, and quotes Strabo to the effect that in the neighbouring provinces of Cappadocia and Pontus the high priest was δεύτερος κατὰ τίμην μετὰ βασιλέα, or second in rank after the king. On the other hand, traces of Jewish custom are to be found in the existence of a second priestly House in Armenia during the early period of Christianity, who in a sense were rivals of the House of the Illuminator. I allude to the House of Albianus. It must not be forgotten that there were extensive settlements of Jews in Armenia at this period, brought thither by the Armenian king Tigranes (Faustus, iv. 55). ↑
104 Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. ix. 8. For the date see Von Gutschmid (Kleine Schriften, iii. p. 412). ↑
105 The doubts of Von Gutschmid would perhaps have been removed by the more correct translation given by Professor Gelzer of the passage relating to the journey in Agathangelus and by his editing of the context. The passage should read, “By land and sea they proceeded with haste until they reached the State of the Italians and the land of the Dalmatians and arrived in the imperial city of the Romans.” Dalmatia is the præfectura per Illyricum. The name of the bishop is given in the text of Langlois as Sylvester, and as Eusebius in the Greek translation. The best Armenian MS. also has Eusebius. The name of Sylvester appears to have been substituted much later, when the “imperial city of the Romans” was very naturally identified with Rome and the prelate with the bishop of Rome.
My friend Mr. F. C. Conybeare calls my attention to the interesting circumstance that the Armenian equivalent for Latin is Dalmatian. Thus in their Gospels it is said that the title King of the Jews was inscribed on the cross in Hebrew, Greek, and in Dalmatian. ↑
106 And yet the ὁμοούσιον was not incorporated into the Armenian Creed! But it does not appear that this omission was intentional. The creed already in use was allowed to stand. I confess to a feeling of astonishment, having regard to the unequivocal language in which the author of the Life attests the acceptance of the Council; but the canons could not have been much appreciated in Armenia at the time if we are to credit Koriun’s statement that he himself, with Ghevond and Eznik, brought authentic copies of them to Armenia in the fifth century (Biography of Mesrop in Langlois’ Collection, vol. ii. p. 12). Mr. F. C. Conybeare informs me that the Creed of Nice was only communicated to the Armenian diaspora in Persia and Southern Mesopotamia by the Katholikos Papken after the Council of Dvin, c. 490 A.D. It was rejected by that diaspora as in contradiction with their already established Ebionite or Adoptionist tenets (see Letter-book of the Patriarchs, MS. of the Armenian Father, St. Anthony, in Stambul).
Dr. Arshak Ter-Mikelean prints the Armenian and Nicene creeds side by side and accompanies them with some interesting remarks (Die armenische Kirche in ihren Beziehungen zur byzantinischen, Leipzig, 1892, p. 22 seq.). The statement of Agathangelus (Life of St. Gregory), that King Tiridates acted in concert with St. Gregory in making certain additions to the canons must be received with caution, although such additions do appear to have been actually made (see the note of the Mekhitarists to the Italian translation of Agathangelus, p. 196). His son, Chosroes II., appears to have come to the throne in 314. As neither Agathangelus nor Faustus gives us dates, and as the most monstrous anachronisms occur in both treatises, one may do pretty well what one likes with the chronology. I should even mistrust them when they assign a given number of years for a particular period. In the East at the present day ten years means more than one and less than twenty years; and I see no reason to credit the old historians with much greater precision of statement. That the Armenians took part in the Council of Nice is attested by Agathangelus, Faustus, Moses of Khorene, etc., and also by the list of signatures of participants in the Council:—Armeniæ majoris Aristarces, Threnius Diosponti (Von Gutschmid, Kleine Schriften, iii. 415). But we may reasonably doubt that either Tiridates or St. Gregory was alive at the time. ↑
107 Lazar Pharpetzi, chs. x. and xi.; Moses of Khorene, iii. 36. ↑
108 Moses of Khorene, iii. 10. The following chronology (which is not that of Moses) is taken from Saint Martin (apud Lebeau, Hist. du Bas-Empire). I attach to it a parallel list of the contemporary Greek Emperors and a similar column for the Sasanian monarchs, which is proudly filled by a single name. The date of Sapor II. rests on the authority of Th. Nöldeke.
| Armenian Arsakid Kings. | Roman Emperors. | Persian Sasanian Kings. | |||
| Chosroes II. (the Little) | 314–322 | Death of Constantine | 337 | Shapur II. (succeeds as an infant) 310–379 | |
| Tiran | 322–337 | Constantius | 337–361 | ||
| Arshak | 338–367 | Julian | 361–363 | ||
| Pap | 369–374 | Valens | 364–378 | ||
| Theodosius (the Great) | 379–395 | ||||
109 Faustus wrote c. A.D. 395–416. ↑
110 Moses of Khorene (iii. 10) places the king at the head of a Greek army. The patriotism of Faustus was stronger than his veracity, and he maintains a discreet silence upon this circumstance. ↑
111 The first statement in this sentence is all that we learn from Faustus; the two last rest on the authority of Moses of Khorene, who assigns the death of Verthanes to the third year of Tiran. Aristakes, the younger son of St. Gregory, and his successor in the functions of the pontifical office during the closing years of the life of the saint, was assassinated, apparently by a Roman prefect, at an uncertain date. ↑
112 In A.D. 339–340, according to Th. Nöldeke (article Persia: Sasanians, in Ency. Brit.). ↑
114 Agathangelus, Life of St. Gregory, sec. 154. ↑
116 Mr. F. C. Conybeare has kindly communicated to me the following interesting note to this passage:—“These communities were really cities of refuge, imitated from the old Jewish legislation; and the Armenian monarch’s aim was a wise one, namely, to set limits to the blood-feuds and vendettas of his subjects.” ↑
117 I adopt the ingenious suggestion of Professor Gelzer (Die Anfänge, etc., p. 155) that the dioceses of Korduk and Aghdznik were included in the provinces ceded to Persia under Jovian’s treaty in 363. Their bishops would have taken refuge in the dominions of the king and be receiving his support. The sequence of events in Faustus is against this hypothesis; but that is not of much account. ↑
118 We know from Ammianus Marcellinus (xxx. 1) that King Pap himself died in 374. ↑
119 Professor Gelzer, whose admirable essay I have freely used in the composition of this paragraph, adduces evidence from the correspondence of Basil to show that the advisers of King Pap proceeded cautiously along the path which they had chosen. ↑
120 Such is the translation given by Professor Gelzer of the passage in Faustus iv. 14. ↑
121 I am indebted to Mr. F. C. Conybeare for the following note to this passage:—The Armenian alphabet was imposed on Sahak (Isaac the Great) by the Persian Government as a political device to estrange the Armenians both from Greeks and from Syrians. The only historical account is that of Anania of Shirak (unedited chronicle in an uncial MS. at Mush), who relates that the twenty-nine consonants were “arranged in order” by Daniel, a Syrian philosopher, and sent (during the reign of Theodosius the Less) to the Armenian Satrap Vakortsh by Viram Shapu the king by hand of the Elder Abel. The seven vowels were still wanted, and Mesrop received these from Hayek, a noble of Taron. Stephanus, a scribe of Samosata, incorporated these seven vowels among the consonants. ↑
122 Nor at the Councils of Constantinople and of Ephesus. ↑
123 It appears that this formula was added to the Trisagion by the Synod of Vagharshapat (Ter-Mikelean, Die armenische Kirche, etc., p. 47). ↑
124 The subject is fully discussed by Ter-Mikelean (op. cit. pp. 52 seq., and cp. pp. 70 and 89). ↑
125 My reader may consider that I have been dealing too largely in ancient history. My excuse is that the position remains much the same at the present day. The differences between the Armenian and the Greek Churches are well summarised in a note by the Mekhitarists to the famous address delivered by Nerses of Lambron in the twelfth century to the council assembled at Romkla (Orazione sinodale di S. Nierses Lampronense, Venice, 1812, p. 188). The Greek Church demanded that the Armenian Church should:—1. Anathematise all those who assert that Christ has one nature. 2. Confess Jesus Christ in two natures. 3. Not address the Trisagion to the Second Person of the Trinity. 4. Celebrate the Dominical feasts in conformity with the Greek Church. 5. Prepare the Chrism or Holy Oil with oil alone. 6. Celebrate the Holy Communion with leavened bread and with water in the wine. 8. Receive the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh Œcumenical Councils. 9. Receive the nomination of the Armenian patriarch from the Greek Emperor. The attitude of the two Churches towards one another is regretfully but most pithily summed up by the same Nerses of Lambron. The Greeks thanked God that they were not like the Armenians; and the Armenians thanked God that they were not like the Greeks.
It has been generally supposed that the Armenians subscribed the Councils of Constantinople and Ephesus; but I must repeat that this does not appear to have actually been the case (see Ter-Mikelean, op. cit.).
Apart from dogma and ritual, the traveller notices a conspicuous difference between the Greek and the Armenian Church at the present day. You will not find eikons in Armenian houses, while no Russian house is without them. As regards the Church of Rome, the dogmatic breach is even wider than with the Greek Church; in common with the latter the Armenian Church rejects the Filioque. And of course it denies the infallibility of the Pope. ↑