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ARMENIAN CHURCH
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ARMENIAN See also: 238-314) had already been baptized some time after 262 by See also:Gregory the Illuminator. The latter was ordained See also:priest and appointed catholicus or See also:exarch of the church of Great Armenia by See also:Leontius, bishop of Caesarea in See also:Cappadocia. This one fact is certain amidst the fables which soon.ubscured the history of this great missionary. ' According to some estimates the number killed was..o,000 or more. Thus the church of Great Armenia began as a See also:province of the Cappadocian see. But there was a tradition of a See also:line of bishops earlier than Gregory in Siuniq, a region See also:east of See also:Ararat along the Araxes (See also:Aras), which in early times claimed to be See also:independent of the catholicus. The Adoptianist bishop See also:Archelaus, who opposed the entry of Mani into Armenia under See also:Probus c. 277, was also perhaps a Syriac-speaking bishop of Pers-Armenia. Almost the earliest document revealing anything of the inner organization and See also:condition of the Armenian church in the Nicene See also:age is the See also:epistle of Macarius, bishop of See also:Jerusalem, to the Armenian bishop Verthanes, written between 325 and 335 and preserved in Armenian. Its genuineness has been unreasonably suspected. It insists on the erection of fonts; on distinction of grades among the ordained See also:clergy; on not postponing See also:baptism too See also:long; on bishops and priests alone, and not deacons, being allowed to baptize and See also:lay hands on or confirm the baptized; on avoiding communion with Arians; on the use of unleavened See also:bread in the See also:Sacrament, &c. We learn from it that the bishop of Basen and Bagrevand was an Arian at that time. By the See also:year 45o these two districts already had See also:separate bishops of their own. The letter of Macarius, therefore, if a See also:forgery, must be a' very early one.' The Armenians must, like the Georgians a little later, have set See also:store by the See also:opinion of the bishop of Jerusalem, or they would not have sent to consult him. It was equally from Jerusalem that they subsequently adopted their lectionary and arrangement of the See also:Christian year; and a 9th-century copy of this lectionary in the See also:Paris library preserves to us See also:precious details of the liturgical usages of Jerusalem in the 4th century. We can trace the presence of Armenian convents on the See also:Mount of See also:Olives as early as the 5th century.
Tradition represents the See also:conversion of Great Armenia under Gregory and Tiridates as a sort of triumphant See also: 430, the priests already receive the levitical portions of the victims; and we find that animals are being sacrificed every See also:Sunday, on the feast days which at first were few, in fulfilment of private vows, in expiation of the sins of the living, and still more of those of the dead. No one might kill his own See also:meat and deprive the priest of his due; but this See also:rule did not apply to the See also:chase. The earliest Armenian rituals contain ample services for the conduct of an See also:agape (q.v.) or love feast held in the church off sacrificial meat. The victim was slaughtered by the priest in the church See also:porch before the crucifix, after it had been ritually wreathed and given the See also:holy See also:salt, by licking which it appropriated a sacramental purity or efficacy previously conveyed into the salt by exorcisms and See also:consecration. In the canons of Sahak the priest is represented as eating the sins of the See also:people in these repasts. If a forgery, why should this letter have been assigned to Macarius, a comparatively obscure See also:person whose name is not even found in the menaea of the Eastern church ? But convincing See also:proof of its authenticity lies in Macarius' reference to himself as merely See also:archbishop of Jerusalem, and his avowal that he was unwilling to advise the Armenians, " being oppressed by the weakness of the authority See also:con-ceded him by the weighty usages of the church." Jerusalem was only allowed to See also:rank as a patriarchate in 451, and the seventh See also:canon of Nice subordinated the see to that of Caesarea in See also:Palestine. To this See also:decree Macarius somewhat bitterly alludes.569 It is easy to underrate the importance in religion of a See also:change of names. The old sacrificial See also:hymns were probably obscene and certainly nonsensical, and the substitution for them of the See also:psalms, and of lections of the prophets and New Testament, was an enormous gain. We do not know precisely how the eucharistic rite was adjusted to these sacrificial meals; but, in the canons of Sahak, 1 See also:Cor. xi. 17-34 is interpreted of these meals, which were known as the Dominical (suppers). The See also:Eucharist was, therefore, long associated with the matal or animal victim, and only in the 8th century do we hear of an See also:interval of time being See also:left between the fleshly and the spiritual sacrifices, as the two See also:rites were then called. The Basilian service of the Eucharist was used in the 5th century, but superseded later on by a See also:Byzantine rite which will be found translated in F. E. See also:Bright-See also:man's Eastern Liturgies. The Eucharist was no doubt the one important sacrifice in the minds of the clergy who had attended the See also:schools of See also:Constantinople and Alexandria; yet the See also:heart of the people remained in their See also:ancient See also:blood-offerings, and as See also:late as the 12th century they were prone to deny that the See also:mass could expiate the sins of the dead unless accompanied by the sacrifice of an animal. Perhaps even to-See also:day the worst See also:fate that can befall a villager after See also:death is to be deprived, not of See also:commemoration in the mass, but of the victim slain for his sins. The keenest spiritual weapon of the Armenian priest was ever a See also:threat not to offer the matal for a man when he died. Another survival in the Armenian church was the hereditary priesthood. None but a See also:scion of a priestly See also:family could become a See also:deacon, See also:elder or bishop. Accordingly the primacy remained in the family of Gregory until about 374, when the king Pap or Bab murdered Nerses, who had been ordained by Eusebius of Caesarea (362–370) and was over-zealous in implanting in Armenia the canons about See also:celibacy, See also:marriage, See also:fasting, hospices and monastic See also:life which See also:Basil had established in Cappadocia. It may be remarked that Gregory's own family was a See also:cadet See also:branch of the Arsacid See also:kin which had occupied the thrones of See also:Persia, See also:Bactria, Armenia and See also:Georgia. His primacy therefore was in itself a survival of an earlier age when king and priest were one. He was in fact a rex sacrificulus, and later on, when the Arsacid See also:dynasty See also:fell in Armenia c. A.D. 428, the Armenian catholicus became the See also:symbol of See also:national unity and the rallying-point of patriotism. The line of Gregory was restored in 390 in the person of See also:Isaac or Sahak, son of Nerses, and his patriarchate was the See also:golden age of Armenian literature. But by this time the See also:autonomy of the Armenian church was thoroughly established. On the death of Nerses the right of saying See also:grace at the royal meals, which was the essence of the catholicate, was transferred by the king, in despite of the Greeks, to the priestly family of Albianus, and thenceforth no Armenian catholicus went to Caesarea for ordination. The ties with Greek See also:official Christendom were snapped for ever, and in subsequent ages the doctrinal preferences of the Armenians were usually determined more by antagonism to the Greeks than by reflection. If they accepted the council of See also:Ephesus in 430 and joined in the condemnation of See also:Nestorius, it was rather because the See also:Sassanid See also:kings of Persia, who thirsted for the reconquest of Armenia, favoured Nestorianism, a See also:form of See also:doctrine current in Persia and rejected in See also:Byzantium. But later on, about 480, and throughout the following centuries, the Armenians rejected the decrees of See also:Chalcedon and held that the assertion of two natures in Christ was a relapse into the See also:heresy of See also:Nestor. From the See also:close of the 5th century the Armenians have remained monophysite, like the See also:Copts and Abyssinians, and have only broken the See also:record with occasional See also:short interludes of orthodoxy, as when in 633 the See also:emperor See also:Heraclius forced See also:reunion on them, under a catholicus named Esdras, at a council held in See also:Erzerum. Even then all parties were careful not to mention Chalcedon. The march of Arab See also:conquest kept the Armenians friendly to Byzantium for a few years; but in 718 the catholicus See also: The era began on the rrth of See also:July 552, and their year is vague, that is to say, it does not intercalate a day in See also:February every See also:fourth year, like the See also:Julian See also:calendar. The two churches of Iberia and See also:Albania at first depended on the Armenian for ordination of their See also:primates or catholici, and in large part owed their first constitution to Armenian missionaries sent by Gregory the Illuminator. The See also:Iberians still reverence as See also:saints the Armenian doctors of the 5th century, but as early as 552 they began to resent the dictatorial methods of the Armenians, as well might a proud See also:race of mountaineers who never wholly lost their See also:political See also:independence; and they See also:broke off their See also:allegiance to the Armenian see very soon afterwards, accepted Chalcedon and joined the Byzantine church. The Albanians of the See also:Caucasus were also converted in the age of Gregory, early in the 4th century, and were loyal to the Armenians in the great struggle against Mazdaism in the 5th; but broke away for a time towards Goo, and See also:chose a See also:patriarch without sending him to Armenia for ordination. Eventually this interesting church was engulfed by the rising See also:tide of See also:Mahommedan conquest, but not before one of their bishops, named See also:Israel, had converted (677–703) the See also:Huns who lay to the See also:north of the See also:Caspian and had translated the See also:Bible and liturgies into their See also:language. If the Albanian and Hunnish versions could be found, they would be of the greatest linguistic importance. The See also:mother church of Armenia was established by Gregory at Ashtishat in the province of Taron, on the site of the great See also:temple of Wahagn, whose festival on the seventh of the See also:month Sahmi was reconsecrated to John the Baptist and Athenogenes, an Armenian See also:martyr and Greek hymn writer. The first of Navasard, the Armenian new year's day, was the feast of a god Vanatur or Wanadur (who answered to See also:Zeus Evros) in the holy See also:pilgrim See also:city of Bagawan. His day was reconsecrated to the Baptist, whose See also:relics were brought to Bagawan. The feast of Anahite, the Armenian See also:Venus and See also:spouse of the See also:chief god Aramazd, was in the same way rededicated to the Virgin See also:Mary, who for long was not very clearly distinguished by the Armenians from the virgin mother church. The old curt of sacred stones and trees by an easy transition became cros-See also:worship, but a See also:cross was not sacred until the Christ had been, by priestly See also:prayer and invocation, transferred into it. What was the earliest doctrine of the churches of Armenia? If we could believe the fathers of the 5th and succeeding centuries Nicene orthodoxy prevailed in their See also:country from the first; and in the 5th century they certainly chose for See also:translation the works of orthodox fathers alone, such as See also:Chrysostom, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory Nazianzen, See also:Cyril of Jerusalem and Cyril of Alexandria, See also:Athanasius, See also:Julius of See also:Rome, See also:Hippolytus, See also:Irenaeus, avoiding See also:Origen and other fathers who were becoming suspect. However, we do hear of versions of Nestorian writers like Diodore of See also:Tarsus being in circulation, and the Disputation of Archelaus proves that the current orthodoxy of eastern Armenia was Adoptianist, if not Ebionite in See also:tone. The See also:Persian Armenians as late as the 6th century had not heard of the faith of See also:Nicaea, and only then received it from the catholicus Babken. They sent a copy of their old creed to Babken, and it closely resembles the Adoptianist creed of Archelaus, the gist of which was that Jesus, until his thirtieth year, was a man mortal like other men; then, because he was righteous above all others, he was promoted to the See also:honour and name of Son of God. He received the See also:title by grace, but was not equal to God the See also:Father. Because the Spirit worked with him, he was able to vanquish Satan and all desires, and because of his righteousness and See also:good works he was made worthy of grace and became a Temple of God the Word, which came down from See also:heaven in See also:Jordan, dwelt in him and through him wrought miracles. From such a standpoint the baptism of Jesus was the moment of the divine incarnation. The man righteous above all others was then reborn of. the Spirit, was illuminated, was spiritually anointed, became the Christ and Son of God. In effect the fathers of the Armenian church often fell back into such language, far removed as it is from orthodoxy; and they em-phasized the importance of thebaptismal feast of the See also:Epiphany on the 6th of See also:January by refusing to accept the feast of the See also:physical See also:birth of the 25th of See also:December. As late as 1165 their patriarch Nerses defends the Armenian custom of keeping See also:Christmas on the 6th of January on the See also:express ground that as he was See also:born after the flesh from the Virgin, so he was born by way of baptism from the Jordan. The custom from the first, he says, had been to feast on one and the same day the two births, much as they differed in sacramental import and in point of time. We see how deep the early See also:Adoptianism had struck its roots, when a See also:primate of the 12th century could still See also:appeal to the baptismal regeneration of Jesus. The same Nerses held that the second See also:Adam, Jesus Christ, received a new See also:body and nature and the sevenfold grace of the Spirit in the Jordan. The Armenian doctors also taught that John by laying hands on Jesus and ordaining him at his baptism sacramentally transferred to him the three See also:graces or charismata of kingship, prophecy and priest-See also:hood which had belonged to ancient Israel. After baptism, if not before, the flesh of Christ was incorruptible. It consisted of ethereal See also:fire, and he was not subject to the See also:ordinary phenomena of digestion, secretions and evacuations. Monastic institutions were hardly introduced in Armenia before the 5th century, though Christian See also:rest-houses had been erected along the high-roads long before and are mentioned in the Disputation of Archelaus. The Armenians called them wanq, and out of them See also:grew the monasteries. The monks were, strictly speaking, penitents wearing the See also:cowl, and not allowed to take a part in church See also:government. This belonged to the elders. At first there was nq separate episcopal ordination, and the one rite of elder or priest (Armen. Qahanay, Heb. See also:Cohen) sufficed. There were also deacons, See also:half-deacons and readers. Besides these there was a class of warda pets or teachers, answering to the didascalos of the earliest church, whose province it was to guard the doctrine and for whom no rite of ordination is found in the older rituals. A few other peculiarities of Armenian church usage or belief deserve notice. In baptism the See also:rubric ordains that the baptized be plunged three times in the See also:font in commemoration of the entombment during three days of the See also:Lord. In the See also:West trine See also:immersion was generally held to be symbolic of the triune name of " Father, Son and Holy See also:Ghost." This name the Armenians have used, at least since the year See also:loo; before which date their fathers often speak of baptism into the death of Christ as the one essential. As late as about r300 a traveller hostile to the Armenians reported to the See also:pope that he had witnessed baptisms without any trinitarian invocation in as many as three See also:hundred See also:parish churches. The See also:paschal See also:lamb is now eaten on Sunday, but until the rrth century, and even later, it was eaten with the Eucharist at a Lord's Supper celebrated on the evening of Maundy See also:Thursday after the rite of pedilavium or washing of feet. On the See also:morning of the same day the penitents were released from their fast. The rite of extreme See also:unction was introduced in the crusading See also:epoch, although it was already usual to anoint the bodies of dead priests. The worship of images never seems to have taken See also:root among Armenians; indeed they supplied the Greek See also:world with iconoclast soldiers and emperors. The worship of crosses into which the Spirit or Christ had been inserted by the priest must have satisfied the religious needs of a people who, See also:save in See also:architecture, showed little See also:artistic See also:faculty. In their older rituals we find a rite for blessing a painted church, but no word of statues. Frescoes in their churches are rare, and mostly too high up for veneration to be paid to them. On certain days the cross was washed, and the See also:water in which it had been washed was a See also:sovereign See also:charm for curing sickness in men and animals and for bringing fertility to the land.
In the older rituals we find a rite of exhomologesis, for restoring those who had sinned after baptism. It was a See also:medicine of See also:sin that could only be used once and not a second time. In form it is a See also:rehearsal of the first baptismal rite, but with omission of the water. It involved like the first rite open See also:confession and repentance, and See also:absolution by the church. In a later and less rigorous age this rite was abridged and adjusted to See also:constant
repetition, in such See also:wise that a sinner could be restored to grace not once only, but as often as the clergy chose to accept his repentance and confession. Thus the whole development of the See also:penitentiary See also:system is traceable in the See also:MSS.
The confession of a dying man might be taken by any layman present, and written down in order to be shown to the priest when he arrived. It then was the See also:duty of the latter to supplicate for his forgiveness, and administer to him the Eucharist.
The clergy of all grades were originally married. The parish priests, or See also: There were abortive attempts to unite the Armenian church with the Byzantine in the 9th century under the patriarch See also:Photius, and again late in the 12th under the emperor See also:Manuel See also:Comnenus, when a See also:joint council met at Romkla, near Tarsus, but ended in nothing (A.D. 1179). Neither could the Armenians keep on good terms even with the Syriac See also:monophysites. From the age of the See also:crusades on, the Armenians of See also:Cilicia, whose patriarch sat at See also:Sis, improved their acquaintance with Rome; and more than one of their patriarchs adopted the See also:Roman faith, at least in words. Dominican See also:missions went to Armenia, and in 1328 under their auspices was formed a See also:regular order called the United Brethren, the forerunners of the Uniats of the present day, who have convents at See also:Venice and See also:Vienna, a See also:college in Rome and a numerous following in See also:Turkey. They retain their Armenian liturgies and rites, pruned to suit the Vatican See also:standards of orthodoxy, and they recognize the pope as See also:head of the church. The patriarchs of Great Armenia first resided at Ashtishat, on the Araxes. From 478 to 931 they occupied Dvin in the same neighbourhood, then Aghthamar, an See also:island in the See also:Lake of See also:Van, 931-967, the city of See also:Ani, 992-1054, where are still visible the magnificent ruins of their churches and palaces. Since 1441 the chief catholicus has sat at See also:Echmiadzin, the See also:convent of Valarshapat, now part of See also:Russian Armenia. A See also:rival catholicus, with a small following, still has his See also:cathedral and see at Sis. The catholicus of Valarshapat is nominally chosen by all Armenians. A synod of bishops, monks and doctors meets regularly to transact under his See also:eye the business of the convent and the See also:oecumenical affairs of the church; but its decisions are subject to the See also:veto of a Russian See also:procurator. There are Armenian patriarchs, subject to the spiritual See also:jurisdiction of Echmiadzin, in Constantinople and Jerusalem. In the latter See also:place the Armenians occupy a convent on Mount See also:Sion, and keep up in the churches of the See also:Sepulchre and of See also:Bethlehem their own distinct rites and feasts, the only ones there which at all resemble those of the 4th century. The following See also:list of See also:councils was compiled by John, catholicus about the year 728, and read at the council of Manazkert, when the dogmatic and disciplinary attitude of the Armenian church was defined once and for all:- 1. In twentieth year of catholicate of Gregory and See also:thirty-seventh of Trdat, the king, on return of Aristaces from council of Nice, bringing the Nicene creed and canons. 2. Council held by St Nerses on his return from the council of the 150 fathers at Constantinople against See also:Macedonius. 3. Held by St Sahak and Mesrop on See also:receipt of letters from See also:Proclus and Cyril after the council of Ephesus, when the " See also:Glory in the Highest " was adopted. Held against Nestorianism. 4. Held by See also:Joseph, See also:disciple of Mashdotz(Mesrop) and St Sahak, in Shahapiwan in the See also:sixth year of King Yazkert (i.e. See also:Yazdegerd) of Persia, for the regulation of the church. See also:Forty bishops pre-sent. (The Massalians were anathematized.) 5. Held by Babken, catholicus, in the City-See also:plain (i.e. Dvin), in the 18th year of King Kavat (i.e. See also:Kavadh), against the heresy of Acacius and Barsuma (See also:Bar-sauma), the See also:friends of Nestorius. The true (Nicene) faith was sent to the Armenians of the farther East (shortly afterwards a slightly different creed was adopted, identical with a pseudo-Athanasian symbol used by See also:Evagrius of See also:Pontus and given in Greek in Patr. Gr. See also:xxvi. See also:Col. 1232). 6. At the beginning of the Armenian era, held by Nerses inDvin, in the fourth year of his catholicate, in the fourteenth of See also:Chosroes' reign and in the fourteenth of Justinian See also:Caesar. Held against Chalcedon, uniting the Baptism and Christmas feasts on the 6th of January (Epiphany), declaring for monophysitism, and adopting in the Trisagion the words " who wast crucified for us." This See also:settlement lasted for about seventy-four years. 7. After the retaking of Jerusalem and recovery of the Cross from the Persians in the eighteenth year of his 'reign, Heraclius called a mixed council at Karin (Theodosiopolis) of Greeks and Armenians under Ezr (Esdras), catholicus, at which the preceding council of Dvin was cursed, its reforms repudiated and the confession of Chalcedon adopted. This remained the official attitude of the Armenian church until the catholicate of See also:Elias (703-717). John, catholicus, denies to Ezr's See also:meeting the name of council, and so makes his own the seventh. 8. Under John, catholicus, in Manazkert, in the one hundred and seventieth year of the Armenian era (= A.D. 728) under the See also:presidency of Gregory Asharuni Chorepiscopos (Gregory Asheruni). All the Armenian bishops attended, as also the See also:metropolitan of Urhha (Edessa), Jacobite bishops of Gartman, of Nfrkert, See also:Amasia, by command of the archbishop of See also:Antioch. Chalcedon was repudiated afresh, See also:union with the See also:Jacobites instituted, use of water and See also:leaven in the Eucharist condemned, the five days' preliminary fast before See also:Lent restored, Saturday as well as Sunday made a day of feasting and synaxis, any but the orthodox excluded from the Maundy Thursday Communion, the first communion of the new catechumens; union of the Baptismal and Christmas feasts was restored, and the faithful forbidden to fast on Fridays from See also:Easter until See also:Pentecost. In See also:general these rules have been observed in the Armenian church ever since. For list of authorities on the Armenian church see the works enumerated at the end of ARMENIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. For the relations of the Armenian church to the Persian kings see PERSIA: Ancient History, See also:section viii. §§ 2 and 3. (F. C. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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