St. Gregory was succeeded in the Patriarchal chair by his son Aristogus, who, having taken part in the Council of Nice in 335 A.D., brought back with him some of its decrees, and caused the first schism in the church. The terrible religious dissensions that raged for so many centuries made themselves as deeply felt in Armenia as elsewhere. Every dogma of Christianity was in turn examined, adopted, or rejected, until the Monophysitic views, gaining the majority of the people, caused the schism that finally separated the Armenian from the primitive church.
The two parties, though differing but slightly from each other, cease not, even to the present day, their antagonism. The schismatics affirm the absorption of the human nature of Christ into the Divine—the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father alone—redemption from original sin by the sacrifice of Christ, redemption from actual sin by auricular confession and penance. They adhere to the seven sacraments, perform baptism by trine immersion, believe in the mediation of saints, the adoration of pictures, and transubstantiation, and administer the sacrament in both kinds to laymen; they deny purgatorial penance and yet invoke the prayers of the pious for the benefit of the souls of the departed.
The Armenian Church differs from the Latin in seven points. Its doctrine is contained in the following formula, which the candidates for priestly office are obliged to profess before ordination: “We believe in Jesus Christ, one person and a double nature, and in conformity with the Holy Fathers we reject and detest the Council of Chalcedon, the letter of St. Leon to Flavian; we say anathema to every sect that denies the two natures.”
In Church polity, after long quarrels and bickerings between three patriarchs, each following his own interest, rivalries, and rites, the supremacy has at last been vested in one who is called Catholicos, chosen from among the Armenian archbishops and appointed by the Emperor of Russia. The seat of the Patriarchate is the famous convent of Echmiadzin at Erivan, in Russian territory. This convent contains a magnificent library, is extremely wealthy, and exercises supreme power over the others in spiritual matters. It alone has the right to ordain archbishops to the forty-two archbishoprics under its control, and to settle points of dogma. Among the pretended relics it possesses are the dead hand of St. Gregory, used for consecrating his successors in the Patriarchate, and the lance with which Christ was pierced. This convent of Echmiadzin is to the Armenians what Mount Athos has been to the Greeks. In both, Russia has spared neither expense nor effort to establish her influence and spread it by means of these channels all over the Christian populations of the East. Her too stirring policy at Mount Athos, as shown by the publication of “Les Responsabilités,” and her attempt to enforce upon the Catholicos of Echmiadzin the decree for the suppression of the Armenian language in the churches and schools, and replacing it by Russian, had an equally unfortunate result.
The efforts of the Russian Government to improve the condition of this country are said to have met with a certain amount of success; commerce and industry, encouraged by the creation of roads and other facilities, have been the principal temptations held out to emigrants from Turkish territory. Of all the European powers Russia alone could help to civilize and improve the degraded condition of the Christians of those distant regions. Her influence would have been stronger and more beneficial to them if her policy had been a more straightforward and liberal one, and more in accordance with the national rights of the people whose good-will and confidence she will fail to secure so long as she follows the old system of trying to Russianize them by the suppression of their privileges.
The Armenian churches are not unlike those of the Greeks; they are similar in decoration—pictures of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints being the principal ornaments of their altars. These pictures are slightly superior to the expressionless ones used by the Greeks. The pious often decorate parts of these with a silver or gold coating on the hands, or as an aureole, and sometimes over the whole body. The Armenians have faith in the efficacy of prayers addressed to these images, as well as in the laying of hands on the sick or distressed, who are often taken to the church and left through the night before the altar of some special saint. The Armenian patriarchs and bishops enjoy the same rights and privileges as the Greeks, and administer justice to their respective communities on the same conditions.
Like the Greek, the Armenian clergy are of two orders, secular and monastic; the former are allowed to marry, but never occupy a high position in the church. They are usually very poor, even poorer and more retired than the Greek parish priests, living like the lower orders of the people, who look upon them as their friends. Although ignorant, they are much respected for the morality of their lives, but knowing nothing more than the routine of their office they are unable to give any religious instruction to their parishioners beyond that contained in the books of prayer used in the church; a passage from the lives or writings of the saints is read in place of a sermon.
This drawback to the propagation of more practical religion is being by degrees removed since the introduction of excellent religious books published by the Mechitarist College at Venice, and by the American Missionary societies. The latter especially have done much to stimulate the dormant spirit of inquiry; the large circulation of Bibles, which by their low price are brought within the reach of all, encourages the propensity shown by the Armenians to admit Protestant ideas, which are being daily more extensively spread among the community. “In Central Turkey alone there are now no less than twenty-six organized churches, with some 2500 members, and audiences amounting in the aggregate to 5000 or 6000 steady attendants.”
CHAPTER XXIII.
RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE AND MISSIONARY WORK.
Turkish Tolerance—High Disdain for Christians—American Mission Work—Roman Catholic Missionaries—Catholic Establishments—The Uniates—United Armenians—Mechitar—The Two Parties—Persecutions—European Interference—The Hassounists—The Hope for Armenia.