[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. [↑]