In case the Judicial Council should consider any question beyond its capacity, then, according to the nature of the question, it recommends that it should be referred to the Political or to the Mixed Assembly. Should any person protest against the decision taken by this Council, the question is examined again by one of the above-mentioned Assemblies as the case may require.
4. Council for Monasteries
Article 48.—The monasteries are the property of the nation. Hence the supervision and control of their administration and the management of their finance belong to the nation.
Inasmuch as it is necessary for each monastery to have its own particular regulations, the Mixed Assembly, consisting of the Political and Religious Assemblies of the Central Administration, with due consideration of the opinions of the brotherhood of each monastery, and of the opinions of the Council for Monasteries, prepares a set of rules and presents it to the General Assembly for confirmation. The fundamental principles for such rules are:—
I. The special management of each monastery belongs to its brotherhood, but the right of the general superintendence of them all belongs to the Central Administration, of which the Council for Monasteries is the executive body.
II. The Abbot of each monastery is elected by its brotherhood, and is confirmed by the Patriarch with the consent of the Mixed Assembly of the Central Administration. The person to be elected Abbot should be over thirty years of age, a vardapet (doctor), and a subject of the Ottoman Empire.
III. All monasteries are obliged to promote the moral improvement of the nation. Hence each one, according to its capacity, should have a seminary, a library, a printing office, a hospital, and other similar useful establishments.
The Council for Monasteries is composed of seven persons elected by the Political Assembly by plurality of votes.
Its functions and duties are to superintend the execution of the rules of each monastery, to ascertain the revenues and the expenditure, and to arrange and regulate it all.
This Council elects from the brotherhood of each monastery the managers of the affairs of the monastery. These should perform their duties under the presidency of the Abbot and in accordance with the rules of the monastery, and at stated times should give an account of their doings to the Council for Monasteries.