Tiridates found favor with the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who, with a great force, sent him to Armenia to retake his father’s throne from the Persians. He was welcomed by his people, who joined his army and drove out of the country their common enemy (A.D. 286). It appears that Gregory had sought Tiridates and found him in Rome and entered his services, his sole “purpose being to win over to eternal life, through the gospel of Christ, the son of him who had been slain by his father, and thus to make amends for his father’s crime.” Though Gregory suffered many a torture and torment and a long period of imprisonment, yet this noble Christian hero and apostle was determined “to win (the king) over to eternal life, through the gospel of Christ.”
The king, finally, was converted and baptized by St. Gregory. Tiridates himself became a worthy champion of the truth, and the first honored king who proclaimed throughout his dominions that henceforth the religion of Christ is the religion of Armenia. The Armenians were nationally converted to Christianity, from the king down to the servant; we must not forget, however, that there were some especially among the nobility, who with a heathenish tenacity held on to the Zoroastrian faith, but this was for mercenary purposes rather than a real appreciation of Zoroastrianism. For Christianity had made a great advance in the country. Moreover, the apostle of Armenia, by his evangelistic spirit and labors, had laid a firm foundation for the religion of Christ in the land of Ararat (A.D. 289). He was, by the request of the king, sent to Cæsarea, Cappadocia, to be ordained bishop over Armenia (A.D. 302).[40]
The temples of the idols in every important city and town were pulled down and Christian churches in their stead were built. The most splendid of all these churches was Etchmiadsin, “the descent of the only begotten,” which was afterwards clustered about with other buildings and became a monastery and to this day the seat of St. Gregory’s successors to his prelatic chair.
In those days, and during a century afterwards, Christian training was carried on by the catechisers, for very few had access to the Syriac or Greek literature, and the Armenian literature also was written in either of these characters; the characters of the Armenian alphabet were not yet wholly discovered or completed. So the reader will bear in mind that the advantages of imparting or disseminating a thorough Christian knowledge, if not lacking wholly, were very inadequate. After a long and useful life St. Gregory entered into the joy of the Lord and Master (A.D. 332).
Ten years after the death of this noble apostle of Armenia, the valiant defender of that divine faith also ended his useful career (342), after seeing the prosperous condition of the Church, which they loved and for which they toiled. Both were succeeded by their sons. The power of Armenia, however, was not equal to the conflicting forces on either side, though the descendants of Tiridates held the scepter of Armenia nearly a century longer, it was in a very enervated state. Nevertheless the Church of Christ made a decided advance within this period. The Armenian alphabetic characters[41] were recovered and completed by the distinguished scholar and prelate Mesrob, who, with St. Isaac, the patriarch, or bishop, translated the Scriptures into the Armenian language, the Old Testament from the Septuagint version and the New Testament from the original Greek.[42] After the conversion of the Armenians to Christianity not a few of the youths of Armenia flocked into the schools of Athens, Alexandria, and Constantinople, to sate their avidity for learning, who, afterwards, rendered great service to the nation, both by their writings, and many valuable translations from the Greek. Some of these originals have been lost and the world now has them in Armenian only.
The rise of the Sassanian dynasty in Persia was a source of more or less perpetual misery and bloodshed in Armenia. The Persians had two reasons for their cruel attitude toward Armenia. The first was the continued existence of the Arsacide reign in Armenia; the second was Armenia’s conversion to Christianity, while Zoroastrianism was revived in Persia by the Sassanian Kings. Christianity was the permanent occasion for which Armenia has suffered and is still suffering indescribable miseries and innumerable cruelties. The Persians imagined that as long as the Armenians were Christians they were in alliance with the Greeks, while in reality the Greeks were no more in sympathy with them than the Persians were.
Yasgerd II, the King of Persia (A.D. 450), decreed thus: “All peoples and tongues throughout my dominions must abandon their heresies and worship the Sun, bring to him their offerings, and call him God; they shall feed the holy fire, and fulfill all the ordinances of Magi.” Accordingly, Mihrnerseh, the grand vizier of the Persian court, wrote a long letter to the Armenians, polemic in character, persuasive in style, and menacing in tone. The Synod of the Armenian bishops was convened at once and it was unanimously decided to defend their religion at any cost. The synod also agreed upon answering the letter of the grand vizier in which they both refuted the charges brought against Christianity, undauntedly defended their faith, showing the absurdity of Zoroastrianism, and concluded the epistle with these words: “From this belief no one can move us, neither angels nor men, neither fire nor sword, nor water, nor any other horrid torture, however they be called. All our goods and our possessions are before thee, dispose of them as thou wilt, and if thou only leave us to our belief, we will here below choose no other lord in Thy place, and in heaven have no other God but Jesus Christ, for there is no other God save only him. But shouldst Thou require something beyond this great testimony, behold our resolution; our bodies are in Thy hands—do with them according to Thy pleasure; tortures are thine, and patience ours; Thou hast the sword, we the neck; we are nothing better than our forefathers, who, for the sake of their faith, resigned their goods, possessions and life. Do Thou, therefore, inquire of us nothing further concerning these things, for our belief originates not with men, we are not taught like children, but we are indissolubly bound to God, from whom nothing can detach us, neither now, nor hereafter, nor for ever, and ever.”
As soon as this letter arrived at the royal court of Persia, King Yasgerd read it; he was enraged and summoned the Armenian princes immediately to repair to his majesty’s presence. There in the presence of the king they manifested a great resolution in their faith, for which they were ignominiously treated and confined in prison. Having been threatened while in their confinement they devised a scheme; they thought it is better to apparently comply with the demands of the king, but inwardly to remain true to their convictions. God, who is able to bring good out of evil, indeed did so in this case. When it was made known to the king that the Armenian princes were willing to accept his terms, at once they were liberated and returned with distinctions to their homes. And a large army with over seven hundred magi were exultantly marching on to Armenia to raze to the ground every Christian Church and school and disciple the people into the mysterious absurdities of Zoroastrianism.
No sooner had the news of the apostacy of the princes reached Armenia than the bishops, priests, and the laity condemned the weakness and the folly of the princes. When the princes returned to Armenia they found no one ready or willing to listen to any explanation, but everywhere and everybody was ready and willing to defend his religion at the cost of his life. A large multitude, made up of clergy and laity, among whom were many women, gathered for immediate action, for the enemy was marching on. Some of the princes could not endure the contempt of the people nor the unrelenting remorse of their consciences, so they were ready to expiate their folly at any cost.
Prince Vartan, the Mamigonian, was unanimously appointed the commander-in-chief of the Armenian forces, and the multitude—66,000 volunteers—was formed into three divisions and each division was entrusted to a prince, Vartan, Nershebuh and Vasag. All knew that the struggle and the strife was a desperate one. But brave Vartan and the rest were not dismayed, though they knew that they alone could not conquer the immense army of the enemy already in the country, with a small and inexperienced force of his own, yet there was no other choice; they were not fighting for victory, but for their convictions and for their chosen religion, the religion of Christ.