Catholicos of Armenia is the title of the Armenian patriarch. Gregorius VI., called Abirad, was Catholicos at this time; he was elected in the year 1195, and died 1203. The Latins had a very high opinion of the power of an Armenian patriarch. Wilhelm of Tyrus, speaking (De Bello Sacro, xvi. 18.) of the synod of Jerusalem in the year 1141, has the following words: “Cui synodo interfuit maximus Armeniorum pontifex, immo omnium episcoporum Cappadociæ, Mediæ et Persidis et utriusque Armeniæ princips et doctor eximius qui Catholicus dicitur.” Wilhelm might add, “et Indiæ,” for I think that the Armenians, like the Syrians, formed as early as the sixth century of our era, settlements in this part of the world. It is certain that Armenians were in India as early as the year 800. (De Faria, in the Collection of Voyages and Travels, by Kerr, Edinburgh 1812, vol. vi. p. 419.)
Note (54), [page 44].
The Armenians consider themselves the descendants of Thorgoma (a name differently spelt in the different manuscripts and translations of Genesis x. 3.) the son of Japet.
Note (55), [page 44].
Vahram is too concise; he never gives the reasons of occurrences. I see, in Chamchean, that Leon married, after the death of his first wife, a daughter of Guido, king of Cyprus, by whom he had a daughter, called Sabel or Elizabeth, his only child and heiress of the kingdom. The Sultan of Ionium did not like these intimate connexions of the Armenians with the Latins; he feared some coalition against himself, and he thought it proper to be beforehand with the enemy.
Note (56), [page 45].
We have in the text again Bail or Bailly. I could not translate the word otherwise than Regent: this is certainly the sense in which Vahram uses this expression.
Note (57), [page 46].
The name of this first husband of Isabella was Philippus, the son of the Prince of Antioch and the niece of Leon. Philippus died very soon, and Isabella, as our author says himself, married, 1223, the son of the regent Constantine, Hethum or Haithon.