Yet, by the wrongful act of a wicked king, the link which bound Armenian Christendom most clearly to the Church from which it had received the gospel, the bond which gave Armenia her right place in the orderly scheme of the universal hierarchy, was broken. Like the Persians when they broke with Edessa, the Armenians lost their moorings and sailed out unprotected into the storm of heresy and schism which was to wreck their Church.
5. Monophysite Armenia
The Church of Armenia in the 6th century turned Monophysite. There is not the slightest doubt on this subject; the "Gregorian" Church is still Monophysite (p. 425). That she did not accept all Eutyches' theories, that she even anathematizes that heretic (p. 424), does not matter at all. As we have seen (p. 312), Monophysite Churches reject Eutyches. The test is the Council of Chalcedon; Armenia formally rejected and still rejects that council. But of all Monophysite bodies the Armenian Church can best be excused for her acceptance of the heresy. She took no part in the great Monophysite controversy; she did not at first make Monophysism her national cause, as did the Copts. She stood aloof from the whole quarrel, knew nothing of it till long after, and then took the wrong side by an unhappy mistake. The real tragedy is not so much her half-hearted acceptance of a subtle heresy, but, as usual, the formal schism into which she thereby fell.
When the Council of Chalcedon met in 451, ten Armenian bishops were present and signed its acts.[1] When they went home they must have told their colleagues what had happened. There was at first no remonstrance; we may take it that at first, at least implicitly, Armenia accepted the council. But the people were prejudiced against it. In the first place, the country was then in the direst straits. It was being overrun by the Persians, who cruelly persecuted native Christians. The Armenians had little leisure to consider the question of our Lord's natures and person. Then the Romans had deserted them heart-
- ↑ Tournebize, p. 87.
