for their colonies in all parts. Katshik I (971-992, p. 415) is said to be the first who did so.[1]
7. The Nineteenth Century
The last century brought great changes to the Armenian Church. Hitherto she had languished obscurely under the Turk. Now came two events which affected her profoundly — intercourse with the West involving the spread of European ideas and the arrival of Protestant missionaries, and, even more, the Russian conquest of Transcaucasus in 1829.
The general interest in the ancient Eastern Churches aroused in Europe in the 19th century turned to the Armenians too. Already the Uniates, notably the Mekhitarist monks at Venice,[2] had a printing press and had began to disseminate Armenian books. Now the Protestants took up the cause. Armenians began to come to European schools, Europeans began to visit and write about Armenia. Then, inevitably, came Protestant missionaries, with their crude attempts to improve a Church which had kept immeasurably more of historic Christianity than their own sects. First the British and Foreign Bible Society distributed Bibles in the vulgar tongue. Then both Anglicans and American Presbyterians formed Armenian Protestant sects. The Americans have done much the most work. Their mission began in 1831. At first, as usual, they disclaimed any idea of proselytizing. They only wanted to teach, exhort and spiritualize the Armenians, victims of too superstitious a doctrine. All Protestant missions in the Levant begin like that. Of course their teaching was hopelessly opposed to that of the clergy. Already in 1839 they came into conflict with the hierarchy. In 1844 the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople very properly excommunicated all who attend their services. Since then the Presbyterians have broken all pretence of regarding the Armenian Church. They make converts frankly wherever they can. They have built up a considerable Protestant Armenian sect, with stations and chapels all over the Levant. This sect forms a fairly
