does not massacre; but as far as the state of the Armenian Church goes he is worse than the Turk. For the Turk, even when he massacres, lets the internal ecclesiastical affairs of Christians alone. The Russian interferes with these. Even in the law of 1836 the Czar showed his usual Erastianism over a Church with which he is not in communion. His consent is necessary before the Katholikos is appointed, and he makes the Armenians wait regularly one year between the appointment and ordination.[1] The Orthodox Government interferes in all Armenian ecclesiastical affairs. It controls their property and annoys them in every kind of way. No one may be converted to the Armenian Church.[2] On the whole the Katholikos would prefer the Turk. Two results follow from this. First, it has finally put off reunion between the Armenians and the Orthodox. Otherwise this would be the most probable reunion in Christendom. Armenians and Orthodox are very near in faith and were quite friendly. They might easily have amalgamated. But now there is nothing the Armenians in Russia (nearly half their Church) dread so much. If they turned Orthodox they know well that their fate would be that of Georgia. Russian bishops would be sent to govern them; there would be no Armenian Church and no Armenia. The stupid bullying of Russia makes Armenians cling to their Monophysism as the one principle which preserves their nation.[3] The other result is the practical extinction of the authority of the Katholikos over a great part of his Church. He
- ↑ This is apparently to give the Russian Government an opportunity of worrying them while the see is vacant. Meanwhile the Russian Procurator rules the Armenian Church.
- ↑ For the details of this persecution of Armenians by the Russian Government see articles in the Échos d'Orient, vii. (1904) 5, 129, 176; xiii. (1910) 35, 94. The most preposterous point is that the Russian Orthodox Holy Synod has the right of supervising all Armenian publications, in order to prevent anything being printed against the faith of the Armenian Church! For Russian interference in the election of the Katholikos see p. 428, below.
- ↑ The idea that their Monophysism preserves their independence is a favourite one with Armenians: "Had the Armenian Church recognized the Council of Chalcedon, her free Apostolic Patriarchal See would have been lost and her independence would have been subjected to the authority of the Greek Church." Authorised Catechism quoted by Dowling: The Armenian Church, p. 105.
