Page:Lesser Eastern Churches.djvu/444

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THE LESSER EASTERN CHURCHES

rules Armenians in Russia. But to those in Turkey he is too much the creature of the Russian Government to count. Their Patriarch of Constantinople is their chief, really independent, in spite of his theoretic subordination to the Katholikos.

Summary

The Armenian Church, in spite of the fact that there were Christians in the country earlier, in spite of her alleged foundation by St. Thaddæus and St. Bartholomew, was founded really by St. Gregory the Illuminator in the 3rd and 4th centuries. He was ordained at Cæsarea in Cappadocia, as were his early successors. Armenia was a missionary Church dependent on Cæsarea, in the Patriarchate of Antioch. After the Council of Chalcedon (451) the national Church, mainly through unfortunate misunderstandings, rejected that Council and adopted Monophysism as her creed. This occurred under the Katholikos Nerses II at a Synod of Tovin about 554. Since then the national Armenian Church has been in schism with all the rest of Christendom. Her Katholikos became independent and called himself a Patriarch. The Church, like the nation, has been torn between different powers, riddled with quarrels and schisms. The Persians and Romans fought over Armenia; Persia especially was long a cruel tyrant. There are many Armenian martyrs. Then the Moslems took and held the land. From the 11th to the 14th centuries an Armenian colony in Cilicia maintained a separate kingdom, with Sis as its capital. This kingdom was on good terms with the Crusaders, it was considerably Latinized (which influence is still seen in the Armenian Church), and was Uniate. The union came to an end with the kingdom. After that the Katholikos-Patriarch established himself at Etshmiadzin. But in reconciling schisms he had to admit two other sees, Sis and Aghthamar, as secondary Patriarchs. The Turks set up an Armenian Patriarch at Constantinople; the Bishop of Jerusalem made himself one. In the 19th century Protestant missionaries formed Protestant Armenian sects, and Russia by conquering Transcaucasus got Etshmiadzin in her power. She has treated the Armenians very badly, and the Katholikos, too much under