RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Armenia
main church; the catholicos and the bishops received the sacrament from a Greek priest. Justinian II. (689-690) succeeded in making a new union with the catholicos Sahag III. (677-703) and his bishop, whom he had called to Constantinople; but having returned to their homes, they repudiated it. Under the patriarchate of Elia (703- 713), Nerses Bakur, catholicos of the Albanians, and Queen Sparam tried to introduce the Chalcedonian belief into their country. But the Armenian catholicos protested against them to the calif Abd al-Malik and with the help of Arabian soldiers the two leaders were taken to Damascus bound in chains and the Albanian orthodoxy was saved. During the ninth and tenth centuries under the rule of the Bagratunians the Church became again influential. Many monasteries were built, and many theologians and famous ascetics are mentioned. Even Monophysitic coreligionists from Colchis and the Roman empire entered the Armenian monasteries. But this growth of religious life also developed hatred of the Greeks. In vain was the correspondence between the patriarch Photius and the catholicos Zakaria (853-876). The very friendly letters of Nicolaus Mysticus and of the catholicos John the Historian (897- 925), touched merely upon the oppressed condition .of the Armenian empire, avoiding all theological questions. Anania (943-965), however, following the counsel of " the deep thinkers " advised to rebaptize the Greeks. His mild successor, Vahanik, being suspected of heresy, was deposed. An effort of the zealous metropolitan of Sebastia to discuss again the question of the two natures, was frustrated by the catholicos Khachik (971-990) in a long letter still extant (Stephanus Asolik, iii. 21) and the orthodox Armenian doctrine was defended by quotation from the Fathers. Khachik's successor, Sargis (992-1019) resided at Ani, the famous residence of the Bagratunians, where Queen Katramide, wife of Gagik (989-1020) had built a splendid cathedral. A hard time began for the Armenian Church when in the ninth century the realm was annexed by the Byzantine empire. A large orthodox hierarchy was established in the new provinces. At the head stood a metropolitan with the title of Keltzene, Kortzene, and Taron, besides twentyone bishops. Of course, they were shepherds without sheep. The Greeks continued their efforts to force upon the Armenians the Chalcedonian faith. The opposition was much strengthened by the ill-treatment of the higher clergy. Khachik II. (1058-65) was kept a prisoner at Constantinople for three years. The revenues of the catholicos decreased to such a degree that the incumbent often was in want. But with Vahram, the son of Knkor, catholicos 1065-1105, the patriarchate became again hereditary, as in the beginning. Krikor's seven successors till 1202 were his relatives on either the father's or mother's side. They were called Pahlavuni, because they traced back their supposed pedigree to Gregory the Illuminator and the Suren Pahlav. There is no doubt that this family rendered great services to the Armenian Church in different times. Jealousy and self-interests were sometimes the cause of anticatholicoi,
whose number at times was four. But the people only considered those as lawful who belonged to Gregory's house. In 1147 Gregory III. Pahlavuni (1113-66) bought of the widow of Count Jocelin of Edessa the fortress Hromkla, which remained the residence of the Armenian catholicoi till 1293. The close relation between the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia and the Latin states of Syria and Palestine, soon brought the Armenian Church into closer contact with Rome. At first the Armenians welcomed the crusaders as enemies of the Greeks. But they soon changed their minds when they had to suffer (as, e.g., in Edessa) under their rule. Negotiations for a union were 5. Negotia- soon resumed. From political motions for tives the kings especially, sometimes Union with also the catholicoi, favored these Rome and ineffectual negotiations. Levon II., the Greek " because he ascribed bis greatness Church, to the apostles Peter and Paul in Rome," wished to obtain a royal crown from Pope Celestine III. and Emperor Henry VI. Conrad of Wittelsbach, Archbishop of Mainz, brought the crown in 1198 with three papal injunctions: (1) To celebrate the principal festivals on the same days as the Roman Church; (2) Continual devotion by day and night; (3) To fast on Christmas-eve and Easter-eve. The king pacified the nobles and the clergy with the words- " Be not disturbed, I will play the hypocrite." During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries a small fraction of the Armenian nation had become definitely united with Rome. The Vartabed John of Cherni learned the Latin language from the Dominican Bartholomew and in connection with him founded a special branch of the Dominicans, the Unitores. He introduced the Latin language into the service of the Church, declared the Armenian sacraments invalid, rebaptized the laymen, and reordained the ministers who followed him. One of his adherents, Nerses Balienz, bishop of Urmia, who with others had been expelled from the Church and driven from Armenia, in order to revenge himself went to Avignon and calumniated the Armenian Church before the pope, charging it with one hundred and seventeen errors. They were communicated to the catholicos, refuted at a synod in Sis in 1342, and the pope was satisfied by this thorough refutation. The fanatical action of the Unitores generally effected the very opposite result. With the Greeks, too, negotiations concerning union took place. Emperor Manuel Comnenus after 1165 corresponded with Nerses IV- Shnorhali (catholicos 1166-73). This correspondence was continued by Nerses' successor Gregory IV (1173-80); but the Synod of Hromkla (1179) rejected all proposals of the Greeks. The death of Manuel (1180) and of the catholicos Gregory, who was disposed toward a union, made an end to all union endeavors. Another effort made in 1196 by the " ecumenical " council at Tarsus in the interest of King Levon II. was also fruitless. During the Persian persecutions the Armenians migrated to the West. Rich mercantile colonies existed, especially in Poland. The escaped catholicos Melkiseth died at Lemberg in 1625, after having
Armenia