EASTERN CHURCHES. 



235 



however, announced that both the Patriarch 

 of Constantinople and a number of the Arme- 

 nian bishops might be expected to take part in 

 the council. 



The Patriarch of Constantinople and the 

 high clergy are disposed to take strong meas- 

 ures against the "Armenian Ltisavoritchian 

 (Illuminator) Society," a body of reformers in 

 the Armenian Church, not connected with the 

 Protestant Armenians, who, in 1866, published 

 a revised translation of the Gregorian Arme- 

 nian prayer-book. But, as there are too many 

 favorers of the new doctrines holding high 

 places in the Gregorian fold, the Porte did not 

 appear disposed to support the Patriarch. The 

 Reformers, in 1868, opened a church in Con- 

 stantinople. The following information on the 

 history and opinions of this society are given 

 in a communication to the Levant Herald, of 

 Constantinople (July 1, 1868) : 



" The society in question was organized in 

 this city in 1866, with the view of reforming 

 the Gregorian Armenian Church and bringing 

 it back to its primitive doctrines and modes of 

 worship as taught by St: Gregory. The parent 

 society is composed of a considerable number 

 of members, and provides for the establish- 

 ment of branches in the provinces wherever 

 Armenians may desire to espouse the reform 

 movement. The new body owes its existence, 

 primarily, to the spread of the Scriptures 

 among the Armenian nation, by Armenian 

 agencies, as also by the instrumentality of the 

 British and Foreign Bible Society. But an ac- 

 tive stimulus was given to the creation of the 

 new body by the excitement caused three years 

 ago in Smyrna, when the clergy and laity of 

 the Armenian Church there sought to erect a 

 statue to the Virgin Mary within its precincts. 

 The bishops formally disapproved of this act 

 of mariolatry ; the feeling on the subject ran 

 high ; and a body of those to whom the statue 

 was obnoxious proceeded to the church and 

 broke it to pieces. Thereupon many enlight- 

 ened Armenians, seeing the necessity of im- 

 provement, formed themselves into the new so- 

 ciety. 



" The Armenian Reformers reject the fol- 

 lowing doctrines and practices followed by the 

 present Gregorian Armenian Church; viz.: 

 Transubstantiation ; absolution of sins; the 

 sacrifice of the mass ; celibacy of the clergy ; 

 the belief that the clergy are Christ's represent- 

 atives upon earth ; fasting on specified days ; 

 the omnipresence and intercession of saints; 

 adoration of images and relics, and any faith in 

 their miraculous or curative properties ; going 

 on pilgrimages; blessing the salt; and the 

 sacrifice of lambs and cocks as oblations and 

 means of grace. They only acknowledge two 

 sacraments as ordained and instituted by the 

 divine Head of the Church, namely, Baptism 

 and the Holy Communion ; and repudiate the 

 other five, Confirmation, Penance, Ordination, 

 Extreme Unction, and Matrimony, as unscrip- 

 tural. In the same year (1866), the Reformers 



published a revised copy of the Armenian 

 prayer-book under the title of "The Picture 

 of the Armenian Ltisavoritchian Holy Church," 

 with all the passages of the old book eliminated 

 for which they did not deem there was suffi- 

 cient warrant in the word of God. This was 

 condemned by the Gregorian Patriarch as a 

 sectarian and heretical work; the Reformers 

 promptly replied by calling upon his Holiness 

 to convoke a meeting and prove the alleged 

 heresies of the book, a challenge which, how- 

 ever, was not accepted. 



" Sacerdotal intolerance, unhappily,, soon 

 showed itself in the matter. Of the clergy 

 who favored the Keform movement, some were 

 subjected to threats and even to direct perse- 

 cution on the part of the Patriarch. For in- 

 stance, the varta~bet of one of the parochial 

 churches dwelt openly from his pulpit upon 

 the truth and appositeness of the new doc- 

 trines, and, although warned to desist by the 

 Patriarch, persevered in maintaining them. 

 Not content with depriving him of his living, 

 the Patriarch urged the Porte to prosecute the 

 bold ecclesiastic as a revolutionary proselyte 

 and propagandist. The Porte, however, view- 

 ing the matter as one of purely internal con- 

 cern to the Gregorian Armenians, declined to 

 take this extreme step ; but the result has led 

 the clergy who adopt the new doctrines to 

 wear a particular sign, the sign of the cross on 

 the top button of the hat, to distinguish them 

 from the clergy under the jurisdiction of the 

 Patriarch, and to their selecting and recog- 

 nizing for the present, and until their own 

 organization becomes more complete the 

 president of the Evangelical Armenians as the 

 civil administrator of their affairs. 



"The ranks of the Reformers are being 

 steadily recruited ; and divine service is cele- 

 brated every Sunday in the new rite by Re- 

 formed Gregorian Armenian clergy according 

 to the ceremonial laid down in the revised 

 prayer-book (BadgJier)." 



In May, a demonstration was made in Con- 

 stantinople by a number of Gregorian Arme- 

 nians in favor of union with the Orthodox 

 Greek Church, by proceeding in a large body 

 to the church of the Panagia, in Pera. On the 

 following Sunday, the visit was returned to 

 the Armenian church, with no little ceremony, 

 by the Bishop of Pamphilius, accompanied by 

 his clergy and fifteen hundred members of his 

 congregation. The Armenian archbishop, sur- 

 rounded by a great number of clergy and laity, 

 received the procession at the door. The 

 Greek prelate, Dionysius, preached a sermon 

 earnestly advocating the union of the two 

 churches, and a Greek layman having also de- 

 livered an address to the same effect, the as- 

 sembly dispersed with loud acclamations. 



The Friend of India says that the Ar- 

 menians in Calcutta seem to show few or no 

 signs of ecclesiastical activity or religious prog- 

 ress. 



3. THE NESTOBIASTS. At the annual convo- 



