ARMENIA. 



205 



They prefer permanent habitations, wherever the 

 eternal feuds of the pachas and Curds permit them 

 to remain quiet. The Armenians received Christianity 

 as early as the 4th century. During the Monophy- 

 sitic disputes, being dissatisfied with the decisions of 

 the council of Chalcedon, they separated from the 

 Greek church, in 536. The popes have, at different 

 times, when they requested protection against the 

 Mohammedans, attempted to gain them over to the 

 Catholic faith, but have not been able to unite them 

 permanently and generally with the Roman church. 

 Only in Italy, Poland, Gallicia, Persia, under the 

 archbishop of Nachitscheven (a new town on the Don, 

 in the Russian government Ekaterinoslav, of which 

 the inhabitants are mostly Armenians), and in Mar- 

 seilles, there are United Armenians, who acknowledge 

 the spiritual supremacy of the pope, agree in their 

 doctrines with the Catholics, but retain their peculiar 

 ceremonies and discipline. The case is the same with 

 the United Armenian monasteries upon mount Leba- 

 non in Syria. At the Persian invasion, in the begin- 

 ning of the 17th century, many of them were obliged 

 to become Mohammedans, but the far greater part 

 are yet Monophysites, and have remained faithful to 

 their old religion and worship. The Porte has con- 

 stantly protected them against the attempts of the 

 Catholics. Their doctrine differs from the orthodox 

 chiefly in their admitting only one nature in Christ, 

 and believing the Holy Spirit to issue from the Father 

 alone. In their seven sacraments, which they call 

 mysteries, there are these peculiarities, that, in bap- 

 tism, they sprinkle thrice, and dip thrice, and this is 

 immediately followed by confirmation ; that, in the 

 Lord's supper, they mix no water with the wine, and 

 use leavened bread, which they distribute dipped in 

 wine ; and that they allow extreme unction only to 

 divines, immediately after their death. Tiiey adore 

 saints and their images, but do not believe in purga- 

 tory. In fasting, they surpass the Greeks. Their 

 feasts are fewer than those of the Greeks, but they 

 celebrate them more devoutly. They worship, in 

 Turkey, mostly in the night time ; the mass is said 

 in the ancient Armenian, the sermon is preached in 

 the modern. Their hierarchy differs little from that 

 of the Greeks. The cal/iolicus, or head of the church, 

 has his seat. at Etschmiazim, a monastery near Erivan, 

 the capital of the Persian Armenia, on mount Ararat. 

 The holy oil, which he prepares and sells to the clergy, 

 <uid the frequent pilgrimages of the Armenians to 

 Flschrniazim, supply him with means for the support 

 of a magnificent style, of worship, and of establish- 



ments tor education. He maintains, in his residt nee, 

 a seminary for the education of divines. The patri- 

 archs, bishops, and archbishops of the Armenians are. 

 invested by him, and every three years confirmed in 

 their offices, or recalled. The remainder of the clergy 

 resemble the priests of the orthodox church in rank 

 and duties. The monks follow the rule of St Basil. 

 The vertabets, who live like monks, cultivate the 

 sciences, take degrees, which may be compared with 

 our academical honours, and are the vicars of the 

 bishops, form a class of divines peculiar to the Arme- 

 nian church. The secular priests must be man-It d 

 once, but not permitted to take a second wife. In 

 superstition, and attachment to old forms, the Arme- 

 nians resemble the Greeks, but are distinguished by 

 better morals. In general, they surpass all the kin- 

 dred Monophysitic sects in information; allow the 

 people to read the bible ; study the theological, his- 

 torical, and mathematical sciences ; possess a respec- 

 table national literature, and, at Etschmiazim, have a 

 printing office, which produces splendid copies of the 

 bible. Tiie Armenian church is divided by a great 

 schism ; somewhere about one half, both of clergy 

 and laity, having attached themselves to the Roman 

 Catholic creed, who are condemned as heretics by 

 the adherents to the old Oriental Church, and in their 

 turn reprobate as heterodox those of their brethren 

 who persevere in the faith of their forefathers. At 

 Constantinople, these last predominate, or did so, at 

 least, in the year 1700, when Mtchitar Pedrosian, a 

 Catholic Armenian, founded a new monastery in the 

 Moslem capital, of which he was himself appointed 

 abbot. Being persecuted by the adverse sect, h 

 fled with his monks to the Morea, then subject to 

 Venice, and established his monastery, to which lie 

 attached an academy, atModon. Here both flourish- 

 ed, but not permanently. The Morea reverted to 

 the Ottoman sceptre, and in 1717 the worthy abbot 

 transferred his monastery and academy to Venice, 

 where, upon the island of San Lazzaro, one of the 

 more detached of the sixty, seventy, or one hundred 

 and thirty (geographers are not agreed as to the 

 number) islets which constitute the substratum of tlu: 

 inhabited portion of Venice, it has ever since re- 

 mained and prospered. In honour of its founder, it 

 is called Mechitarist. Abbot Mechitar, during the 

 remainder of his life, diligently and successfully ex- 

 erted himself, taking advantage of a situation that 

 enabled him to combine the knowledge of Europe 

 with that of his nutive land, to render his monastic 

 college the principal seat of Armenian erudition and 

 education. Thither all such of his countrymen as 

 desire a superior degree of cultivation for their off- 

 spring habitually send their sons for instruction. The 

 best Armenian printing press extant is the Mechita- 

 rist, from which press issues a newspaper, permitted 

 by the Turks, under certain restrictions, to circulate 

 among their Armenian subjects ; and neither the 

 monks nor their superiors neglect any of the oppor- 

 tunities for improvement that they possess. Their 

 chief literary occupations are, indeed, more useful to 

 their less enlightened countrymen, than interesting 

 to strangers, namely, translating into Armenian the 

 classic works of France, Italy, England, and Ger- 

 many. Besides the religious societies of the Arme- 

 nians in their own country and in Turkey, where 

 they are very numerous (their patriarch at Constanti- 

 nople maintains the same relation as the Greek pa- 

 triarch towards the Porte), there are others in P< TM;I, 

 at Ispahan, Schiras, and Nerinkale ; in Russia, at 

 Petersburg, Moscow, Astrachan, and in the Caucasian 

 governments; also, small ones at London and Am- 

 sterdam. (See Ker Porter's 1 'ravels in Georgia. Persia, 

 Armenia ancient, Babylon, etc., in the years IS 17 20 

 (Loud., 1821, 4to, with copperplates), iuid the inn els 



