214 ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



more exclusive than Judaism of old. Other rites are more 

 widely extended in every way : the Roman Rite is spread 

 throughout Latin, Teutonic and Slavic peoples, and it even has 

 two languages, the Latin and the Ancient Slavonic, and two 

 alphabets, the Roman and the Glagolitic, in which its ritual is 

 written ; the Greek or Byzantine Rite extends among Greek, 

 Slavic, Latin and Syrian peoples, and its services are cele- 

 brated in Greek, Slavonic, Rumanian and Arabic with service- 

 books in the Greek, Cyrillic. Latin and Arabic alphabets. But 

 the Armenian Rite, whether Catholic or Gregorian, is confined 

 exclusively to persons of the Armenian race, and employs the 

 ancient Armenian language and alphabet. The majority of 

 the Armenians were converted to Christianity by St. Gregory 

 the Illuminator, a man of noble family, who was made Bishop 

 of Armenia in 302. So thoroughly was his work effected that 

 Armenia alone of the ancient nations converted to Christianity 

 has preserved no pagan literature antedating the Christian lit- 

 erature of the people ; pagan works, if they ever existed, seem 

 to have perished in the ardor of the Armenians for Christian 

 thought and expression. The memory of St. Gregory is so 

 revered that the Armenians who are opposed to union with the 

 Holy See take pride in calling themselves "Gregorians," imply- 

 ing that they keep the faith taught by St. Gregory. Hence it 

 is usual to call the dissidents "Gregorians," in order to distin- 

 guish them from the Uniat Catholics. At first the language of 

 the Christian liturgy in Armenia was Syriac, but later they 

 discarded it for their own tongue, and translated all the serv- 

 ices into Armenian, which was at first written in Syriac or 

 Persian letters. About 400 St. Mesrob invented the present 

 Armenian alphabet (except two final letters which were added 

 in the year 1200), and their language, both ancient and modern, 

 has been written in that alphabet ever since. Mesrob also 

 translated the New Testament into Armenian and revised the 

 entire liturgy. The Armenians in their church life have led 

 almost as checkered an existence as they have in their national 

 life. At first they were in full communion with the Universal 

 Church. They were bitterly opposed to Nestorianism, and, 

 when in 451 the Council of Chalcedon condemned the doctrine 

 of Eutyches, they seceded, holding the opinion that such a defi- 

 nition was sanctioning Nestorianism. and have since remained 

 separated from and hostile to the Greek Church of Constanti- 



