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RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ARMENIAN
CHRISTIANS AT CONSTANTINOPLE.

By the Rev. Robert Walsh, LL. D. Late
Chaplain to the British Embassy at Con-
stantinople.

Extracted from an article in the Amulet.

ARMENIA, a country in Asia, lying to the North of Persia and Mesopotamia, and to the South of the Euxine and Caspian Seas, is celebrated from the earliest antiquity. The face of the region is very mountainous, and all the great rivers take their rise there: the Tigris and the Euphrates running South, and falling into the Persian Gulf, and the Phasis, Cyrus, and Araxes, running North, and falling into the Euxine and Caspian Seas, indicate that their sources must be in the highest land in the immense space which they traverse. Hence it was that this region was first uncovered by the waters of the deluge, and the ark, we are told, rested on Mount Ararat, the highest mountain of Armenia.*

On the subjugation of Armenia by the Turks, the country became greatly depopulated. Numbers emigrated to different parts of the world, where, like the Jews, they continue at this day dispersed, and retain, like them, the characteristics which distinguish their original country; and they acquired a propensity for wandering about, and a commercial enterprise, which still mark them in the east, and which once distinguished them in the western world. Cha Abbas, the celebrated Persian monarch, cotemporary with our Elizabeth, availed himself of the inroads of the Turks, and invited the fugitive Armenians to settle in his dominions, where he gave them every protection and encouragement. Twenty thousand Armenian families were located in the province of Guilam alone, where they carried the culture of silk to the high state of perfection which it has attained there. In Julfa, a suburb of Ispahan, an exclusive colony was formed, which consisted of thirty thousand persons. This colony became the great centre of Asiatic commerce. They were distinguished by a frugality, industry, and eco

* The Armenians believe that the ark was miraculously preserved from decay, and still exists on the top of their mountain. Many attempts, they say, have been made to ascend to where it is; but the persons, when near the top, always found themselves, by some supernatural means, again conveyed to the bottom.

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nomy, and above all by a spirit of enter prise, and a personal courage and activity in commercial speculations, very different from the luxurious indolence of an Asiatic people. About 40,000 reside in India, where they carry on the greater part of the inland trade. I also found many mer chants of that nation in Transylvania, Hungary, Poland, and Russia, where they are distinguished by their national qualities-industry, frugality, activity, and their natural and inseparable result, great opulence.

But by far the most numerous and important colony of this people, is that which was brought to Constantinople by the Turks, after they had subdued their country. I was curious to ascertain with accuracy their present numbers, and I obtained an authentic return from the districts in which they reside. There are at present in Constantinople, and the adjoining villages on the Bosphorus, 200,000 Armenian Christians. Of these, about 4000 individuals have conformed to Roman Catholic forms of worship, and acknowledge the supremacy of the See of Rome; the remainder adhere to the doctrines and discipline of their primitive Asiatic churches, and acknowledge no spiritual head but their own patriarch. The religious state of this people is, therefore, that of their nation: I can speak of it from a residence and observation of some years among them; and what I have not seen, I can detail from authentic information.

The Armenians were first converted to Christianity by St. Gregory, of Nazianzus, a town in Cappadocia, who, in the reign of the Greek Emperor Theodosius, was elected Patriarch of Constantinople. He, however, preferred the duties of a missionary to heathen nations yet unconverted, and with this view he returned to his own country, and proceeded eastward to the mountains of Armenia, where he first preached the gospel. The tradition of the Armenians on this important event, is as follows:--The country at that time was governed by Tiridates, a cruel tyrant, who immediately had the missionary seized, and thrown into a dungeon, deep, dank, and filled with serpents. Here he was left and forgotten, and nothing further was heard of him and his doctrines. Thirty years after this event, Castrovitugh, sister of Tiridates, was disturbed by nocturnal visions; an angel, she asserted, appeared to her, and constantly urged her to intercede for Gregory. She therefore applied to her brother, who assured her intercession was useless, as the missionary was

long since dead; and allowed her to satisfy herself by examining his dungeon. She did so, and to her astonishment and joy, found the missionary, not only alive, but in perfect health. She now urged this miracle as a proof of his divine mission; but Tiridates, like Pharaoh, still hardened his heart, and kept him confined, till God converted him by a terrible visitation. He was one day hunting a wild boar on the side of Mount Ararat, when suddenly he was changed into a similar animal, and all his attendants into hounds in pursuit of him. The people, struck with this awful judgment, immediately rushed to the dungeon, and liberated Gregory; who prayed that the king and his attendants might be restored to their proper shapes. His prayers were heard, and the first use they made of their human forms was to be baptized, and acknowledge the doctrines of Christianity, which were then embraced by all the nation. Gregory afterwards lived to a great age, founding churches in the country, which are still held in high veneration. At his death he was canonized as the patron saint of the nation, under the name of “ Surp loo Savorich," or the "Holy Illuminator;" and still further to evince their respect and reverence, they commenced their era from the time of his death, which happened, according to their account, in the year 551 after Christ; our present year therefore, 1826, is, according to the Armenian calendar, 1275.

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The principal church founded by St. Gregory, was that of "Etchmeasin,' where, according to their ecclesiastical history, another extraordinary miracle was wrought. The church stands upon a rock, under which was a deep cavern. In the times of Paganism, this cavern was filled with impure demons, who were consulted on all future events, and gave answers like the Greek and Roman Öracles. This foul delusion was destroyed, they say, by Christ himself, who, at the intercession of St. Gregory, descended with his cross in his hand, and striking the rock with it, rent asunder the abode, and put to flight the demon inhabitants.* The rock from thence was called "Etchmeasin," or the "Stroke;" and the church founded on it, was made the seat of their Patriarch, the spiritual head of their church. The Mahomedans them

* The early fathers of the church mention the silence imposed upon Pagan oracles as one of the first effects of the promulgation of Christianity, according to the prophecy of the Apostle, "Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail;" 1 Cor. xiii. 8. Eusebius goes so far as to enumerate some of them. It was asserted that Memnon's statue ceased to emit sounds at the same time and for the same cause.

selves hold it in such respect, that they have allowed it a privilege which no other place of worship is permitted to enjoy in their dominions. The Turks abhor the sound of a bell; their own congregations are called to worship by a human voice, and those of other sects by a wooden mallet struck against a board; to the church of Etchmeasin alone they permit a ring of bells, and for that reason they call it at this day," Changlé Chilse," or the "Church of Bells."

From the time of St. Gregory, Christianity made a rapid and extensive progress in the East. At the period of the Turkish invasion, the capital of Armenia was "Anee," celebrated for containing within it three hundred Christian churches. The inroad of the Mahometans, however, with the Koran in one hand, and the exterminating sword in the other, has now swept away those monuments of the Gospel, and, like Ephesus and the churches in the other parts of Asia, and from the same cause, they have left only their name and place behind them.

The churches of the Armenians are plain edifices outside, but the interior is exceedingly gaudy. In common with the Greeks, they abhor images as idolatrous, and they never admit a statue inside their church. They do not, however, annex the same idea to pictures, and the walls of their churches are literally covered up to the roof with portraits of our Saviour, the Virgin, and different saints, to all of which they pay a profound veneration, by genuflection, touching their hands first to the ground before them, and then to their foreheads, and kissing some part of the figure with an awful respect. The service is chaunted, and the music much more tolerable than that of the Greeks."

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The Armenian church is governed by four l'atriarchs, whose jurisdiction is acknowledged by the people in whatever distant country they may reside; namely, the Patriarch of "Etchmeasin," near Erivan, in Persia, and of "Sis,' shahar," and "Achtamar," in Armenia. There are, besides, two others, which, though of equal or greater consequence, are merely titular, and properly form no part of the discipline of the Armenian church; these are the Patriarchs of "Constantinople" and "Jerusalem." It is the policy of the Turks to avail themselves of the religious prejudices of the people they subdue, and their apparent toleration is little more than sordid avarice, or selfish policy; they therefore appointed two new Patriarchs within their own immediate controul, and to which they nominate creatures of their own choice. On every new appointment, they receive an enormous sum of money, and the Patriarch then becomes the instrument of enforcing the firmans, and collecting the Haratch,

or Capitation Tax, for which he is made responsible; the poor Patriarchs of Constantinople, therefore, whether Greek or Armenian, are not held in much respect by their people, as they are constantly changed for the money every now appointment brings, and they are known to be the mere tools of Turkish masters.

When an Armenian feels, as he thinks, a call to the ministry, he simply goes to the priest of his district, accompanied by his father and mother, and announces that he wishes to devote himself to God. He is then presented with a cope by the priest, and at the expiration of some period of probation, he is ordained and presented by the bishop with the sacerdotal vestments.

Priests are ordained, as in the Western Church, by the "imposition of hands;" but it is necessary that the four primitive Patriarchs should concur in this ordination, either personally or by a representative if the Patriarch of Constantinople assist, he does it as proxy for another. The priesthood is divided into two classes-secular and regular. The first are not only allowed to marry, but it is enjoined to them as a necessary qualification for holy orders; but if a priest's wife die, and he take another, he becomes suspended and degraded from his sacerdotal functions. The regular clergy, or monks, are not allowed to take wives; and as all the dignitaries of their church, the Patriarchs and Bishops, must be taken from this order, it follows of course, that no Patriarch or Bishop can be a married

man.

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The whole clerical establishment is now supported by voluntary contributions, made at festivals and other times in their churches, and certain fees on occasional duties. The convents, however, still some portions of land annexed to them, which goes to the sustenance and support of the monks who cultivate them. There are three orders of monks: that of "Surp Savorich," or "St. Gregory," "Surp Parsiach," or St. Basil," and "Surp Dominicos," or " St. Dominick." This latter is a more recent order, and has been adopted from the Latin Church. These Cænobites inhabit four convents situated in different parts of Asia: "Surp Carabet," or "St. John," on the frontiers of Persia; "Varatch,' or the "Holy Cross," near Vau, in Armenia; "Aspasasin," or the " Holy Virgin," near Diarbekir, in Mesopotamia; and "Surp Bogas," or" St. Paul," at Angora, in Asia-Minor. Besides these, there are many religious persons who separate themselves from the world, and devote their lives to solitude and prayer; among these, the "Gigniahores" are the most remarkable. They search out the highest and most inaccessible rocks, and, climbing to the summit, never again descend. They are supplied

by provisions which the pious bring below, and which the Anchoret draws up by means of a cord. It is evident that these are a remnant of the order of Simon Stylites.

Besides the usual orders of bishops, priests, and deacons, there is one peculiar to the Armenian church, that of the Vertabiets, or Doctors. They are considered as the most learned of the nation, and allowed extraordinary privileges. They are permitted to preach their sermons sitting, -an indulgence not extended to their bishops. Their opinions are the standards of orthodoxy, and they were_the_great opponents of the missionaries from Rome, who in all their writings greatly abuse them for their heresies. When the different heresies which sprung up in the early ages of the church were condemned by the synods, they generally retired to some remote part, where, to this day, they are professed, though now forgotten or disregarded by the rest of Christendom.

Like all the orientals, the Armenians attribute great importance to fasting. Among people so comparatively moderate and simple in their diet, restraints imposed on their appetites cannot be felt in the same degree as by nations who are less temperate; but they are actually so severe, and so rigidly observed, as to evince an extraordinary sincerity and self-denial. Their first great period of fasting corresponds with ours-the forty days preced. ing Easter Sunday. Many commence the fast by abstaining three or four days from all kinds of food, and then, during its continuance, they eat nothing till three o'clock in the day, in imitation of Cornelius, who fasted till that hour. When they do eat, they are not allowed the food that is permitted by other churches. They must not eat fish with blood,, which is permitted in the Latin Church; nor fish with shells, which is permitted in the Greek. They are restricted to bread and oil; and because olive oil is too nourishing and too great a luxury, they use that which is expressed from a grain called sousam, of a taste and odour exceedingly revolting. In this way they observe certain periods before Christmas and other festivals, besides every Wednesday and Friday; so that the whole year is a succession of Lents, with short intervals, during which they maintain, not a nominal, but a rigid, uncompromising absti nence. Many of the boatmen on the Bosphorus, and the hummals, or porters, are Armenians. I have often pitied those unfortunate men, whom I have seen labouring whole days without remission, on scanty diet, scarcely sufficient to support a human body when not making any exertion. Among the food from which they abstain altogether, is the flesh of a hare, which no call of appetite or scarcity

grave; their burying-ground, therefore, consists of extensive groves of these trees, which they reserve exclusively to themselves. The Armenians generally plant on such occasions a tree, which yields a resinous gum of a strong aromatic odour, which fills the air, and corrects the exhalations from the graves. They grow to a

of food will induce some of them to touch. They do not allege for it any prejudice founded on the Levitical law, which induces some worthy people among ourselves to abstain from swine's flesh; but they assign physical causes. They assert that a hare has certain bodily habits that too nearly resemble the human; and, moreover, that it is of a melancholy tem-large size, and form very picturesque obperament, to which they themselves have too great a disposition, and which the flesh of this animal would have a tendency to increase.

As the Armenians are thus severe in their discipline, so they are rigid in their doctrines. They hold the tenet of infant baptism, but insist on the necessity of total immersion of the body. The priest, therefore, takes the child by the hands and feet, and plunges him three times in the water; and so necessary to the spiritual effect do they hold the washing of the whole body, that if any part remain unwetted, they raise the water in their hand, and so purify the unwashed limb, The ceremony of chrism, or anointing the infant with oil, takes place after baptism. The forehead, eyes, ears, stomach, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet, are touched with consecrated oil, and then the bread of the Eucharist is touched to the lips.

The Eucharist, or, as they call it, "Surp usium," is administered to adults on Sundays and festivals, in a manner different from all other Christian churches. They use unleavened bread, or wafer, which they steep in the wine, from whence the priest takes it with his fingers, and distributes it indiscriminately to the communicants. There is generally, beside the priest, a boy who assists; to him he presents his fingers, after he has given the elements, and he devoutly licks off whatever has adhered to them. The Armenians, to a certain extent, believe in the doctrine of Transubstantiation on this occasion, and take literally the expression of "this is my body." They further imagine that these elements, converted into the real presence, remain for twenty-four hours in the stomach undigested, during which time they never spit, nor suffer a dog, or any other impure thing, to touch their mouths.

The cemeteries of the people of the East are not, as with us, small, and scattered in detached places through their cities; but. there are large common receptacles for the dead outside their towns. In the vicinity of Constantinople, each nation has its own; and the Turks, Jews, Greeks, and Armenians, form immense cities of the dead. That of the Armenians occupies a space of near an hundred acres, on a hill that overlooks the Bosphorus. The Turks, on the death of a friend, plant a young cypress over his N. S. No. 23.

jects in a landscape. Their cemetery on the Bosphorus is covered with these trees, and from its elevated situation, the view it commands, and the view it presents, is perhaps the most interesting grove in the world. Here whole Armenian families, of two or three generations together, are constantly seen sitting round the tombs, and holding visionary communications with their departed friends. According to their belief, the souls of the dead pass into a place called Gayank, which is not a purgatory, for they suffer neither pain nor pleasure, but retain a perfect consciousness of the past. From this state they may be delivered by the alms and prayers of the living, which the pious Armenians give liberally for their friends. Easter Monday is the great day on which they assemble for this purpose; but every Sunday, and frequently week days, are devoted to the same object. The priest who accompanies them, first proceeds to the tombs, and reads the prayers for the dead, in which he is joined by the family. They then separate into groups, or singly sitting down by favourite graves, call its inhabitants about them, and, by the help of a strong imagination, really seem to converse with them. This pious and pensive duty being performed with their dead friends, they retire to some pleasant spot near the place, where provisions had been previously brought, and cheerfully enjoy the society of the living. These family visits to the mansions of the departed are a favourite enjoyment of this people. I have frequently joined their groups without being considered an intruder; and, I confess, I have always returned pleased, and even edified, by the pious though mistaken practice.

The island of Marmora lies almost within sight of this place, and abounds in marble; this stone is very cheap and abundant, and no other is used in erecting tombs. Some of these family mausolea are rich and well sculptured; others of them are very remarkably distinguished. The first thing that strikes a stranger, is a multitude of little cavities cut at the angles of the stone; these are monuments of Armenian charity. The trees abound with birds, who frequently perish for want of water in that hot and arid soil. These cups are intended to be so many reservoirs to retain water for their *Pistaccia Terebinthina,

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use, as they are filled by every shower of rain. The Armenians are fond of commemorating the profession of the dead; they therefore engrave on his tomb the implements of his trade, so that every one may know how he had gained his living; but the most extraordinary circumstance is, that they are also fond of displaying how he came by his death: you therefore see on their tombs the effigies of men sometimes hanging, sometimes stranled, and sometimes beheaded, with their heads in their hands. To account for this extraordinary fondness for displaying the infamous death of their friends, they say that no Armenian is ever executed for a real crime; but when a man has acquired a sufficient fortune to become an object of cupidity to the Turks, he is then, on some pretext, put to death, that his property may be confiscated; an executed man, therefore, implies only a man of wealth and consequence. This display is a bitter but just satire on Turkish justice, though the Turks are so stupid as not to comprehend it. I brought with me a worthy Armenian priest one day, who, with fear and trembling, translated for me the inscriptions on some of these tombs. I annex one as a sample:

You see my place of burial here in this
verdant field.

I give my Goods to the Robbers,
My Soul to the Regions of Death,

The World I leave to God,

› And my Blood I shed in the Holy Spirit. You who meet my Tomb,

Say for me,

"Lord, I have sinned."
1197.

Notwithstanding this treatment, the Armenians are in higher favour with the Turks than any other tributary people. They designate the Greeks, whom they detest, "Yesheer," or "Slaves," and consider them so; the Jews" Musaphir," or "Strangers," because they came from Spain; but the Armenians "Rayas," or "Subjects," because their country is now a province of Turkey, and they consider them Asiatics, and a part of themselves. * This favour is greatly enhanced by the wealth which the industry and enterprize of the Armenians bring to the impoverished and lazy Turks. They are, therefore, appointed to all those situations which the Turks themselves are incapable of filling. They are the Masters of the Mint, and conduct the whole process of coining money; they are the "Saraffs,' or bankers, who supply government and

*These are, strictly speaking, the designations by which the Turks distinguish these people, though in a loose way all are called Rayas who pay the Haratch, or Capitation Tax.

individuals with cash in all their embarrassments; they are the conductors of the very few manufactures which exist in the empire; and they are the merchants who carry on the whole internal trade of Asia. They enjoy, however, a perilous protection: the very favour they are shown is a snare for their destruction; for every man that acquires wealth by its means, knows that he holds his life only as long as the circumstance is unknown.

It is singular that the Armenians have never shown the slightest sympathy or common feeling with their christian brethren the Greeks. No menian has ever yet been found to join their cause, nor to assist it in any way, either by money or influence. Resembling Quakers, however, in many of their habits, they are, like them, a quiet, passive, sober people, and greatly averse to war. Besides this, there unfortunately exist some religious differences between them and the Greeks, which embitter their mutual feelings. The Greeks despise them for their timidity; and, arrogating to themselves exclusively the name of Christians," they seem to exclude the Armenians from christian community.

The Armenians, though fond of religious books, have little taste for, or acquaintance with, general literature. They purchase with great avidity all the Bibles furnished by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Their patriarch sanctioned and encouraged a new edition of the New Testament, which the Rev. Mr. Leeves, the agent of the Bible Society, has had printed at an Armenian press at Constantinople; and I was encouraged to have a translation made into their language, of some of the Homilies of our Church, on account of the Homily Society in London, which I left in progress. They had early a printing-office attached to the Patriarchate, and another more recently established by a private company at Korou Chesmé, in the neighbourhood of Constantinople. They have also a third, which was set up at the convent of St. Lazare, in Venice, from whence has issued a number of books in their language. Their publications are, however, almost exclusively confined to books on religious subjects. I obtained a list of all the books printed at the patriarchal press, from the year 1697, the year of its estabiishment, to the end of the year 1823. It conveys a better idea of the literary taste and progress of the Armenians, than any other document could do. In a space of a hundred and twenty-five years, only fifty-two books were printed, but of each of these several editions. Forty-seven of them were commentaries on the Bible, sermons, books of prayer, lives of saints, hymns, and psalters, and a panegyric upon the angels. The five not on sacred sub

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