ARMENIAN CHURCH. both rapidly and indistinctly. In the enclosure before the altar,' says one who has more frequently witnessed their devotions than myself, will be two or three priests, surrounded by a crowd of boys from eight to twelve years old, performing prayers; some swinging a smoking censer, others, taper in hand, reading first from one book and then from another, and all changing places and positions according to rule. The monotonous, inarticulate, sing-song of the youthful officiators, with voices often discordant, and stretched to their highest pitch, will grate upon your ear. You will be surrounded by a barefooted congregation, [this is no matter of reproach, for the shoes are taken off for the same reason that our own hats are,] uttering responses without order, and frequently prostrating themselves and kissing the ground, with a sign of the cross at every fall and rise. Why so large a portion of the service has been suffered to pass into the hands of boys, is exceedingly strange. They fill the four ecclesiastical grades below the sub-deacon, to which are attached the duties of clerks, or more commonly are substitutes for their occupants, having themselves no rank at all in the church. Of the first 158 pages of the Jamakírk, containing the whole of the midnight service, with all its variations for feasts, and other special occasions, more than 130, consisting of psalms, hymns, &c., are read or chanted by them under the direction of the priests. Of the remaining pages, some half a dozen belong to the deacons, if there are any, and the remainder, consisting simply of prayers and lessons from the gospels, are read by the priests. All the service, with few other exceptions than the lessons, and that the priest in the middle of every prayer of any length turns round to wave a cross before the people, and say, "Peace be to all, let us worship God," is performed with the back to the congregation. If a boy makes a mistake, he is reproved, or even chastised on the spot, though a prayer be interrupted for the purpose. The people, too, are constantly coming and going, or moving about, and often engaged in conversation.' This gross irreverence, it is but justice to say, is matter of regret with many of the intelligent Armenians with whom I have come in contact. The Sabbath the Armenians regard with greater strictness, as far as rest is concerned, than most of the other bodies of Eastern Christians; and few of the people altogether neglect attendance at church. This bespeaks on their part some becoming reverence for the divine institution. It would doubtless tend to its better sanctification, were they to curtail the numerous feast and fast days which they have devised of their own hearts. It is to be lamented that they too often substitute their attendance at church for family and private prayer." As the above quotation alludes to the numerous feasts and fasts in the Armenian church, it may be remarked that there are fourteen great feast days in the course of the year; and on these days all ordinary labour is suspended, and the day is observed 183 more strictly than the Sabbath. Besides these, there are numerous other feasts and fasts, more numerous even than the days of the year; so that in some instances several are appointed to be observed on one day. Some of the fasts extend over a consi.. derable time, as for instance, forty days before Easter, and six days before Christmas. Besides the occasional fasts, there are two weekly fasts, the one on Wednesday and the other on Friday. No fewer than 165 days in the year are appointed for fasting. On these days they are permitted to eat plentifully of all kinds of vegetable food, except the vegetable oils; thus their fasting is limited entirely to abstinence from animal food. From the scattered condition of the Armenian people, and their subjection to different political governments, their ecclesiastical polity is somewhat modified. Originally, as we learn from Mr. Dwight, whose residence as a missionary in Turkey has given him peculiar facilities of acquiring accurate information, the Armenian church was placed under one head styled Catholicos, who usually held his seat at the imperial residence. Subsequently several different Catholicoses were created by parties rising up in different parts of the country, and taking advantage of the disturbed state of public affairs. At present there are three Catholicoses among the Armenians, one at Echmiadzin, one at Aghtamar in Lake Van, and one at Sis, in the ancient province of Cilicia. The highest of these ecclesiastical rulers is the Catholicos who resides at Echmiadzin, near Erivan, and who has under his jurisdiction the whole of Turcomania, or Armenia Major; but in consequence of that province having fallen under the dominion of Russia, and the Catholicos being since 1828 appointed by the Czar, the Armenians at Constantinople, with all those in Turkey in Europe, and in Asia Minor and Armenia proper, have been ostensibly without any spiritual head, although there is still a secret connection between them and the Catholicos at Echmiadzin, to whom several vartabeds have lately gone to be ordained bishops. Ever since the Russians obtained possession of that part of the country, the Czar has claimed the right of appointing, not only the Catholicos, but even the bishops, so that whenever a bishopric becomes vacant, the synod of Echmiadzin sends the names of two or three candidates to St. Petersburg, from which the emperor selects one to fill the office. In consequence, probably, of Gregory the Enlightener having been ordained at Cesarea, the Armenian Catholicos was always consecrated by the primate of Cesarea, until A. D. 366, when Narses the Great was declared by the king, nobles, and bishops, sovereign and independent Catholicos of the nation. For a long time the Catholicos of Sis, in Armenia Minor, was the acknowledged head of the Armenian church, but in A. D. 1441, an assembly of seven hundred of the clergy transferred the supremacy to the see of Echmiadzin, for no other reason that has come down to us, than that a precious relic, the hand of St. Gregory, was in the pos are chiely bankers, and all of them men of great wealth. The patriarch is really the creature of the primates, and can do little without their approval. He enjoys the title of archbishop, and though he cannot ordain, has the appointment of bishops to their sees, for which, such is the corruption prevail ing in the Armenian church, he charges large sums of money, while the bishops on their part ordain to the priesthood for money. For a long time past the most shameless bribery, and deceit, and intrigue, have prevailed in this otherwise interesting church, which throughout many centuries maintained the profession of its faith, and its Christian name, under the severest oppression of Pagan and Mohammedan conquerors, and amid the strongest worldly inducements to apostatize. session of that convent. The removal of the supreme | much modified by the power of the primates, who authority from the Catholicos of Sis, naturally produced a feeling of jealousy and dislike between the respective occupantss of the two rival sees, which continued for more than two hundred years, until at length, in A. D. 1651, a written agreement was made between the incumbents of the two sees, in virtue of which the Cilician primate still governs a small branch of the Armenian church in full communion with the rest. He maintains independent jurisdiction within his diocese, and is regarded as the spiritual head of the Armenian church in Turkey. The third Catholicos, resident at Agthamar, in the island of Lake Van, is of far more recent origin than either of the other two, having assumed the title and functions of the office only in the beginning of the twelfth century. Excommunication followed his assumption of the ecclesiastical dignity, a sentence which was not removed till near the end of the following century. Since that time he has continued to exercise his office in full communion with the church, though his ecclesiastical jurisdiction extends scarcely beyond the small island in which he resides. In addition to the three Catholicoses now spoken of, there are two patriarchs in the Armenian church, the one resident at Constantinople, and the other at Jerusalem. Both these offices originated with the Mohammedan authorities for their own convenience. Neither of them has the power of ordaining bishops, but must send them to Echmiadzin. They themselves, however, hold the rank of bishops ecclesiastically, though invested with high political authority by the Turks. The Armenian patriarch at Constantinople possesses the power of imprisoning and scourging members of his own flock; and, until recently, as Mr. Dwight informs us, this politicoecclesiastical officer could procure their banishment from the Turkish authorities whenever he pleased. The late charter given by the sultan to his subjects prevents any such abuse, requiring in every case a regular trial before the Turkish courts. The patriarch of Constantinople receives his appointment from the sultan on a nomination from the primates of the nation. The Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem was first appointed so far back as A. D. 1311, and the office owes its existence to the sultan of Egypt. The first patriarch of Constantinople was appointed by Mohammed II., on his capture of that city in a. D. 1453. Up to a recent period he was possessed of despotic power, being responsible to the sultan for the good conduct of his people. A prison exists within his own precincts, over which he has had entire control. The heaviest oppressions accordingly have been practised, by defeating attempts to procure the official passports, which are needed to go from place to place, or the licenses necessary for occupying houses or shops, or prosecuting trades, marrying, burying the dead, &c. The despotic power of the patriarchs, however, is practically The Armenian church is episcopal in its form of government. There are nine different grades of clergy, all of them set apart to their respective offices by the laying on of hands. Four of these are below the order of deacon, and are called porters, readers, exorcists, and candle-lighters. After these come in regular order the subdeacons, deacons, priests, bishops, and highest of all, the catholicos. All below the bishop are ordained by the bishop, and the bishop receives ordination from the catholicos. The catholicos is ordained by a council of bishops. There is a peculiar order of clergy known among the Armenians by the name of Vartabeds. The difference between this class and the priests may be stated in the following particulars :-The priests are married, and in fact no man can be ordained priest unless at the time of his ordination he is married; the vartabeds never marry, and have taken upon them the vow of perpetual celibacy. The priests always remain priests, and can never rise to the rank of bishops; the vartabeds may become bishops, and in fact all the bishops are taken from that order, and are bound to perpetual celibacy. The priests never preach; the vartabeds are the preachers, strictly speaking, among the Armenian clergy. The priests live in the midst of their flocks, and go in and out among them freely; the vartabeds live not among the people, but in convents, where there are convents, or where there are none they live by themselves within the church enclosures. In case the wife of a priest dies, he is not permitted to marry a second time, and he may then, if he chooses, become a vartabed. There are several different degrees of rank among the vartabeds, each of which has its own special ordination service. One of these, called by way of distinction, the supreme order of vartabed, is now practically unknown; though according to the rules of the church it ought to exist. The individual who fills this office may be either a vartabed or a bishop. If the former, he may be ordained to it by a bishop; but if the latter, he must be set apart to this high office by the Catholicos himself. He is considered, by way of eminence, as an apostolical preacher, and his labours are to be ARMENIAN CHURCH. among the heathen alone. The spirit of missions is dead in the Armenian church, and, therefore, they have no further employment for such a class of men. Amid the numerous errors and corruptions which have crept into the Armenian church, it has always been a favourable circumstance that these have never been reduced to a systematic form, and promulgated to the world by authority of a synod or council, as the errors of the Romish church have been in the decrees of the council of Trent. And besides, the Bible has always been avowedly the only rule or standard of her faith, however she may have practically exalted the traditions of men and the authority of the church above the Bible. The Scriptures have never been forbidden to the people, but on the contrary, the New Testament has been used in the elementary schools. About the middle of the eighteenth century, a priest of Constantinople, named Debajy Oghlû, protested against the abuses and errors which existed in the Armenian church. He wrote a work upon the subject, which, though never printed, was circulated widely from hand to hand, and contributed much towards the reformation which is now in progress. In 1813 the Russian Bible Society published an edition of 5,000 copies of the Armenian Bible, and soon after 2,000 copies of the ancient Armenian New Testament, while the British and Foreign Bible Society issued an equally large edition of the New Testament in the version of the fifth century. In the report of the latter Society for 1814, it is remarked, "The printing of the Armenian Testament has awakened great attention among the Armenians, particularly in Russia; and a fervent desire has been manifested on their part to possess that invaluable treasure." This was evidently the commencement of an important movement, which was all the more likely to go forward, as it was countenanced by the Russian Emperor Alexander I., and also by the Catholicos of the Armenian church. It was found, in distributing the Bibles, that the language in which they were written was not understood by the mass of the people, and accordingly in 1822 the Russian Society translated the New Testament into the ArmenoTurkish, and in the following year a translation appeared under the auspices of the British and Foreign Bible Society in the vulgar Armenian tongue. These translations were found to be somewhat imperfect, but they have since been supplanted by new and improved translations executed by American missionaries. Thus far no opposition was made by the Armenian clergy to the free circulation of the Scriptures among their people. In 1823, however, a different spirit began to be manifested. Messrs. Lewis and Baker, agents of the Bible Society, having applied to the Armenian patriarch of Constantinople for his sanctior to the printing of a version of the New Testament in the modern Armenian, which the common people understand, that dignitary refused his sanction in the most positive terms, and his ex 185 ample was followed by the clergy generally. About this time the American Board of Missions came to the resolution of sending missionaries to labour among the Armenians. The interesting circumstance which first led to this step was, the conversion at Beirût of three Armenian ecclesiastics, who forthwith directed their efforts towards the accomplishment of a reform in their church. They were not a little aided in this by the labours of Peshtimaljian, a learned and conscientious individual, who was at the head of a school established within the precincts of the patriarchate. He had studied the theology of | both the Oriental and the Romish churches, and besides, he had been a diligent student of the Word of God. To this man, in his official capacity, it belonged to train the candidates for the priesthood, the completion of their studies at this institution being required as a pre-requisite to ordination. The result was, that until the death of this remarkable person in 1838, great numbers of priests passed under his instructions, and went forth to labour among the people with their minds thoroughly imbued and their hearts deeply impressed with evangelical truth. Meanwhile a mission among the Armenians of Turkey had been established by the American Board. But no sooner did the missionaries commence their energetic labours, aided by Sahakyan, a pupil in the school of Peshtimaljian, than opposition on the part of both the Armenian and the Romish clergy began to arise; and by their secret influence, a school which the missionaries had formed in Constantinople was broken up. An influential jeweller in the city, who belonged to the Armenian church, accused Sahakyan and another young man of heresy, and prevailed upon Peshtimaljian to summon them before him for examination. The youths appeared, and the jeweller confidently charged them with violating their obligations to the church, and dishonouring God. They were about to vindicate themselves, but Peshtimaljian took the matter into his own hands, and proved to the astonished jeweller, both from history and Scripture, that the Armenian church itself, and not the young men, was heretical and idolatrous. The young men were then heard for themselves, and aided by Peshtimaljian, they so satisfactorily established the truth of the opinions which they held, that the jeweller was convinced of his own errors, and those of his church, and from that day openly avowed himself a zealous supporter of evangelical doctrines. One of the greatest hindrances to the progress of the gospel among the Armenians, has been the persecuting character of the Armenian patriarchal power at Constantinople. Being not only itself invested with despotic authority, but having great influence with the Turkish authorities, it throws every obstacle in the way of the missionaries, and endeavours by all possible means to prevent the people from embracing Protestant and evangelical principles. To discourage all such conversions, Sahakyan was seized and imprisoned for a long period, though |