Page:Lesser Eastern Churches.djvu/431

Rh of the Greek alphabet composed Armenian letters. Sahak and Mesrob, aided by a school of interpreters, then translated the Bible into Armenian and founded a literature which was to have a great future. The Armenian liturgy was formed (from the Byzantine rite, see p. 441) about this time. So, just when Persia overran nearly all the country, Sahak and Mesrob supplied Armenians with a basis of national existence, a literary language and national rites. Mesrob's alphabet may stand as a symbol of the civilization and literature it expressed. It is not original. It is mostly Greek with a less prevailing Syriac influence. Just so is all Armenian culture.

After Nerses, in the 5th century, when Armenia was divided between the Roman Empire and Persia (p. 386), for a time there were rival Patriarchs, one in each part. Such a situation has been repeated constantly. Armenian Church history is full of rival Patriarchs, domestic schisms and disputed successions — faithful echo of the distracted state of the nation. Under the Persians were a number of martyrs, whose memory is kept by their Church.

Before we end this paragraph we may notice the further vicissitudes of the seat of the Katholikos-Patriarch. We have seen that in the first period he sat at Ashtishat in Tarōn (p. 403). After the breach with Cæsarea for a time they seem to have lived at the king's court at Valarshapat under Mount Ararat. It was then that the legend of this place arose. Valarshapat became Etshmiadzin, the scene of our Lord's direct commission to St. Gregory. So two purposes were served, the exaltation of that place and the idea of an independent Church founded, not from Cæsarea, but directly by Christ in Armenia (p. 399). But