Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/762

 726 ARMENIAN CHUKCH with the Roman Catholic church, hut retaining their own usages, such as the communion in both kinds and the marriage of the priests. They have had a patriarch in Cilicia since 1742. The monks of St. Anthony, who have an abbot on Mount Lebanon, and the Mekhitansts, whose labors have been conspicuous in Armenian lit- erature, are the principal monks among them. They are estimated to number 15,000 in Con- stantinople and 100,000 in the Turkish empire. According to the "Papal Almanac" for 1872, the Armeno-Catholic church has one patriarch (of Cilicia), five archbishoprics in Turkey and one (Lemberg) in Austria, eleven bishoprics in Turkey and one (Ispahan) in Persia. The papal bull Reversurus, dated July 12, 1867, which without consulting the Armenian bishops made important changes in the constitution of the Armeno-Catholic church and in its relations to Rome, called forth a violent opposition. At a national synod held in 1869 the major- ity of the bishops protested against the bull; and when the patriarch of Cilicia, Hassun, the head of the church, attempted to carry out the provisions of this bull, the bishops de- clared (Feb. 14, 1871) the election of Hassun, which had taken place in 1866, to have been illegal, and elected Archbishop Bahdiarian of Diarbekir as patriarch of Cilicia. The now patriarch, with all the bishops and priests who had taken part in the election, was excommu- nicated by the pope on Nov. 2, 1871. This fate was toward the close of 1872 shared by all the members of the church who refused to recog- nize the authority of the patriarch Hassun and the decrees of the Vatican council. The ex- communicated portion of the church has put it- self in communication with the Old Catholics of Germany. The Protestant Armenians have arisen within the last 50 years. An Armenian priest, Debajy Oghlu, living at Constantinople, about 1760 wrote a book, which was circulated in manuscript, on the errors of the church, praising Luther, severely chastising both priests and people for their superstition and vice, and testing every principle and ceremony by the Bible. The British and Russian Bible societies published and circulated (1818-'23) thousands of Bibles and Testaments in the ancient Ar- menian language, with the approval of the ca- tholicos of Etchmiadzin. They also published (1822-'3) the New Testament in Armeno-Turk- ish (Turkish in Armenian characters) and mod- ern Armenian ; but the Armenian patriarch and other clergy refused to sanction these transla- tions. In 1830-'31 the Rev. Messrs. Eli Smith and H. G. O. Dwight, sent by the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, explored Armenia itself. The same board had had for several years a mission in Syria, where several Armenian ecclesiastics were converted. In 1831 the Rev. William Goodell, who went to Syria in 1823, established a mission of the board at Pera, a suburb of Constantinople, and was joined in 1832 by Mr. Dwight. These and other American missionaries who subsequently joined them directed their efforts especially to the en- lightenment and reformation of the Armenian nation, and, though bitterly opposed by the pa- triarch and other Old Armenians whose coope- ration they sought, gradually extended their operations and influence through the empire, giving religious instruction, translating the Scriptures, preparing and distributing religious and educational works, establishing schools, promoting religious liberty, &c. In 1843 Ova- gim, a young Armenian who had in a fit of passion professed Mohammedanism and after- ward returned to his former faith, was be- headed publicly at Constantinople by the Turkish authorities ; but this led to the British minister's demanding and with the help of other foreign ministers obtaining from the sultan a written pledge that the death penalty should not be applied to such cases. But the opposi- tion to the evangelical movement among the Armenians became still more violent. June 21, 1846, the Armenian patriarch finally ex- communicated and anathematized all who re- mained firm to their evangelical principles, and decreed that the anathema should be annually read in all Armenian churches in the em- pire. July 1, 1846, the first evangelical Arme- nian church of Constantinople was formed, with 40 members, including females, and one week later Mr. Apisoghom Khatchaduryan was ordained its pastor. Similar churches were formed the same summer at Ismid (Nicomedia), Adabazar, and Trebizond. Nov. 15, 1847, the native Protestants were officially recognized as constituting a separate and independent community, and in November, 1850, the sultan gave to the native Protestants of Turkey a charter placing them on an equality with the older Christian organizations, and providing for a head or agent (a layman) nominated by their regular ballot, and appointed by the Porte, and also for national, provincial, and local councils chosen by themselves, to regu- late their own affairs. The Hatti-Humayun or Hatti-Sherif^ issued by the sultan in Feb- ruary, 1856, placed them on a legal equality with Moslems. In 1859 the appointment of a Protestant Armenian censor by the Turkish government relieved the Protestants from an- noyances proceeding from the Old Armenian censor. The mission of the American board to the Armenians of Turkey has now grown into four distinct missions, to European, western, central, and eastern Turkey, the first having special reference to the Bulgarians, the other three to the Armenians. In the three Arme- nian missions there were reported, in January, 1872, 37 ordained and 63 unordained (mostly female) American missionaries, 16 stations and 184 out stations, 75 churches with about 3,800 church members, 19,411 registered Protestants, nearly 50 native pastors and as many licensed preachers, several theological and training schools and classes with over 130 pupils, 115 pupils in girls' boarding schools, and 5,657 pu- pils in 197 common schools.