their suffragans. All the more significant are their former journeys to Cæsarea. Gelasius of Cyzicus in his history of the Council of Nicæa counts Armenia "both great and little" as a province of Cæsarea.[1]
The title of the Armenian Primate proves his dependence. He was not a Patriarch before the schism. Leontius sometimes uses this name loosely, as do many writers.[2] But the regular, almost invariable title is "Katholikos."[3] It appears that this name was first used for the Armenian Primate ; from him it was borrowed later by the Primate of Persia (p. 49) and others. In civil language the Katholikos was the emperor's minister of finance.[4] In Christian ecclesiastical use it had a definite meaning. Taken because of its obvious suggestion (Catholic), it meant always the Primate of a great Church, more than a Metropolitan, but one who is subject to a greater bishop. "Exarch" is rather a lesser kind of Patriarch, independent of anyone, save, of course always, of the central authority of Rome over the whole Church.[5] Katholikos implies dependence; a Katholikos (like the Syrian Mafrian) is the vicar of a greater bishop. So Faustus calls the Primates of Iberia and Albania "Katholikoi," because they are under Armenia;[6] he calls the Metropolitan of Cæsarea Katholikos, because he is subject to the Patriarch of Antioch.[7] The modern Armenians have so forgotten the meaning of the word that, having now many "Patriarchs," they use "Katholikos" as meaning "Chief Patriarch" (p. 430). Lastly, the story of their schism from Cæsarea, and St. Basil's protest against it, show that then their claim to independence was new (p. 407).
In this first period, then, the Armenian Church was part of the Catholic Church. It took a normal place, as an outlying mission
- ↑ Mansi, ii. 881. In spite of this explicit statement, Ormanian says that writers who count Armenia under Cæsarea mean only Armenia Minor (op. cit. 13). Then he talks about: "l'histoire consciencieusement étudiée" (ib.).
- ↑ Orth. Eastern Church, 8, n. 2.
- ↑ "Kathoghikos" in the later Western pronunciation.
- ↑ So Eusebius: Hist. Eccl. vii. 105.
- ↑ Orth. Eastern Church, 8, 21.
- ↑ Faustus, iii. 6 (Langlois, i. 214).
- ↑ Eusebius of Cæsarea is the "Katholikos of Katholikoi," having under him those of Armenia, Iberia, etc., himself under Antioch. Faustus, iv. 4 (ed. cit. i. p. 238).
