presses himself strongly on the subject.[1] There follow three Primates of the house of Albianos, which held with the Court party. Meanwhile at least a portion of the people, more Catholic in mind, remain loyal to the rights of Cæsarea and to the house of St. Gregory. As these would have no communion with Pap's primates, they sent their bishops for ordination to Cæsarea.[2] So there was internal schism in the land. Nerses' son, St. Sahak (Isaac) I (387-442?) made an end of this; although, unhappily, he confirmed the breach with Cæsarea. The line of Arsacid kings came to an end with Manuel of Mamikon (378-385), when Theodosius divided the kingdom with Persia (p. 386). The Primacy came back to St. Gregory's house in Sahak. He was a great reformer, established strict discipline throughout the Armenian Church, put an end to episcopal marriages, set up monasteries, hospitals, etc., and founded a national literature. But he accepted and confirmed the practice of ordaining the Katholikos in Armenia, and so finally sealed the breach with the mother-Church. From now on Faustus and other writers consistently use the title Patriarch for the national Primate.[3] Otherwise, Sahak's reform meant the acceptance of strict canon law on Byzantine lines. Monks now begin to abound, and curious attempts are made to explain away the marriage of earlier bishops.[4] Especially important is the work of Sahak's friend and ally, the bishop St. Mesrob.[5] Hitherto there had been no letters in which to write Armenian, so no Armenian literature. All their culture had been Greek from the West, or Syrian from the South. Both influences had been strong, that of Greece stronger, as the Armenian liturgy and later literature shows. Mesrob on the basis
1 Ep. 120 (P.G. xxxii. 540); Ep. 121 (ib. 541); Ep. 122 (ib. 541). The (
Greek characters) with whom Faustus held, who has puzzled St. Basil's editors (see Migne, loc. cit. note), is King Pap of Armenia.
- ↑ 1
- ↑ This seems to me to be the meaning of the difficult passage in Faustus, v., end of chap. 29 (Langlois, i. 293-294).
- ↑ Gelzer: op. cit. 161.
- ↑ Ib. 142. For an early example of apparent scandal at bishops' marriages see Faustus, iii. 5 (ed. cit. i. 213).
- ↑ He is called Mesrob Mashtotz. There seems to be some doubt as to whether "Mashtotz" be a name or a title. See Kevork Arslan: Études historiques sur le peuple arménien (Paris, 1909), p. 212, n. 1. It looks rather like an attempt at a Syriac participle.
