[ix] The present work, prepared at the request of His Eminence Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, is neither a history nor a simple compilation of biographical and historical material about the Catholicoi of All Armenians. It is an attempt to draw information from the original sources about the traditions, rules and procedures governing the elections of catholicoi of Greater Armenia, an office which later--in the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries--took on the title "Catholicoi of All Armenians"(1), which has been in use ever since.
The purpose of this work, intended both for the general public as well as for students and scholars, is to provide the reader with an understanding of historical developments that may serve as a background to the present-day tradition and process whereby, by the Will of God, a new catholicos will be elected on April 3, 1995. A detailed presentation of events connected with the historical background of each election would have been desirable, but such an attempt would have made the work much larger than it is, and given the pressures of time, it seemed more expedient to dwell at length only on elections that introduced a new process or demonstrated an existing pattern.
It also seemed impractical to dwell at length on certain periods of history, such as the second half of the fifteenth and most of the sixteenth centuries, which still require a great deal of original research. While composing this treatise, it became clear to me that there was a great deal of new material--new editions of sources with better readings, newly-published primary and secondary sources, new monographs and articles on various aspects of Armenian history--that needed to be consulted in conjunction with Archbishop Ormanian's renowned, voluminous study on the history of the Armenian Church. Realizing that an exhaustive study on the elections of catholicoi would required several years, I decided to limit the use of secondary sources as well as modern literature, and avoided topics that did not have an immediate bearing on the regulations of the electoral [x] process. I also kept the historical narrative to a minimum and avoided giving references to general historical facts which could easily be found in Archbishop Ormanian's Azgapatum and other works. On the other hand, I tried to confirm the source of every reported fact having to do with the elections, appointments, usurpations and designations of catholicoi. Wherever possible, I tried to use the available English translations of these sources.
I was fortunate to have as a guide an earlier work on the electoral process of the Armenian catholicoi, published in 1930 by the Mekhitarist scholar Fr. Vardan Hats'uni of Venice, who devoted almost one-half of his treatise to the study of the rites of ordination and anointment of the new catholicos. A full examination of Fr. Hats'uni's theories and views on these topics will obviously require the input of a liturgist. The historical sections on the electoral process, however, required a thorough reexamination in the light of new studies on Armenian feudalism and the socio-economic structure of ancient and medieval Armenian society. This field of inquiry was still in its infancy at the time when Hats'uni was writing: N. Adontz's work in Russian, Armenia in the Period of Justinian, was not yet available either in English or Armenian; Manandyan had still not composed his Feudalism in Armenia. Moreover, as a staunch Uniate, Fr. Hats'uni pushed forward theories which satisfied those who inclined to agree with him, but which remain unacceptable to many scholars in the field of Armenian Studies. Some of these will be discussed later. Fr. Hats'uni also did not deal sufficiently with the seventeenth-century elections, and dismissed those of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The views expressed in this work are different from those of Archbishop Ormanian and Fr. Hats'uni. I shall try to show that though the office of chief bishop of Armenia first emerged as a hereditary one--requiring no real election through the course of the fourth century--a series of political events forced the Armenian nobility and bishops to turn to joint councils in the middle decades of the fifth century. In the absence of a Christian king in Armenia, the nobility, including the clan bishops, elected their catholicoi at such councils. This became an established tradition throughout the Middle Ages and early modern times, whenever the political circumstances allowed. With certain modifications--such as electing delegates in place of people of noble lineage--the same tradition is still in practice today.
In this treatise I shall also try to demonstrate that practices such as the designation of a successor by a presiding catholicos, the appointment and [xi] consecration of coadjutors, and others, were substituted for the traditional procedure in order to ensure the succession of the patriarchal see at difficult times. Furthermore, whenever the Armenians had the opportunity, they always made an effort to return to the principle of electing their catholicoi in councils or assemblies, as the traditions of the Church suggested.
We shall see that kings, princes, governments and factions--Armenian and non-Armenian--frequently influenced the elections, seeking to have a catholicos on the throne who would be acceptable to the Armenians and who at the same time would cooperate with them. They seldom forced candidates unacceptable to the Armenians. In situations where such candidates were in fact set up, the Armenians refused to recognize them as their spiritual leader. The best examples of this are the one Armenian and two Syriac catholicoi who were set on the throne of St. Gregory after 428, the first by the Armenian feudal lords [nakharars] and the latter two by the Persian government. In most cases, however, the overlords preferred clergymen favored by the Armenian people, not so much because they were influenced by Armenian public opinion, but rather because of the natural instinct of rulers not to arouse unnecessary trouble. For their own part, the Armenians usually made certain that they chose clergymen who would be acceptable to the foreign overlords, since their attitude was to survive and preserve their heritage to the best of their ability.
Today the situation is different, since Armenia is a free country and the government has no reason to become involved in the election. Despite the uncertainties and lack of precise statistical data about the numbers of people in the various jurisdictions, all the sees and dioceses of the Armenian Church will be represented at the National Ecclesiastical Assembly, and their delegates will elect the candidate of their choice.
This work could not have been prepared if Archbishop Khajag Barsamian had not permitted me to take a number of weeks off from my duties at the Diocese and devote my time entirely to research and writing. I am grateful to His Eminence for giving me the opportunity to return to scholarly pursuits. I also must thank Dr. Nina Garsoian, Professor emeritus of Columbia University, for reading the manuscript and making a number of valuable suggestions and Mr. Aram Arkun, the Assistant Director of the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center, for helping me out with a number of references and for locating several sources. A word of thanks must also go to Mr. Chris Zakian, the public relations director of the Diocese, for editing this book.
[xii] The system of transliteration used in this work is a modified form of the one employed by the Library of Congress. Since the diacritical marks according to that method are not available on all computers, we have substituted them with accent marks. We have followed the nineteenth-century pronunciation of Classical Armenian in transliterating names and words with the initial "y"--thus, Hovse'p' and not Yovsep". With the exception of St. Gregory the Illuminator, Christian names have been given in their Armenian form.
Fr. Krikor Vardapet Maksoudian
Arlington, Massachusetts
December 1994
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