of Epiphanius :-"In the whole Christian church the following fastdays, throughout the year, are regularly observed. On Wednesdays and Fridays we fast until the ninth hour (i. e. three o'clock in the afternoon ;) except during the interval of fifty days between Easter and Whitsuntide, in which it is usual neither to kneel nor fast at all. Besides this, there is no fasting on the Epiphany or Nativity, if those days should fall on a Wednesday or Friday. But those persons who especially devote themselves to religious exercises (the monks,) fast also at other times when they please, except on Sundays and during the fifty days between Easter and Whitsuntide. It is also the practice of the church to observe the forty days before the sacred week. But on Sundays there is no fasting, even during the last-mentioned period.'

26

To this summary we subjoin the remarks of Socrates respecting the observance of the fasts before Easter, in the fifth century, from which it appears that, at this late period, both the time and manner of keeping this fast was unsettled, and that each church was left very much to their voluntary action in the observance of it.

"The fasts before Easter are differently observed. Those at Rome fast three successive weeks before Easter, excepting Saturdays and Sundays. The Illyrians, Athenians, and Alexandrians observe a fast of six weeks, which they term the forty days' fast, (Lent.) Others commencing their fast from the seventh week before Easter, and fasting fifteen days only, and that at intervals, call that time the forty days' fast.' It is indeed surprising that thus differing in the number of days, they should both give it one common appellation, but some assigning one reason for it, and others another, according to their several fancies. There is also a disagreement about abstinence from food as well as the number of days. Some wholly abstain from things that have life; others feed upon fish only of all living creatures; many, together with fish, eat fowl also, saying that according to Moses, these were likewise made out of the waters; some abstain from eggs, and all kinds of fruits; others feed on dry bread only; others eat not even this; while others, having fasted until the ninth hour, afterward feed on any sort of food without distinction."27

Practice of Later Times.-Fasting, after a time, ceased to be a voluntary exercise. By the second canon of the Council of Orleans, A. D. 541, it was decreed that any one who should neglect to observe the stated times of abstinence should be treated as an offender against the laws of the church. The eighth Council of To

ledo, in the seventh century, 28 condemns any who should eat flesh during the fast before Easter, and says that such offenders deserve to be forbidden the use of it throughout the year. In the eighth century, fasting began to be regarded as a meritorious work; and the breach of the observance, at the stated seasons, subjected the offender to excommunication. In later times, some persons who ate flesh during the appointed seasons of abstinence were punished with the loss of their teeth.29

Afterward, however, these severities were, to a certain extent, relaxed. Instead of the former limitation of diet on fast-days to bread, salt, and water, permission was given for the use of all kinds of food, except flesh, eggs, cheese, and wine. Then eggs, cheese, and wine were allowed, flesh only being prohibited; an indulgence which was censured by the Greek church, and led to a quarrel between it and the Western. In the thirteenth century, a cold collation in the evening of fast-days was permitted.

To detail at length the futile superstitions and frightful austerities of ancient ascetics would itself require a volume. The narrative seems to transcend our belief, as the sufferings inflicted exceed apparently human nature's powers of endurance; and yet the facts are as fully attested as any portion of ancient history can be. These mortifications are only an exemplification of a vain effort to raise high the inward graces of the Christian life by pressing the natural powers of abstinence up to the highest stretch of which they are capable. With the ancient church, the degree of abstinence was the measure of sanctity. If a man was holy who never tasted food until sunset, he who ate only once in two days was holier; and holier still the eminent man who absolutely fasted five days in every week. If he who ate flesh sparingly might pretend to a little sanctity, he who never touched animal food might pretend to more; and as to the prodigy of Christian perfection who denied himself whatever had been prepared by fire, the totaller of that day, the pity was that such a hero of the stomach should have been detained on earth at all. If to drink water only was a merit, great was the merit of drinking fetid water! Ask the writers of antiquity to show you in their opinion 'the highest style of man'— there he stands, and he has supped on raw herbs and ditchwater!"

CHAPTER XXVII.

OF THE ARMENIAN CHURCH.

THE history of the ancient religious sects of the East opens an interesting and important field of inquiry in investigating the rites and customs and discipline of the primitive church. These religious sects, severally, separated themselves at a very early period from the established church; and, in the deep seclusion and sleepless jealousy of Eastern bigotry, they have preserved their ancient religious rites unchanged through the lapse of ages. These their religious rites, therefore, carry us back to a high antiquity, and, with some circumstantial variations, disclose to us the usages and customs of the ancient church.

It would be interesting and instructive, for this reason, to compare the antiquities of some of the most ancient of these religious sects, such as the Armenians, the Nestorians, the Jacobites, the Copts, etc. The author has taken measures to obtain from our missionaries a brief statement of the religious rites of several of these sects, and has the pleasure of laying before the reader one such abstract respecting the Armenian church, from the Rev. H. G. O. Dwight, missionary at Constantinople. This communication from him cannot fail to be alike interesting both to the antiquarian and the Christian.

§ 1. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE ARMENIAN CHURCH.

AMONG the sovereigns of the East, at the time of Christ, was one by the name of Abgar, or Abgarus, the seat of whose government was at Edessa in Mesopotamiah. He is called by Tacitus (An. l. 12, c. 12) King of the Arabs, though in the Armenian Chronicles he is placed among the Armenian kings, of the dynasty of the Arsacidæ. It is said that this king was converted to Christianity merely by hearing of the wonderful works of Christ, and that he sent a special messenger with a letter to invite Christ to

come to his court, where he promised him rest and protection from his enemies. To this request Christ replied that it was impossible for him to come in person, but that after his ascension, he would send one of his disciples, in his place. Eusebius and others relate that our Saviour took a handkerchief, and, pressing it upon his face, an exact likeness of himself was miraculously impressed upon it, which he sent to Abgar as a mark of favour.

Moses Chorenensis, the Armenian historian, states that our Saviour sent to King Abgar his own likeness, but makes no allusion to the manner in which it was procured.

This last writer also declares, that after the death of Christ, the apostle Thomas, in obedience to the command of the Saviour, and agreeably to his promise, sent Thaddeus, one of the seventy, to Edessa, who healed the king of an incurable disease under which he had been suffering for seven years, and afterward baptized him in the name of Christ. Many other miracles are said to have been performed by Thaddeus, and the whole city," says Moses, "was baptized."

This is the Armenian account of the beginning of their church, and Eusebius bears his testimony to the same facts in every important particular.

The immediate successors of Abgar, however, apostatized from the Christian faith, and by their persecutions Christianity was almost exterminated from the country. It would appear, however, that individual Christians, and perhaps small bodies of them, were found in the Armenian territories up to the time of Dertad (Diridates) II., A. D. 259, during whose reign Christianity was revived, through the instrumentality of Gregory, and it has ever since been the religion of the Armenian people.

Gregory, called also Loosavorich, the Enlightener, was an Armenian of royal descent, who having been brought up in Cæsarea, was there educated in the Christian religion.

Having become connected with the king's suite, and refusing to unite in his idolatrous worship, he was grievously tortured, and kept, in close confinement in a cave for many years. Being at length delivered, he was instrumental in the conversion of the king, and many of the nobles. He afterward repaired to Cæsarea, where he was ordained bishop, by Leonties, bishop of Cæsarea, and returning to Armenia Proper, he baptized the king and multitudes of the people. In short, the nation now became Christian, though some of its chiefs soon afterward apostatized; and through their means the king of Persia was enabled, for a while, to carry

At subsequent

on a persecution against the religion of the cross. periods in the Armenian annals, we read of the most violent and dreadful persecutions of the Armenian Christians, by the pagan and Mohammedan kings of Persia, as political changes placed the former under the power of the latter.

In the year 406, the Armenian alphabet was invented, and in 411, the Bible was translated into the Armenian language from the Septuagint.

In the year 491, a synod of Armenian bishops rejected the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon, by which act they cut themselves off from the charity and communion of the other branches of the Christian church, and they are to this day denominated schismatics and heretics by both the Greeks and the Papists. As to the progress of the Armenian church in after ages, little indeed can be said, unless we follow the examples of their own historians, and quote as evidences of her prosperity the number of churches and convents erected, the great increase of religious feast and fast days, and of ceremonies in general, and the astonishing miracles performed by worldly and graceless monks. The people were left in almost total ignorance, while the ecclesiastics were continually embroiled in disputes with the Greeks on points of little importance, or waging intestine wars of ambition with each other, each striving for the highest place. As might be expected, every species of irreligion was rife under such influences.

The only redeeming trait was the unflinching resoluteness with which property, liberty, and life were frequently sacrificed to the Magian and Mohammedan persecutors of the Armenian church.

§ 2. CHURCH OFFICERS AND GOVERNMENT.

THE Armenians are at present scattered among different nations, and subject to different political governments, by which their ecclesiastical polity is somewhat modified. Originally the church was placed under one head, styled catholicos, who usually held his seat at the imperial residence. Subsequently, several different catholicoses were created by parties rising up in different parts of the country, and taking advantage of the disturbed state of public affairs. At present there are three catholicoses, one at Echmiadzin, (which is the greatest,) one at Aghtamar, in the Lake Van, and one at Sis, in the ancient province of Cilicia.

The catholicos is the spiritual head of the church, or`of that particular portion of it over which his jurisdiction extends. He