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Armenia Christiana. Armenian Religious Identity and the Churches

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Armenia Christiana. Armenian Religious Identity and the Churches ARMENIA CHRISTIANA stopka_armenia_2.indd 1 2017-06-23 13:11:26 Vol. 8 stopka_armenia_2.indd 2 2017-06-23 13:11:41 Krzysztof Stopka ARMENIA CHRISTIANA ARMENIAN RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AND THE CHURCHES OF CONSTANTINOPLE AND ROME (4THî15TH CENTURY) 7UDQVODWHGE\7HUHVD%DâXN8OHZLF]RZD Jagiellonian University Press stopka_armenia_2.indd 3 2017-06-23 13:11:41 SERIES COVER DESIGN Jan Jacek Bruski COVER DESIGN Agnieszka Winciorek Front cover: Details from the Armenian Monastery of St. Th addaeus, Qara Kilsa (Iran) monastery – Qara Kilsə (Iran), Photo by Władyław Deńca ASSISTANT EDITOR Teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa Th e paper edition of this book was fi nanced by the Jagiellonian University in Krakow – Facul- ty of History. Th e translation and the digital version were funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland within the National Programme for the De- velopment of the Humanities. © Copyright by Krzysztof Stopka & Jagiellonian University Press First Edition, Kraków 2017 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electro- nic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereaft er invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN 978-83-233-4190-1 doi:10.4467/K9555.30/e/16.16.5346 ISBN 978-83-233-9555-3 (e-book) ISSN 2299-758X www.wuj.pl Jagiellonian University Press Editorial Offi ces: Michałowskiego 9/2, 31-126 Kraków Phone: +48 12 663 23 80, +48 12 663 23 82, Fax: +48 12 663 23 83 Distribution: Phone: +48 12 631 01 97, Fax: +48 12 631 01 98 Cell Phone: + 48 506 006 674, e-mail: [email protected] Bank: PEKAO SA, IBAN PL 80 1240 4722 1111 0000 4856 3325 stopka_armenia_2.indd 4 2017-07-07 13:34:44 Although we are a small country and very restricted in numbers, weak in power, and oft en subject to another’s rule, yet many manly deeds have been performed in our land worthy of being recorded in writing. Movses Khorenatsi1 1 Movses Khorenatsi, History of the Armenians, translation and commentary on the literary sources by R.W. Th omson (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), 68–69. stopka_armenia_2.indd 5 2017-06-23 13:11:41 stopka_armenia_2.indd 6 2017-06-23 13:11:41 Contents List of abbreviations ........................................................................... 9 Introduction ........................................................................................ 11 Part One: Th e origins of Armenian Christianity (to the 6th century) ........................................................................ 17 Armenia’s conversion to Christianity (to the early 4th century) ...................................................................... 17 Armenia in the community of the Universal Church (4th century) .......................................................................................... 35 Th e road to religious and national independence (5th and 6th centuries) ........................................................................... 54 Part Two: Under pressure from Constantinople ............................... 77 Th e Armenian Church and the Empire of the East (6th to 9th century) ................................................................................ 77 Relations between Armenians and the Patriarchate of Rome to the Crusades (4th–11th century) ..................................................... 100 Between Constantinople and Rome (12th century) ............................... 110 Part Th ree: Under the long shadow of Rome (13th– 15th century) ....................................................................... 143 A dominion of the Church of Rome (early 13th century) ............................................................................... 143 Under the Mongol Protectorate (second half of the 13th century) ...... 157 7 stopka_armenia_2.indd 7 2017-06-23 13:11:41 Th e Uniate Church in Cilicia: Latinisation of the rite .......................... 193 Catholic missions in Greater Armenia. Th e reception of Latin theological ideas ........................................... 204 From Uniate Church to Catholic Church .............................................. 221 Caught between union and policy .......................................................... 244 Veri Catholici: Armenians in the Latin Church in the Near East ........ 271 Th e Union of Florence (1439) .................................................................. 291 Concluding remarks ........................................................................... 309 Bibliography ........................................................................................ 319 Index .................................................................................................... 343 stopka_armenia_2.indd 8 2017-06-23 13:11:41 List of abbreviations A Agathangełos Aa Armenian Agathangelos Ag Greek Agathangelos AB Analecta Bollandiana AFP Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum AGZ Akta grodzkie i ziemskie z czasów Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej BAV Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana BOP Bullarium fratrum Ordinis Praedicatorum BP Buzandaran Patcmutiwnkc (see Th e Epic Histories) BPol Bullarium Poloniae CE Codex epistolaris saeculi decimi quinti CICO Pontifi cia Commissio ad redigendum codicem iuris canonici orientalis. Fontes. Series III (see Acta Romanorum Pontifi cum) CF DS. ACA Concilium Florentinum Documenta et Scriptores, Acta camerae apos- tolicae (see Concilium Florentinum) CF DS. EP Concilium Florentinum Documenta et Scriptores, Epistolae pontifi ciae (see Concilium Florentinum) CF DS. Fragmenta Concilium Florentinum Documenta et Scriptores, Fragmenta protocolli (see Concilium Florentinum) CF DS. ODM Concilium Florentinum Documenta et Scriptores, Orientalium docu- menta minora (see Concilium Florentinum) HA Handes Amsorya ID Iowannes Draskhanakertsi Joh. Eph., HE Johannis Ephesini Historiae Ecclesiasticae KDM Kodeks dyplomatyczny Małopolski KG Kirakos Gandzaketsi MCh Movses Khorenatsi MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica MK Movses Kaghankatuatsi MPH Monumenta Poloniae Historica 9 stopka_armenia_2.indd 9 2017-06-23 13:11:41 MS Michel le Syrien (see Chronique de Michel le Syrien) OC Oriens Christianus OCA Orientalia Christiana Analecta OCh Orientalia Christiana OChP Orientalia Christiana Periodica PG Patrologia Graeca PL Patrologia Latina REA Revue des Études Arméniennes REA N.S. Revue des Études Arméniennes. Nouvelle Série REB Revue des Études Byzantines RHC Doc. Arm. Recueil des historiens des croisades, Documents Arméniens V Vita Gregorii Illuminatoris – Life of St. Gregory Illuminator (cycle of Agathangelos, see Agathangelos) Va Arabic life Vg Greek life Vk Karshuni life Vo Ochrid’s life Vs Syriac life stopka_armenia_2.indd 10 2017-06-23 13:11:41 Introduction Today’s Armenia is a small state south of the Caucasus. However, in the past the name “Armenia” applied to a much larger territory stretching from the Black and Caspian Seas in the north to Lakes Van and Urmia in the south. Today this region is split up between Turkey, Iran, and Azerbaijan. Paradox- ically, Mount Ararat (its Armenian name is Masis), an Armenian holy site and symbol of Armenia, on which according to the Book of Genesis (8, 4) Noah’s ark came to rest aft er the Flood, is no longer within the borders of Armenia. Th e Armenian nation is one of the very few ancient peoples which have survived to the present times with a historic legacy of around twenty-six hundred years. For this reason Armenia is sometimes referred to as “the cradle of civilisation.”1 For many people the history of this land and its religion have an exotic Oriental air. Yet there are few Oriental nations so deeply rooted in Western culture. Armenia and its people appeared time and again on the pages of medieval chronicles, chivalric romances, in European diplomacy and in papal records. Th e history of the Armenian nation and its Christian religion is a real East-meets-West story, and that is why it has caught the interest of historians from many countries. Th e Armenian Church is one of the oldest branches of Christianity. As it broke away quite early from the mainstream of Christianity in the Roman Empire, a number of ancient vestiges going back to the fi rst Christian com- munities have survived in its rites and traditions. A knowledge of Armenian is virtually a must for Biblical scholars and patrologists. Many of the treatises written by the Fathers of the Church and other early Christian writers the originals of which have been lost have been preserved in Armenian trans- lations. A good example is the famous Chronicle by Eusebius of Caesarea, which was discovered in the late 18th century in a collection of translations done by ancient Armenian translators. Th ere are still a lot of patristic texts 1 David M. Lang, Armenia: Cradle of Civilisation (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1978). 11 stopka_armenia_2.indd 11 2017-06-23 13:11:41 extant only in Armenian manuscripts or editions. Perhaps in the future they will throw an interesting light on the history of the Early Church and Chris- tian philosophy and theology. Armenian rites have attracted the attention of many Western liturgists interested in the origins of Early Christian ritual and devotion. Considerable progress has been made in recent decades in Armenian studies. Th e historiography and hagiography has been thoroughly re-examined, and the results of this critical review have brought a radical revision of the chronology accepted hitherto. Works formerly dated to the
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