supposed than real presumed gratis and not granted that Universal Jurisdiction becomes as empty and airy as those Titles which Popes give to those Patriarchs and Bishops whom they constitute over the several Diocesses of the Eastern Churches though they neither have a Revenue from thence nor Command over any of the Greek perswasion To evince which with more Evidence it will be pertinent to understand what Confession herein the Oriental Church makes and layes down for Orthodox viz. That as there is one Faith one Baptism one God and one Father of all so the Church of God is one Holy Catholick and Apostolick which denomination of Catholick they are the very words of the Confession the Church doth not take from one particular place or See predominant over all others as from Ephesus Philadelphia Laodicea Antioch Rome Jerusalem or the like but from an aggregation of all the Christian Churches in the World collected into one Body and united under one head Christ Jesus It is true saith this Confession that Jerusalem may properly be called the Mother Church of the World it having been the Stage whereon the Mystery of man's Redemption was represented and the place where the Gospel was first preached and the Fountain from whence were derived through the World the Streams of that Holy Doctrine which published the Passion and Resurrection of our Saviour and made known unto the World the glad Tidings of Repentance and remission of Sins but can betermed the Universal Mother with no more right than any other though if any particular Church can pretend thereunto that of Jerusalem might challenge an Authority and Priviledge above others having in the Infancy of Religion Acts II. v. 22. sent forth her Teachers and Pastors into all places and was famed for the glorious Blood of the Primitive Martyrs Whereby it is evident that the Greek Faith acknowledges no other Universal Head or Foundation than Jesus Christ himself under whom the Patriarchs Arch-bishops and Bishops of particular Churches subjected to different Powers of secular Government exercise their sway and jurisdiction over Human Souls Acts 20. v. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take heed unto your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops By which it appears That the Greek Church doth not only not esteem the Church of Rome for the sole Catholick but also how absurd it is in reason to exclude the Greek the Armenian and many other Christan Churches from the pale of the Universal and consequently from the Benefits and Promises purchased by Christ for his Church And strange it is that none besides the Roman which is not of that extent as the vast Circumference of the other Christian Churches should yet have the sole Power of the Keys of the Divine Ordination and dispensing the Mysteries of the Holy Sacraments and that such who are excluded or are without her pale should be strangers to the Church of God and Aliens from his People Whilst in this manner the Oriental Churches believe no particular Church to have any other Universal Head than Jesus Christ they bear all obedience and respect to that Church of which they are members submitting to all its Orders and Censures Ecclesiastical for they believe that those words of our Saviour Matth. 18. 27. carry with them some force and authority and if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church and if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen man or a Publican On this ground the Interpretation of Scripture made by the holy Synods and Councils and the judgments given by Patriarchs Bishops and other Priests according to Canonical Rites are established and esteemed of Divine Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Priests with them are the mouth of their Spiritual Law and the Guides of their Souls on their Doctrine they entrust and adventure their safe Pilotage to the everlasting Haven of happiness And believing that no Scripture is of private Interpretation they judge it rational to resign themselves intirely to the belief of those to whose conduct they are committed having that high esteem of obedience as that which contains an admirable Vertue and Efficacy to atone for the sins not only of a misled understanding but for Actions of irregular practices And that the people may better understand the Precepts and Rules of the Church the Oriental Confession hath reduced all the commands thereof unto these nine following The first is Prayer to God attending at the times of the Liturgy Morning and Evening on the Lords Day and holy Festivals of the Church The second is the observation of the Fasts and Feasts of the Church The third is Obedience and Honour towards their Spiritual Pastors and Teachers The fourth is Confession of sins four times a year to a Priest lawfully constituted and ordained The fifth forbids the Laity to read the Books of Hereticks or any other which may divert them from the Profession of the Christian Faith The sixth enjoyns them to pray for all Kings and Princes for their Patriarchs Metropolites Bishops and all the Clergy and for all Souls departed in the Catholick Faith and for all Hereticks and Schismaticks that they may return to the true Faith before their passage from this present life The seventh enjoins an Obedience to all extraordinary occasional Fasts besides the Common or General namely such as are appointed and ordained by the Bishops in their respective Diocesses on occasional Calamities such as Famine War Pestilence or the like The eighth forbids the Laity to invade the Rights or Spiritual Livings or Benefices of the Clergy or convert the Ornaments of the Priest or Altar to private and profane uses or sacrilegiously to rob the Poor's Box and abuse the charitable Contributions of well-disposed Christians by employing them contrary to the intention of the Donor The ninth forbids the celebration of Marriages in Lent or during the time of their other Fasts or to frequent Theaters or imitate the Customs of the Barbarians or Infidels that so those who profess the Gospel may be charged with nothing that is over-sensual undecent or of ill report CHAP. V. Of the Fasts of the Greek Church THE Principal Fasts or Lents are four The first begins the 15th day of November being forty days before Christmas The second is the great Lent before Easter beginning with ours according to the Old stile the which stile they observe through the whole year The third begins the Week after Pentecost or Whitsontide called The Fast of the Holy Apostles being the time in which they judge that the Apostles prayed and fasted when they prepared themselves to preach the Gospel Acts 13. v. 3. which ends the 29th of June being the Festival of St. Peter and the other Apostles so that of this Fast there is no fixed number of days but is some years more some less according as the Pentecost falls
Institutions of the Universal and of their own Church or weighs the private Instructions of a Priest who is the Monitor of his Soul Nay even those who profess Obedience to the Church of England and attribute an efficacy to the power of the Keys and would not for the world be under an Excommunication and hold themselves obliged to celebrate the Feasts with devotion and rejoycing and account the non-observance thereof the Characteristical point of a Phanatick yet when the Anniversary Fasts take their turn which impose the same injunction on them of keeping holy as do the Feasts they find excuses to evade the obligation and dispute against all Penance Mortification and Severities of life as grounded on the Doctrine of Merits and Works of Supererogation And in this manner elude that admirable duty enjoyned by Christ himself where he saith That when the Bridegroom is taken from them then they should fast and would abolish that signal mark of Christianity which by its rigour and frequency distinguishes it from all other Religions in the World Some I know will be apt to attribute this abridgment of the Clergies power to their supereminent knowledge and more clear light of Scripture that they are better instructed than to be guided by their Priests or to stand in awe of the condemnation of a supercilious Prelate but such Learning as this derived from the Principles of Pride and Licentiousness is far worse than ignorance and that Person who is humble and submissive apt and willing to be instructed is a better Christian and in a more secure path and way to Godliness and Heaven than he that having heard and read much stands dangerously towring on the presumptuous Pinnacle of his own Reason And indeed this adherence to the Doctrine of their Church is the proper Basis and Pillar of their Faith For those ancient janglings and controversies which possessed the Greek Spirits in former days and through the acrimony of their malice and hatred opened a breach in divers pales of the Eastern Church whereby the whole surface of things was over-whelmed with the vast inundation of the Mahometan Enemie are Tragedies so sadly recorded that the present Age seems by the memory of those Examples so far to dread the danger of divisions and innovations that they refuse to amend even that which by their own confession is an Errour either in doctrine or practice but it is no wonder that those from whom God hath removed the ancient glory of his Candlestick brightly shining amongst them should delight to dwell in the twilight of Batts and groap in an Egyptian darkness but it is strange that those to whom his mercies and patience indulge the clearer Rayes of the Gospel should forsake the Sun-shine of divine Illumination to follow fantastick and wandring lights mistaking them for that great Pillar of Fire which conducted the Israelites Another great help to support and maintain the Eastern Church is their Confession to a Priest for by nothing more doth the Power and Authority of the Greek Church and Clergy seem to be maintained and asserted who account it the sole Axel on which the Globe of Ecclesiastical Politie turns and that without it they can neither have Influence on Mens Consciences nor under the power of Infidels and Aliens govern the least Circumstance of their lives and manners I know not how far the Roman Clergy may have abused this Excellent evidence of repentance this Ordinance of the Gospel this admirable means to inflame our devotion and to guide and instruct us in the rules of holy Living It is more than probable that their use of it in an ordinary and familiar manner rather in form than substance without regard to feigned or real Penitentiaries and as an encouragment to annimate men to sin when they can so easily be pardoned hath afforded just occasion to those who desired a Reformation to exclaim against it and to take it wholly from the Church as an Institution so entirely corrupted as never more to be reformed or recovered but by a total abolishment The Church of England as I am perswaded apprehended it under this notion when its Wisdom and perhaps I may say the Spirit of God thought fit to dispence for a time with this Discipline of Penance but with intention to restore it again when the time should become more seasonable and we our selves more worthy to receive so profitable an Institution as our Rubrick seems to intimate in the Office appointed for the first day of Lent And this Doctrine is maintained in the Sermons and Writings of our Divines and given as Counsel in that Exhortation preceding the Communion Service that we should confess our sins not only to God and our Brethren whom we have offended but in Cases of scandal and a troubled Conscience or other need of Ghostly Counsel and Advice to consult God's Ministers the Priests in which Case also our Church hath provided a Form of Absolution Considering which Premises it will not be difficult to conjecture under what Notion the Eastern apprehends the Western Reformed Churches for they taking notice that the English neither keep Fasts nor practise Confession nor ordinarily make the Sign of the Cross and that the Dutch Nation at Smyrna rehearse no Prayers at the Burial of the dead are not only scandalised thereat but also Jews and Turks take offence at the silence of Prayers when the dead are buried wondering what sort of Heresie or Sect is sprung up in the World so different from the Religion of all the Prophets at which undecent practice the Roman Clergy taking advantage to disparage the Protestants represent them to the Greeks under the notion of Calvinists whom they characterise to be such as contemn all Order in the Church the authority of Priesthood abolish Fasts abhor the Cross contemn the Saints besides a thousand other Heresies and Schisms in which they report we are at odds amongst our selves And in reallity were it not that the English Nation by the orderly use of their Liturgy and Discipline of their Church observing the Lords day and the Grand Festivals did vindicate themselves of these Aspersions it were impossible to perswade the Oriental Countries that those which we call Reformed were Christians or at least to retain any thing of Ancient and Apostolical Institution Upon which score the Greeks detest that Confession of Faith supposed to be wrote by Cyrillus their Patriarch of Constantinople in the year 1629 and Printed and Confuted in the year 1631 by Mattheus Caryonhilus Arch-Bishop of Iconium for that Confession agreeing wholly with the Doctrine of Calvin in every particular is believed in a great measure to have been fathered on him by the Jesuits who to justifie their inhumane Persecutions of that worthy Prelate by making Turks and Infidels the Instruments of their rage formed and vented any thing which might procure the Curses and Anathemas of the Old and New Rome I am perswaded that this Cyrillus having spent some time in
who are most signal for their Piety and Learning The Patriarch of Constantinople besides the extent of his Jurisdiction is of greater power by reason of his Vicinity to the Court but the Alexandrian is of greater Authority in his Ecclesiastical Censures and Civil Regimen stiling himself with the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Judge of the world And the Patriarchs of Antiochia and Jerusalem by reason of their poverty not having sufficient to subsist are little reverenced by the Turks or their own People The Patriarch of Constantinople who was so great and opulent under the Christian Emperours is now reduced to a narrow Fortune being deprived of his certain and setled Revenue by the violence and sacriledge of the common Enemy to the Church of Christ so that the chief income is accidental arising from the death of Bishops Arch-Bishops and ordinary Priests and from such as are consecrated and admitted into their Diocesses and Parishes What a deceased Priest leaves not having Children accrues to the Patriarch as to the common Father and Heir of them all from which arises a considerable Revenue every year The other Patriarchal Sees by reason of the paucity and poverty of the Christians are worse provided but yet being far from the Court have not so many nccessities to satisfie The chief subsistence of the secular Priests is from the charity of the People but they being cold in that Vertue as well as in their Devotion contribute faintly on the days of Offering so that the Clergy who are the Guardians of the Holy Mysteries are forced to sell the Ordinances of the Church for their own subsistence none being able to receive Absolution or be admitted to Confession or procure Baptism for their Children or enter into a state of Matrimony or divorce his Wife or obtain Excommunication against another or Communion for the sick without an agreement first for the price which the Priests hold up as they discover the Zeal and Abilities of the party who cheapens them When the Holy Church triumphed in the days of Constantine the Great the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople were independent each of other and afterwards they were also made of equal honour and power but in regard that for better order and distinction it was necessary they two being to meet and concur in the same Council that the precedency of place should first be determined The priority of Order not of Authority was adjudged to the Pope lest old Rome which was the ancient Mistress of the World should lose her honour in yielding to the new which was Constantinople and had no greater Dignity or Fame than that which she challenged and borrowed from the presence and brightness of the others Emperours and so much Socrates Scholasticus affirms in these words In the Council of Constantinople Anno 385. in the Reign of Theodosius the Emperour when Nectanius was chosen Bishop it was decreed That the Bishop of Constantinople should possess the next place and prerogative after the Bishop of Rome And likewise it was determined in the Council of Chalcedon Can. 28. That the Bishops Seat of new Rome that is Constantinople should enjoy equal priviledges with old Rome and in all Ecclesiastical matters to be extolled and magnified as that of Rome being the second in order after her the words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor did the Bishop of Rome ever preside in the first six General Councils which only are received by the whole Church either by himself or his Legates This and such-like honour of precedency the Church of Greece may yield unto the Church of Rome and perhaps now rather in these times of Oppression wherein being humbled by the hand of God they seek not worldly Honours nor swelling Titles nor Dominions but are desirous only to govern in the Hearts and Affections of their people Ambitio cupido gloriae faelicium hominum sunt affectus saith Tacitus However the Oriental Confession doth not seem to condescend so far in that it declares That notwithstanding the priority of Honour and Antiquity which was formerly given to Jerusalem and other Churches before that of Constantinople yet afterwards the Council of Constantinople and Chalcedon did give the primacy of honour unto new Rome and to the Clergy thereof by reason of the Imperial Power whose Seat was there But let us not only hear what the Greeks themselves do utter in this point but observe the words of that famous Venetian Father Paul Sarpus who in the 25th Chapter of his History of the Inquisition hath these pertinent and impartial words The Eastern and Western Churches continued both in Communion and Christian Charity for the space of nine hundred years and more in which time the Pope of Rome was reverenced and esteemed no less by the Greeks than by the Latines He was acknowledged for the Successor of St. Peter and chief of all the Eastern Catholick Bishops In the Persecutions raised by Hereticks they implored his Aid and of other Bishops of Italy and this Peace was easily kept because the Supreme Power was in the Canons to which both parts acknowledged themselves subject Ecclesiastical Discipline was severely maintained in each Country by the Prelates of it not arbitrarily but absolutely according to Order and Canonical Rigour none putting his hand into the Government of another but advised one the other to the observance of the Canons In those days never any Pope of Rome did pretend to confer Benefices in the Diocesses of other Bishops neither was the custome yet introduced of getting mony out of others by way of Dispensations or Bulls But as soon as the Court of Rome began to pretend that it was not subject to Canons and that she might according to her own discretion alter any Order of the Fathers Councils and of the Apostles themselves and that she attempted instead of the ancient Primacy of the Apostolical See to bring in an absolute Dominion not ruled by any Law or Canon then the division grew And as this division grew between the Eastern and Western Churches for the causes aforesaid so the same Reasons were the causes of division and separation in the Western Church it self for as to considering men nothing seemed more absurd than the Usurpation of Rome over other Churches independent thereon in secular Government so to the people who lived under its Dominion nothing could be more Tyrannical and oppressive CHAP. IV. The Opinion of the Greek Church concerning that Article in the Nicene Creed I believe one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church and what Authority and Power is given by them thereunto THE See of Rome taking it for granted that she is the head of the Catholick Church would seem to deduce from that Principle undeniable consequences of Infallibility of Priviledges Power and Jurisdiction as ample and as extensive as the absolute and supreme Authority of our Lord and Master Jesus But this being a Foundation rather
heard of unless in Moldavia Valachia and Mount Athos It is also called Ouch Chilse or the three Churches because of the three Churches which are there built in a Triangle the first of which as we have said is this Etchmeasin the second Rupsameh and the third Gayeneh The Armenians report That these three Churches are founded on three Rocks placed in a triangular form under which was a strange hollowness or Cavity replete in the time of Gentilism and Idolatry with the voices of Prophetick Spirits or Ghosts which gave Answers to all Questions that were made to them in the same manner as the Oracles of Delphos or Jupiter Haman until such time as Jesus Christ intending to have his Name worshipped there descended from Heaven on that place and taking his Cross on which he suffered struck one blow therewith on each Rock with which they sunk into the Ground and thereby the Diabolical Spirits were displaced for the word Etchmeasin signifies one blow or stroak and there these three Churches were founded which are the highest in esteem amongst the Armenians They have a large History of the other two Churches called Rupsameh and Gayeneh wrote by one Acutanghios which remains amongst the Registers of Etchmeasin being to this purpose In the time of Dioclesian the Emperour when a violent Persecution arose against the Christians at Rome seventy Virgins which had taken a Religious Vow upon them were by Divine Inspiration directed to the Eastern parts of the World of which Rupsameh and Gayeneh two Sisters and Daughters of Gohetea for so they call their Father a noble Roman were the chief and arriving first at Alexandria in Egypt they travelled thence to Jerusalem and so into Armenia where at that time Tyridates governed as King In which long Journey forty of the seventy dying the other thirty designed to build their Monastery and therein to serve God according to the Christian Faith and Discipline The arrival of these new-come Guests being of the Female Sex was such a Novelty as filled all that Country with the rumour thereof and more particularly the incomparable beauty of Rupsameh and Gayeneh was the whole discourse at the Court of Tyridates whose heart was so affected therewith that he sent for the two Sisters supposing that the splendour of his Court and the greatness of his Authority was sufficient to command their affections and consent to his amorous addresses but they having their hearts enflamed with divine love gave no ear to his sensual Courtship but rather slighted and contemned all the fine words he could use and the large proffers he could make which applications were daily renewed to these Religious Virgins until the Prince disdaining to be so neglected converted his love into hatred and fury in the heat of which he caused an Executioner to cut off both their heads which being done accordingly their Corps were exposed in the Fields to be entombed in the bowels of wild beasts This matter happened at that time when Surp Savorich as they call S. Gregory who converted Armenia to the Christian Faith by order of Tyridates was for preaching the Gospel cast into a most profound Dungeon so damp and dark that it was a Habitation for none but Bats and Serpents where â—â—r the space of thirteen years he was most miraculously preserved by the administration of an Angel which daily supplyed him with bread and water than which he received no other sustenance during which time all the world believed that Savorich had been long dead and buried in his loathsom habitation until at length the Sister of Tyridates called Castrovitught being frequently disturbed in her sleep by an Angel which ordered her to supplicate her Brother for the releasement of Savorich could find no repose until she revealed the Vision which seeming strange and no other at first than a melancholy Dream did afterwards upon the tryal prove true Savorich being found alive in the Dungeon and strong and healthful Notwithstanding which Miracle and the Petitions made in behalf of Savorich by several Chief Officers and by his Sister in particular yet Tyridates having his heart hardned like Pharaoh refused to give license for the liberty of Savorich which sin of obstinacy so moved the anger of God against him that one day appointed for a general hunting being in pursuit of a wild Bore he was on a sudden transformed into the shape of a Swine and all his Followers into Hobgoblins and Fairies such as the Turks call Gin which metamorphosis is something like that of Ulysses and his Companions This Judgment of God Struck all the people into such an amazement that they immediately resolved to free the Saint begging him to pray unto God to restore their King and Attendants to their former shapes of Human Form Savorich or S. Gregory being released immediately sought for Tyridates and having found him was received by him with as much grace and in as good a fashion as could be expected by a person of so ill a feature and having prayed to God for him both he and all his Followers were transformed again to their natural shapes By which Miracle all the Country of Armenia was converted to the Christian Faith After this Savorich was commanded to gather up the Bodies of Rupsameh and Gayeneh preserved by divine Miracle and carry them to Etchmeasin to which place he was conducted by an Angel where he buried those bodies under the two Rocks which are therefore now called by their Names which place also being the Sepulchre of Savorich hath added much unto that devotion which the Armenians bear thereunto Next to this place of Devotion Virap which was the Dungeon of Surp Savorich is most in esteem of any in Armenia over which they have built a famous monastery which is seated in the Country of Ardashat being two days journey from Etchmeasin and one from Rivan This Savorich or S. Gregory is so high in esteem amongst them that they take the account of their years from the time of his Preaching and the Conversion of that Nation to the Christian Faith which in this present year is reckoned to be 1128. which answers to ours of 1679. To these Churches they commonly make their Pilgrimages being for their sanctity in opinion of this people esteemed before Jerusalem and are accounted so holy that before a person can be qualified to appear in that place he is required to prepare himself seven years beforehand which is performed by a Fast or Lent of 40 days in every one of those seven years purposely designed for this preparation besides the usual Fasts and Lents of the Church and with a sole intent to render himself worthy to receive the benefits and endowments which are acquired by this most acceptable and holy Pilgrimage For they say that he who comes thus prepared with humility and devotion shall have his desires satisfied in any gift qualification or blessing he expects unless it be Riches for Money being the Mammon of this World is
which is not either appointed for Fast or noted for a Festival CHAP. VII Of their Monasteries and Rules observed therein BEsides the Monastery of Etchmeasin of which we have already treated they have several others in divers places of Armenia Persia and Dominions of the Turks But those of greatest note are these That of S. John Baptist called by them Surp Carabet on the Borders of Persia Varatch or the Holy Cross scituated near Van where they report that Rupsameh fixed the real Cross of Christ Asfasasin or the Blessed Virgin is another Monastery near Darbiquier Surp Bogas or S. Paul at Angora Their Orders or Rules observed are three viz. Surp Savorich or that of S. Gregory Surp Parsiach or that of S. Basil and Surp Dominicos or that of S. Dominick The first wear Vests of black with Hoods of the same but when they officiate in their Mass they are cloathed in white with Crowns on their heads The second are habited like Greek Kaloires of that Order And the third are cloathed in black with no other difference from the first than in the cut and shape of their Hoods This latter of S. Dominicos they seem to have taken from the Roman Priests who have gained footing and admission amongst them for otherwise that Western Name and Modern Order could never have found place so far East-ward nor society with those other two more ancient Religions unless by imitation or in conformity to Rome They observe almost the same Rules and Orders in their manner of Worship and Service They eat no flesh nor drink Wine yet on Saturdays and Sondays out of Lent they have liberty to eat Eggs Milk Butter and Fish They have used themselves so much to fasting from their Infancy that it is very curious to observe what Custom is able to effect in our Bodies and with how small a proportion Nature can be contented in which strict manner of living some have so far endeavoured to exceed that they have daily diminished of their slender Diet and supposing still that Nature might be content with a meaner proportion have so extenuated and macerated their Bodies that at length they have miserably perished with Famine They arise from their Beds at Midnight and continue in Prayer and Fasting until three a Clock in the Afternoon during which time they are obliged to read over the whole Psalter of David There are Women likewise in this Country who put themselves into Nunneries and live with the same severity and strictness as do the men They have also some Hermites whom they call Gickniahore who live upon the tops of Rocks confined thereunto almost as severely as Simeon Stylites was to his Pillar Nor is this Country so remote and obscure nor the Language so much unknown but that the Roman Clergy hath gained a considerable footing amongst them whereby they have established no less than ten Monasteries in that Country all of the Order of S. Dominick of which I have seen and discoursed with some of the Friers and particularly I had once opportunity to discourse with the Arch-Bishop who was of the same Order and constituted by the Pope over this Church as he was going to Rome to receive his Consecration and to obtain a Stipend of 200 Crowns a year for his maintenance he told me that he had ten Monasteries under him all of the Order of S. Dominick that his place of Residence was at Nachavan three days journey from Tavris which was the place where Noah's Ark rested after the flood These of the Roman as well as of the Armenian Church are so wretchedly ignorant that they are not capable to render a satisfactory answer to a curious Stranger in any thing relating to their own Customs and Manners but commonly make a reply to his Queries by begging for if you ask them Questions they will demand Alms of you The first time that the Roman Religion crept into this Country was about 350 years past by means of one Ovan de Kurnah who having a wandring head and a genius towards Learning somewhat more curious than the generallity travelled into Poland and thence into France and Italy where having comprehended something of the Western Knowledge and Doctrine returned into his own Country where he preached and instructed them in the material points of their Religion which seemed unto them to be all new matters and high notions and had not entred into the consideration and brains of the wisest amongst them so that the Doctrines and Tenents of Kurnah began to pass currant amongst them to the great admiration and applause of this travelling Doctor But at length touching on the Popes Supremacy to the prejudice of the Patriarchal Authority and Jurisdiction the whole mass of his Doctrine became leavened and he forbidden farther to preach or the people to hear him Howsoever a considerable number adhered to his Doctrine and to this day rather gain than lose ground in Armenia of whom there is a Church licensed at Rome and the form of their Mass priviledged and squared according to that of the Latines but excessive long and tedious and much differing from that of the Armenian as I have seen them revised and compared together In the year 1678 when I was passing through Rome and Italy in my way from Smyrna into England it was confidently reported in the Dominions of the Pope that the Chief Patriarch of the Armenian Church together with many of his Metropolites were on their journey towards Rome with intention to submit themselves to that Church but having remained in those parts for some Months after that report began and neither seeing nor hearing of their nearer approach I may confidently conclude that this Patriarch is still as far off in his agreement with the Church of Rome as he is at a distance by the situation of his Country As to the Service-Book which belongs to the true and that which is properly called the Armenian Church it was compiled as they report in part by S. James and the rest by S. Chrysostom and S. Basil whose forms of Prayer and Service are wholly in use amongst the Eastern Christians for I have not heard of any Liturgy of Surp Savorich or S. Gregory in this Church which to me is very strange There not being much Literature amongst these people we cannot expect to find great Libraries wrote in their Language or many Books wherein the retired Monks may exercise their Studies That Book which is of most note amongst them and agreeable to the design of Religious men is the Book of one Gregorio of the Monastery of Stat which treats of the lives of holy men and serves in the place of Homilies read on Festival Days the study of which is the chief employment of the Armenian Monks CHAP. VIII Of the two Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper and Panis Benedictus IT would be very difficult to be resolved by Armenian Doctors whether they hold seven or two Sacraments in their Church for that word