1876 British Viscount & Ambassador James Bryce - Noah's Ark Search

174 THE EXPLORERS OF ARARAT
one on the spot who could tell us much about them, and I doubt if there is any one who knows much. The stock of
printed books is quite small, not reaching 2000, and of course the great majority are in Armenian, most of the newer
ones in Russian. There seems to be little ground for hoping that any Greek or Latin manuscripts, unless, possibly, of
late ecclesiastical writers, remain to be discovered here; it is rather to Orientalists that researchers into the libraries of
the Armenian monasteries are to be recommended. The treasure, or, as we should say, the sacristy, in which the holy
relics that constitute the great glory of Etchmiadzin are kept, is a new building at the east end of the church. Unhappily
we could not gain admittance, owing to a cause which might seem to cast a painful light on the want of security, or at
least of confidence, among even the respectable ecclesiastics of this country. There is but one key to the treasury, and
that key is kept by the patriarch, who carries it with him wherever he goes. He was then in a cool mountain retreat
some miles away on the slopes of Ala Göz, and we were therefore obliged to forego the hope of seeing the head of the
holy spear wherewith the Roman soldier pierced the side of Christ. It is asserted to have been brought to Armenia by
Thaddeus the Apostle, and has therefore a far more respectable pedigree, so to speak, than the rival “holy lance”
which the Crusaders discovered at Antioch with such magnificent results, or than that which Sir John Maundeville tells
us he saw at Constantinople in the possession of the Eastern Emperor, not to speak of other claimants. In this
treasure-house there is also a fragment of Noah’s Ark, obtained, according to the legend stated in an earlier chapter,
by the monk St. Jacob; and, what is the most curious of all, a withered mummy hand enclosed in a casing of silver,
which purports to be the very hand of St. Gregory the Illuminator. This hand is actually used to this day in the
consecration of every patriarch, who being touched by it receives the grace, as it were, direct from the founder of the
Armenian Church. It is an instance of the carrying out, on its physical side, of the doctrine (I will not say of apostolic
succession) of the transmission through earthen vessels of spiritual gifts, and their communication by physical means,
which one is startled to find still in full force in an important and respectable branch of the Christian Church. In the
middle ages nothing would have seemed more natural or impressive; in the nineteenth century it looks a little different.
Besides the cells of the monks, who number from twenty to thirty, there are, on the west side of the great square,
apartments for the patriarch and for the archbishops, bishops, and archimandrites from other monasteries, who are
frequently to be found here, consulting him on the affairs of their churches, or attending the general and supreme
synod, which sits, almost in permanence, under his presidency. Finally there is the seminary, a sort of school or
college for the education of young Armenians chiefly, but not exclusively, with a view to their entering the priestly
office. There were about eighty boys or young men then attending, who are of course lodged in the monastery, and for
the most part remain in it from the beginning to the end of their education, coming often from great distances. Among
those present in the dining hall some were from the heart of Persia, others from Cilicia, others from all sorts of places
scattered through Asia Minor. The well-marked national type of countenance, the dark eyes and straight, black hair,
came out strongly; and the quick intelligence of many of the faces was no less characteristic. The school labors under
serious disadvantages from the difficulty of procuring competent teachers, and the state of blank ignorance in which so
many pupils come. A magazine called ‘Ararat’ has recently been established; it is printed at the monastery, and of
course in Armenian; nor is the press of Etchmiadzin idle in producing educational manuals, the class of books which
are (strange as a British parent may think it) at present most scarce among the Armenians of these countries.
It was a Friday, but they made no difficulty about giving us a substantial meat supper, some one probably
knowing that the English do not regard those church fasts which are so prodigiously important in these countries. It is
really quite a new light to a Westerner to find that the chief difference, in the wilder places, between Christians,
pagans, and Mohammedans, consists in the times or rules of fasting. There seemed to be very few other guests in
convent at the time of our visit. Probably it was the dead season; the heat was oppressive; there were fevers about;
the Patriarch, to confer with whom most of the ecclesiastical visitors come, was absent in the mountains. He is named
Kevork (George).
Now, like almost all the great old shrines, like Santiago, Einsiedeln, St. David’s, Loretto, it has lost this source of
wealth, and has also lost the visitors who halted at it as they passed along what was once the great trade route from
Trebizond by Erzerum and Erivan to Tavriz and Northern Persia. The trade from Persia to the Black Sea now goes
entirely through Turkish territory, I suppose in order to avoid Russian custom-houses, by way of Bayazid on the
southwestern side of Ararat. The village of Vagarshabad, lying a few hundred paces from the monastic fortress, is
quite an insignificant place, with scarcely any trace of its former greatness. Only one mass of ancient brick building
marks the place where there once stood, according to Armenian historians, 20,000 houses, the place where Tiridates
reigned, at the time of his conversion, over a powerful kingdom. These Oriental cities, being mostly built of unburnt
brick, and without great public structures, perish very swiftly, and leave little trace behind. Usually only the churches
remain; and so here, near the convent, here stand two churches, probably more ancient than the cathedral itself, those
of St. Rhipsime and St. Caiana, who were martyred in the time of Tiridates. Rhipsime was a virgin of exquisite beauty.
Accompanied by a band of maidens, she had fled from Rome to escape the addresses of the reigning emperor, whom,
as a pagan, she could not espouse. Tiridates was equally smitten by her charms, and when she refused him for the
same reason, he put her to death with hideous tortures, and killed at the same time her nurse Caiana.
The present condition of the monks leaves much to be desired, as far as knowledge and education goes, but in
general their monastic life will fairly bear a comparison with that of most Western as well as Russian foundations. Their
dress is becoming: it consists of a long black robe of a thin serge or tissue, not so thin as crape, and a peaked cap,
from which a sort of veil of the same material falls back over the neck and shoulders. On the whole they impress a