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50 MUSIC OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES
throws light on the attitude of some of the early Fathers of the Church
who were strongly opposed to singing in church. We can understand,
for example, the attitude of Clement of Alexandria who, during his
stay in Egypt (180-203), witnessed the melomaniac frenzy of the
Alexandrians, 1 and condemned it in many passages
of his Paedo-
gogus and Stromata. These, and other passages in the writings of the
Fathers refer to the frenzy for music which they had witnessed in the
East, not only in the great Hellenistic centres of Africa, but also in
the interior where Christianity was only a thin covering for the old
pagan rite. Later writers followed the Fathers in this attitude, under
standable only so long as it referred to the East, and applied it to
music in the West, where conditions were entirely different.
ARMENIAN MUSIC %
The conversion of Armenia to the Christian faith began
in the
Apostolic age. It was carried out by Syrians from Edessa and Nisibis
and by Greeks from Caesarea in Cappadocia. The final victory of the
Christian mission was due to Gregory the Illuminator (c. 251-c. 337)
who, according to Armenian hagiography suffered thirteen years'
imprisonment for teaching the new creed but was released when King
Trdat was converted by a miracle. Gregory and Trdat converted the
whole country in a short time; the nobility followed the lead of the
King and the people gradually conformed. The office of Katholikos,
the head of the Armenian Church, became hereditary among certain ,
families. Thus Armenia was the first country to accept Christianity
as the official religion of the state. Hellenism became the leading
spiritual influence, but in the sphere of politics the influence of Syria
was most important. But Gregory had already given the Armenian
Church its national character. Its opposition to that of the Eastern
Empire was increased by the close relationship with the Georgian
Church which came about under Gregory's grandson. Under Sahak
the Great, who was made Katholikos in 390, Armenia severed its links
with Syria. Supported by King VramSapuh (395-416), Mesrob, the
greatest Armenian scholar of his age, introduced an Armenian
alphabet, and both he and Sahak inaugurated a literary activity in the
vernacular. Before their day books were written in Greek, Syriac, or
Persian. No translation of the Bible into Armenian had been made.
Now, however, it was possible to create a literature in the vernacular
which mainly consisted of translations from the Bible, the liturgical
books, the lives of the Saints and of the Martyrs, and chronicles. The
1 T. GSrold, Les P&res de VEglise et la musique (Paris, 1931), pp. 89-90.