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The Separation of the Armenian Church and Its Consequences

The separation of the Armenian Church from the Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire) Church took place during the 5th century, much earlier than the separation between the catholic and the orthodox (Greek-orthodox) Churches during the 11th century.

During its early centuries, different beliefs arose in Christianity regarding the personality of Jesus Christ and his divinity. Naturally the Armenian Church, being one of the oldest among the existing Churches at that time, actively resisted all these ramifications.

The most famous theologies were Aryanism which regarded Jesus as a human being and denied his divinity, Nestorianism purporting that Jesus symbolized the duality of God and human and Monophysism which argued that the divinity in Jesus Christ had fused together with his human nature and therefore he was divine as well as human. During the religious council in Nicea, 325, the Churches in Rome and Byzantine condemned Aryanism and declared that Jesus was himself divine. The Armenian Church initially accepted thisdecision, but went gradually over to Monophysism which was a purer and stronger version of the earlier belief.

In 451, during the council of Chalcedonia, the Churches in Rome and Byzantine, adopted a new theology devised by Pope Leon the Great, according to which Jesus had two different origins, one human and one divine, united in his person but not fused with each other. The Armenian Church, however, stayed loyal to its Monophysism faith and declared its separation from the Churches in Rome and Byzantine in 491.

The pre-eminent factor in the decision of the Armenian Church was the strength of feeling for their own old customs and beliefs. The Armenian Church, which considered itself as a genuine Church, as it was founded directly by one of the apostles of Jesus Christ and not by the priests of the apostles 14, felt that the recurring councils during the 4th and 5th centuries, where the identity of the Christ was frequently reinterpreted, did not in any way correspond to the Christian faith. The Armenian Church adopted a conservative position and dismissed any fanatic exaggerations and inventions as well as all modernity, which it regarded as non-compatible with the original belief.

At the same time, Christianity in Rome and Byzantine, from the reign of Emperor Theodosius I, had become a more fanatical and harsh religion which crushed any critic who ridiculed the new beliefs and betrayed the real Christianity.

These conflicts and differences of opinion were of course not only religious and theological but more often were connected to more worldly matters. The roots of the conflicts sprung from the struggle for influence and power in the domains of the four capitals, and their mighty archbishops, of the Christian world: Rome, Alexandria, Antiochia and Constantinople. Alexandria, proud of the role its holy leaders and scientists had had in the spread and development of Christianity, claimed its status as the centre for true faith, while Rome and Constantinople refused to accept this superiority.

The Armenian Church, meanwhile, had distanced it self from these conflicts. When in needs of guidance or counselling, it turned to Jerusalem or Antiochia, which in themselves had become Christian centres. Thus in the 4th century, the Armenian Church turned to the Archbishop Macarius in Jerusalem for guidance regarding the question of founding a new Church organization. Moreover, the Armenians built several monasteries on the Mount of Olives during the 5th century. 16