Even during the 19th and the 20th centuries, when Armenian intellectuals began to leave the clergy, they continued to worship and praise the Armenian Church as the symbol of the nation. Thus Bareilles writes: "Sometimes I feel that the Armenian, even if he denies his own faith, is still faithful to his church since he instinctively feels that if his church disapears, then he will lose everything." 16
For the Armenian people, who for several centuries was stripped of its political sphere, this love for its national church has been, as Catholicos Ormanian expresses: "a saving harbour. This force, which has had a great impression on the destiny of the nation, is still alive. It is a visible soul in the body of a nation where the body itself no longer exists." 17
The influence of the activities of the church on a cultural level, even during the worst periods, has been noticeable (we will describe the remarkable part which the Mkhitarists had in this matter). In 1609, Bishop Sarkis and Priest Kirakos built the famous Tatev Monastery, which became one of the most important cultural centres in Eastern Armenia, and it was here that they began preparing for the renaissance, or the resurrection, of Armenian culture. Later, during the 18th century, the great Catholicos Simeon I and two other priests in Constantinople by the names of Kolot and Nalian, paved the way for the awakening of the Armenian people through their cultural undertakings.
Catholicos Nerses, during the first decades of the 19th century, also played a major role in this work. 23
Could the Armenian Church, for this entire period of Turkish rule over Western Armenia and Persian over Eastern Armenia, have carried out so many good deeds to leave no room for criticism? Of course not. The atmosphere during the decay of these two empires, was rife with oppression, violence and corruption, and this deterioration in both the organizational structure and human nature naturally had an impact on the Armenian Church. 24
Over time ignorance emerged in the Armenian Church, and far worse, the trade of religious offices. In constant contact with the corrupt court and government in Constantinople and Tehran, there were understandably occasions when the leaders of the Armenian Church showed signs of corruption and perdition themselves.
Yet these blemishes, the result of the corruption which ruled over the courts and the enforced governmental system in the Ottoman Empire and Persia, cannot mask the invaluable services which the church enacted. Saint-René Taillandier writes: "When we remember all the services which these priests have carried out for the preservation of a glorious history and its customs, then we hesitate to stress their ignorance and their less worthy works and superstitions."
Moreover, the Armenian Church never reached that level of corruption, for instance in regard to the trade of the religious offices and the posts, which the Greek Church in the Balkans reached.This Greek Church has been compared, by a German historian, to a large trade organization where the high offices of the Catholicos were sold for money and where the priests in their turncollected these sums, many times over, from the people.
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