17 - The Armenians in the era of the crusades 1050–1350

Summary

The defining issue for Christendom in the period under discussion was undoubtedly one of ecclesiology. In the case of the Armenians this took the form of renewed debate with the other Christian traditions which had emerged in Byzantium, western Europe and the Near East in the course of late antiquity, when a common patristic matrix developed distinct constellations of doctrine, rite and order with characteristic emphases, forms and expressions.

The onset of the Arab period in Armenian history ushered in an era of consolidation inaugurated by the catholicate of Yovhan Ōjnec’i (717–728). Synods reaffirmed Armenia’s one-nature Christology, not only clarifying the distinctive Armenian doctrine of the incorruptibility of Christ’s flesh in an Orthodox fashion, but also linking this doctrinally both to the joint celebration of the Nativity and Baptism of Christ on 6 January and to the use of unleavened bread and unmixed wine in the Eucharist. The structures of the institutional church, its sacraments and the legitimacy of its representational artwere defended against the Paulicians, a widespread iconoclastic sect. Compilations on doctrine and canon law were drawn up and a greater sense of historical identity gradually emerged, which expressed itself in an expanded sanctorale, highlighting local saints, particularly martyrs, and celebrating their accomplishments in hymns, vitae and encomia. Of particular significance in this connection was the signal devotion among Armenians of all theological complexions to St Gregory the Illuminator, who had established Christianity as the religion of the Armenian court in the early fourth century.

The historical course of the ecclesial dialogue mentioned above was determined in significant measure by the large-scale movements of peoples which punctuated the era: in the mid-eleventh century the Seljuq Turks came out of the east, to be followed by the Mongols in the thirteenth century and the Timurids in the 1380s, while the crusades ensured continuous waves of military, ecclesiastical and mercantile contacts with the west.