A Collection of Curious Travels and Voyages, Volume 1 · Part 3 · Chapter 14 – Chapter 16
CHAP. XIV.
Of the ARMENIANS and their Religion.
THE Armenians poſſeſs a large Countrey, which is chiefly divided into two parts, viz. The Leſſer Armenia, which is now ſubject to the Turks; and the Greater, now called Turco-Mannia by ſome, which is partly belonging to the Sophy King of Perſia. In it ariſe two great Rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, which run a great way toward the South, mix together below Bagadet, and at length fall into the Perſian Gulf, by the Town Balſora or Batzera. They are pious and honeſt People, innocent, but very zealous in their Religion, and receive Strangers readily that come to them, and give them Lodging, as I have often found it in my Travels. They are alſo very much inclined to help and aſſiſt the poor Slaves, that are under Turkiſh Confinement, and ready to help them out. Their Merchants, whereof there are many amongſt them, are diſperſed not only over all Turkey, but alſo Perſia, the Indies, and many other Countries; wherefore they have in all chief Towns of Trading, as Antiochia, Alepo ſituated in Coeloſyria, Orpha, &c. their peculiar Warehouſes and Churches: and alſo in Jeruſalem (whither they go in great numbers) the beautiful Church of St. Jacob the Greater: and alſo below near to the place of Sculls, another Chapel locked up, &c. and have commonly before their Chancels large Hangings, behind which the Prieſts keep ſeparated from the People.
Theſe, although they agree in very many Points and Articles exactly with thoſe of the Reformed Religion, yet notwithſtanding they have ſome Errors worth to be rejected, and ſome ſcandalous Cuſtoms beſides. So you may ſee them here and there cry over the Graves of their deceaſed Friends: for to give them Viſits they go out in the morning early, the greater part of them old Women, and there they make ſuch Mourning and and Howling, that the Travellers that come by (for their Graves or burying places are generally out of Town near the High Ways) may hear them a great way off. There you ſhall ſee them ſit, ſome folding their Hands over their Heads, and looking mournfully: others fetching great Sighs, beating on their Breaſts: others ſpreading themſelves over the Graves, as if they would embrace their Friends, and take them in their Arms. In the mean while their Prieſts go about among them Reading and Praying, and ſometimes they ſpeak to ſome of them. When they have done mourning thus, and caſt Sorrows from their Hearts ſufficiently, they ſit down together, eat, drink, and be merry.
They do not at all eſteem the Popes of Rome, but have their own Prelates, which they honour with great and peculiar Reverence: neither do they believe any Indulgences, nor Purgatory.
Their Prieſts go in plain Habits: they have Wives as well as their Laymen: they let their Hair and Beards grow: they keep on Eaſter-day a great Feaſt, and ſoon after beginneth their Lent, which they keep ſtrictly, and therein, as alſo on Wedneſday and Friday all the year round, they eat neither Eggs nor Fleſh, nor any thing elſe that ever had life in it, only Saturdays and Sundays they are allowed them, to refreſh themſelves: other Feaſts and Holydays they do not keep any at all. In all theſe points, they rather agree with the Abyſſines than the Romans: and alſo in theſe following, viz. That they eat not of unclean Meats, that are forbidden in the Old Teſtament; they admit to the Communion young and old without diſtinction: they baptize their Children in the Name of the Holy Trinity: they believe the Articles of our Chriſtian Faith: they Preach, Sing, Pray, and perform all their Devotion, in the Vulgar Tongue, that every one may underſtand it: they uſe for the Interpretation of the Word of God, the Writings of John Chryſoſtom, and Gregory Nazianzen: they dare not, no more than all the other Nations that live amongſt the Turks, (except the Maronites) make uſe of any Clocks, to call People to Church, in place whereof they have ſtrong wooden Tables, or ſome Houſe-Doors prepared, ſeveral in each Street, whereon they ſtrike ſeveral Strokes with a great Cudgel, and ſo call People to Church.
CHAP. XV.
Of the NESTORIANS.
TOwards the Eaſt are other People which eſteem themſelves Chriſtians, and among the reſt chiefly the Neſtorians, called after the Heretick Neſtorius, who was a Biſhop at Conſtantinople. Some of their Prieſts live upon the Mount Calvaria in the Temple, and there are a great many Adherents to this Sect, moſt of them living in Meſopotamia, Chaldaea and Aſſyria, but chiefly in the mountainous Country of the Curtans, called Carduci by Ptolomy, which they almoſt quite poſſeſs, and have poiſoned with their baſe and obnoxious Error, as if it were by an infectious Air; for in paſſing through I have found many of them in their Cities, as Hapril, Carcuck, Moſel, formerly called Ninive. They are ſtrong and warlike People, but full of Vices, and from their Infancy given to robbing. They inhabit towards North and Eaſt, as is before ſaid upon the Armenians and Medes: and they are a very ancient People, whereof chiefly Xenophon maketh mention under the name of Carducci, and are called to this day Curters. They ſpeak their peculiar Language, which neither the Arabians, Armenians, nor Turks do underſtand: they are of a Browniſh Colour, like unto the Surians and Maronites, and wear the ſame Cloth or Habiliments, that one cannot readily diſcern or diſtinguiſh one from the other, ſave only by their fleſh-coloured Liſts in their Turbants. The Grand Signior is their Head, whom they obey, and they are kept and reſpected very well by the Turks, partly that he may not give them occaſion for an Inſurrection (becauſe they are upon the Borders) and partly becauſe Mahomet hath charged them to be kind to them before others, and that the rather becauſe he had a Friar of their Sect called Sergius for his Tutor, who did baptize him, and counſelled and aſſiſted him to make ſuch Laws, and to give them to his Adherents; and ſo you may ſtill ſee, that they agree more than any other Sect with the Saracens. For whereas they believe, that in Chriſt (according to his two Natures (are two diſtinct perſons, one of the Godhead, the other of the Manhood. They will not allow any more than Mahomet; the Virgin Mary to to be the Mother of God, but the Mother of Chriſt, according to his human Nature. They have a Prelate in ſtead of the Pope whom they call Jacelich. They bleſs and give the Sacrament as the Surians do, and uſe in their Spiritual Services the Chaldean Language, elſe they ſpeak the common of their Provinces, viz. in their own Country, as is aboveſaid, their own Language; in Chaldea and Meſopotamia commonly the Arabian and Saracen Language. So in Aſſyria beyond the River Tigris, where the two mighty Princes the Turk and the King of Perſia do border upon one another, the Language of the Turks, Perſians, and Medes, altho they are quite differing. Theſe and other Languages the holy Apoſtles did underſtand, and in them they did ſpeak on the Day of Pentecoſt, when they received the Holy Ghoſt, as you may read in the Second Chapter of the Acts, Verſe 5. where it is thus written: And there were dwelling at Jeruſalem Jews, devout men out of our every nation under Heaven, each whereof heard the Apoſtles ſpeak in his own Language wherein he was born, as that of the Parthians, Medes, Elamits or Perſians, that of thoſe alſo that live in Meſopotamia and Judea, &c. This Sect was rejected and condemned in the Counſil of Epheſus.
CHAP XVI.
Of the JACOBITES called Golti.
IN the Temple of Mount Calvaria alſo live, in the Chapel behind the Sepulchre of Chriſt, another ſort, that boaſt to be Chriſtians, called Jacobites, after Jacob the Heretick, who was a Pupil of the Patriarch of Alexandria. They pretend to have been firſt converted to the Chriſtian Religion by the holy Evangeliſt and Apoſtle Matthew; but they did not adhere to it, but fell afterwards into a great many Errors, ſo that in our time they are divided into other Sects and Orders. For ſome have aſſumed the Order of S. Macharius, who with Eutychius did own or believe no more but one Nature in Chriſt: others that of St. Anthony, who was an Eremite in the year of our Lord Chriſt 324, in Egypt. Others have their Male Children circumciſed; but others, and the greater part, have their Children baptized with Fire, and have Croſſes made on their Foreheads or Temples, according to the words of St. John the Baptiſt in the 3d. Chapter of St. Matthew, V. 11. He that cometh after me, ſhall baptiſe you with the Holy Ghoſt and with Fire: They live chiefly in Egypt, and in other adjacent places. They are generally ſubject unto the Turkiſh Sultan, they ſpeak the vulgar Arabian Language, and agree in moſt points, partly with the Abyſſines, and partly with the Surians. We ſaw many of their Wives go about in the Temple, they wear Hats near a Span high, which at top have a broad Brim like unto our Bonnets, elſe they are habited like unto the Surians. This Hereſie was rejected and condemned in the Chalcedonian Council.