Storia do Mogor 351: III.
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 351
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III.
351.1
Ibid., Vol. II., 264-267. The Roman Armenians came from Armenia to Isphahan with the great migration of 1605. From the beginning they were always hostile to the Gregorian Armenians. In 1064 A.H., 2 Rabr I. (January 21, a.d. 1654) the Gregorians obtained a decree from Shãh 'Abbas (1642-1667) prohibiting churches of the Franks from being built in Julpha. Nevertheless, the Latin Armenians succeeded in obtaining permission to found seven churches, either through the intervention of the French Consul or by their own interest. These churches were : (1) St. Avetikh, founded by the influential Roman Armenian family of the Shahrimaneans ; (2) St. Elias, commonly called the Carmelite Church ; (3) St. Joseph, called the Jesuit Church, because it was founded by that Order; (4) the Dominican Convent; (5) the Augustinian Convent, in Husainlyah ; (6) the Carmelite Convent in Godmir ; and (7) the Capuchin Convent, in Ghalatabaruk (Kal'ah Tabarik). The last-named three churches were within the city of Isphahan, each in a specially assigned quarter, whilst the first four were founded in Julpha. Of four of these churches not a trace now (1871) remains. Of two others the ruins are still visible—namely, those of the Jesuit Church and of St. Avetikh of the Shahrimaneans. The Dominican Convent alone is still intact, in the Khõchêr quarter.
351.2
The Papist missionaries endeavoured in various ways to convert the Gregorian Armenians to Romanism, such as by monetary aid to the needy, specious persuasion, or by receiving sympathetically and kindly those who had incurred the rebuke of their spiritual superiors. The prelates of Julpha, on the other hand, strove to prevent their progress by vigorous opposition, either by invoking the aid of Government authority, or by the exercise of their own episcopal power. This hostile activity has remained unextinguished until this day. The Papists labour incessantly to sow dissension in the Armenian Church, whilst the guardians of the Gregorian community endeavour by every means in their power to protect their flock from the wiles of these strangers. The smouldering hostility between the Gregorians and the Papists was first blown into flame in the reign of Shãh Sulaimãn (1667-1694) in the year 1688. Jesuit fathers had come to Isphahan, and had founded the church which is called the Jesuit Church. They opened schools in Julpha for the education of children, and began to preach after their fashion, and endeavoured to win over the people. At this time the Prelate of the Convent of the Universal Saviour was Bishop Stephannos, who was possessed with an implacable hatred against the Papists. In championing the cause of his people he brought great tribulation upon the Jesuit preachers.
351.3
He complained to the King, Shãh Sulaimãn, that strangers had come to Persia from European parts, and were disturbing the peace of the Armenian people ; that they had opened schools, and were endeavouring to lead astray the children of the simple-minded, and were inciting the people to quarrel with one another ; that such was their apparent object, but that their secret purpose was to spy out the incoming and outgoing of Persia, and to report upon all the passes of the country to the European Governments. By such ingenious and plausible accusations the Jesuit fathers were rendered odious in the eyes of the Persian Government. The Shahrimaneans, however, came to the aid of the Jesuits, and by expending large sums in bribing both the religious heads of Isphahan and the officers of the Government, they obtained a farmãn that the schools of the Jesuits should not be closed, and that there should be no hindrance to their preaching. The magistrates of Julpha on their part also acted in the same way against the Shahrimaneans, and did not spare the expenditure of large sums of money. The party of the Gregorians was in the end successful, for in the year 1689 they obtained a farmãn from Shãh Sulaimãn. One of the churches of the Romans, that of the Carmelites, was demolished, and some of the Jesuit preachers were expelled, amongst them the priest Jacobus, and the Papist party was much humbled.
351.4
At this time a book was printed in the Convent of the Universal Saviour, directed against the Dyophysites. Hereupon the opportunity was seized by the Papists to declare falsely to the Government that the Armenians had printed a book against the doctrine of the Koran, and in order to clear himself from this slander the Prelate Stephannos was compelled to expend a sum of 500 tomans. In consequence of this determined hostility, Stephannos, together with his clergy, went in procession, wearing chasubles and bearing blackened candles, to the Maidãn of Julpha, and solemnly excommunicated the house of the Shahrimaneans, because that, through the help which they had afforded to the Jesuits, such great trouble and mischief had resulted. When the Gentiles, on seeing this ceremony, asked what the Prelate and his clergy were doing, they replied : ' Just as you curse your Sunni heretics, so we curse our heretics.' The rest of this miserable story would neither be worth relating nor pleasant to read, et cetera.