Manuscript No. 14: The Shield of Faith by Mik’ayēl Ch‘amch‘ian

Item Overview

Title

Manuscript No. 14: The Shield of Faith by Mik’ayēl Ch‘amch‘ian

Uniform title

Vahan Havatoy

Language

Armenian

Collection

Armenian Manuscripts

Notes

Description

The MS is a copy of the abridged version of "The Shield of Faith, Concerning the Orthodoxy of the Armenian Church" (Vahan havatoy ułłap῾aṙut῾ean Hayastaneayc῾ Yekełec῾voy), authored by the Venice Mekhitarist Father Mik῾ayēl Č’amčian (1738-1823). According to Ormanian, the original unabridged manuscript of this work, a copy of which he saw in the library of the Antonian Armenian Catholic monastic order at Constantinople, consisted of 924 handwritten pages (see Ormanian, 1816, Azgapatum, para. 2165). In this work, which was written during the years 1776-1816, Č’amčian endeavored to defend the "orthodoxy" of the Armenian church against Catholic Armenian charges that it had deviated from the truth. There were ten such charges, namely, that the Armenians: 1) reject the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon; 2)proclaim only one nature in Christ; 3)reject the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son; 4) hold an erroneous position toward life in the hereafter; 5) recite "Holy God" with the addition of "who were crucified for us"; 6) celebrate Christmas on January 6; 7)do not dilute the Eucharistic wine; 8) do not conform to the observance of the Roman church'es rules and commandments; 9) reject extreme unction; 10) reject the primacy of the Roman see. Discussing each of these accusations, Č’amčian concludes that the charges are groundless and that "there is no justification for calling the Armenians deviationists or heretics; rather, they must be recognized as orthodox".

Colophon

Fols. 59-60. The unabridged Text and the Verdict of the InquisitionFol. 60-60vFol. 61Fol. 61v

Provenance

The title page on fol. 1 indicates that the codex was written by the deacon Pōłos Petrosian Konstandnupōlsec῾i in February 1823 at the port city of Tuzla in Cyprus. A notice written in pencil on the inside of the back cover informs us that Dr. Minasian acquired the codex on May 28, 1956, from Mrs. Rosie Dionisian.The text of the abridged version of Č’amčian's "Shield of Faith" was published in Calcutta in 1873 by the priest Yovhannes Xačikian. The publication was based on the abridged version copied at Tuzla, Cyprus, in 1823.

Physical Description

Extent

65 fols.

Dimensions

18.5 X 11.5 cm.

Binding note

19th century half-leather, dark brown, with blue and brown marbled paper over pasteboards. Paper pastedown. No endbands. Spine is divided into six panels by gold-tooled fillets, with an acorn stamp gold-tooled into each panel. Edges lightly sprinkled in red. Text paper is pale purple. Not a traditional Armenian binding. Embossed stamp in upper right corner throughout text reads: "J. WHATMAN [or WEATMAN?] 1941" around a crown.

Condition note

Very good state of preservation.

Keywords

Genre

Manuscripts

Resource type

text