Note 4 — Chapter XVI · EDGMIATSIN AND THE ARMENIAN CHURCH

Morier’s Second Journey, London, 1818, pp. 323 seq. According to Von Haxthausen Russian influence had already become preponderant in the election of a katholikos as early as 1768, when the Katholikos Lukas sought and obtained the sanction of Russia upon his elevation (Transcaucasia, English edition, London, 1854, p. 307). We learn from another source that the Katholikos Ephraim (1809–31) was accorded the special protection of the Tsar, and that he did not assume his functions before receiving the imperial assurance at St. Petersburg that the pontificate of Armenia would ever receive such protection. This same Tsar, Alexander I., loaded the bishops and priests who accompanied Ephraim with honours and presents (Avdall’s continuation of Chamchean’s History, Calcutta, 1827, pp. 519–20). ↑