Armenians
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary [1]
The inhabitants of Armenia, whose religion is the Christian, of the Eutychian sect; that is, they hold but one nature in Jesus Christ.
See EUTYCHIANS. They assert also the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father only. They believe that Christ at his descent into hell freed the souls of the damned from thence, and reprieved them to the end of the world, when they shall be remanded to eternal flames. They believe that the souls of the righteous shall not be admitted to the beatific vision till after the resurrection, notwithstanding which they pray to departed saints, adore their pictures, and burn lamps before them. The Armenian clergy consist of patriarchs, archbishops, doctors, secular priests, and monks. The Armenian monks are of the order of St. Basil; and every Wednesday and Friday they eat neither fish, nor eggs, nor oil, nor any thing made of milk; and during Lent they live upon nothing but roots. They have seven sacraments; baptism, confirmation, penance, and Eucharist, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony.
They admit infants to the communion at two or three months old. They seem to place the chief part of their religion in fastings and abstinences; and, among the clergy, the higher the degree, the lower they must live; insomuch that it is said the archbishops live on nothing but pulse. They consecrate holy water but once a year; at which time every one fills a pot, and carries it home, which brings in a considerable revenue to the church.
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [2]
A people of the Aryan race occupying Armenia, early converted to Christianity of the Eutychian type; from early times have emigrated into adjoining, and even remote, countries, and are, like the Jews, mainly engaged in commercial pursuits, the wealthier of them especially in banking.
