"Ignorants who received a fashionable education in Istanbul and CP "institutes", who exclaim with pathos:
"Who and by what right excommunicated the [former schismatic] priest of Hovhannavank?"
I advise you to carefully read several times the words of one of the Most High Catholicos of All Armenians, Simeon A. The following lines from the monumental work "Jambr" by Yerevantsi (1710-1780):
"The patriarch sitting here (in the Mother See of St. Etchmiadzin) has the exclusive right to confirm and improve all Armenian churches, to ensure their canonical order, to eliminate unnecessary or incorrect provisions, to fill gaps, to ordain bishops, to appoint leaders, to CORRECT DEVIANTS AND TO REMOVE UNWORTHY OR INCORRECTABLE PERSONS FROM THE CHURCH AND OFFICE.
He has full authority to give orders in both spiritual and material matters, to SHUT AND OPEN, TO BIND AND LOSE.
And according to the time, he can send his vicars, nuns, everywhere as his representatives to examine and control the state of the churches and clergy, to distribute the fruits of God's work, to anoint those who need to be anointed, and to sanctify those who need to be sanctified."
Is it clear, fashionistas, or was it still too complicated for you?
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FOOTNOTE 1. Here is the original text of the above-quoted passage from "Jambr".
"And the patriarch has the special authority to establish, improve and keep all the Armenians in the church, to appoint the ecclesiastical and to fill the ecclesiastical, to ordain the bishop, to ordain the leader, to correct the weak, to remove the unworthy and the uncorrectable from the church and dissolve them in order, without hindrance and with absolute authority. command the spirit hunter and the usurer, lock and key, bind and loose.
And according to the time, to send my armor to Yamenesian, as a vicar, to examine him and to be the superior of the churchmen and churchmen of their residence, to distribute the zeoglu for god-making, and to anoint the anointing, and to sanctify the consecration.
FOOTNOTE 2. You can read in more detail about the nationwide role and powers of the Catholicos of All Armenians in the 17th-18th centuries on pages 127-128, 189-193 and other pages of my monograph "The Armenian Church in the Four Paths of the Armenian Liberation Movement of the 18th Century" (Yerevan, 2003) (link in the comments field).
