Persia has an archbishop at Ispahan, with a suffragan bishop at Calcutta in India; and an arch-bishop at Tabreez with two suffragan bishops.

The catholicos is at present elected by his synod, all the members of which reside at Etchmiadzin, and the election must be confirmed by the Russian government. The entire population connected with the Armenian church is estimated at about 3,000,000. - The United Armenians, also called Armeno-Catholics, are those who acknowledge the supremacy of the pope of Rome. As early as 1318 Pope John XXII. appointed a Dominican monk to be their archbishop at Soldania in Persian Armenia (afterward at Nakhtchevan). At the council of Florence (1439) a nominal union between the Roman and Armenian churches was effected, but it was not ratified. For 'centuries, however, there have been Armenians in Persia, Poland, Transylvania, Turkey, etc, acknowledging the pope and agreeing doctrinally with the Roman Catholic church, but retaining their own usages, such as the communion in both kinds and the marriage of the priests. They have had a patriarch in Cilicia since 1742. The monks of St. Anthony, who have an abbot on Mount Lebanon, and the Mekhitarists, whose labors have been conspicuous in Armenian literature, are the principal monks among them. They are estimated to number 15,000 in Con-stantinople and 100.000 in the Turkish empire.

According to the "Papal Almanac" for 1872, the Armeno-Catholic church has one patriarch (of Cilicia), five archbishoprics in Turkey and one (Lemberg) in Austria, eleven bishoprics in Turkey and one (Ispahan) in Persia. The papal bull Reversurus, dated July 12, 1867, which without consulting the Armenian bishops made important changes in the constitution of the Armeno-Catholic church and in its relations to Rome, called forth a violent opposition. At a national synod held in 1869 the majority of the bishops protested against the bull; and when the patriarch of Cilicia, Hassun, the head of the church, attempted to carry out the provisions of this bull, the bishops declared (Feb. 14, 1871) the election of Hassun, which had taken place in 1860, to have been illegal, and elected Archbishop Bahdiarian of Diarbekir as patriarch of Cilicia. The new patriarch, with all the bishops and priests who had taken part in the election, was excommunicated by the pope on Nov. 2, 1871. This fate was toward the close of 1872 shared by all the members of the church who refused to recognize the authority of the patriarch Hassun and the decrees of the Vatican council.

The excommunicated portion of the church has put itself in communication with the Old Catholics of Germany. - The Protestant Armenians have arisen within the last 50 years. An Armenian priest, Debajy Oghlu, living at Constantinople, about 1700 wrote a book, which was circulated in manuscript, on the errors of the church, praising Luther, severely chastising both priests and people for their superstition and vice, and testing every principle and ceremony by the Bible. The British and Russian Bible societies published and circulated (1813-'23) thousands of Bibles and Testaments in the ancient Armenian language, with the approval of the ca-tholicos of Etchmiadzin. They also published (1822-'3) the New Testament in Armeno-Turk-ish (Turkish in Armenian characters) and modern Armenian; but the Armenian patriarch and other clergy refused to sanction these translations. In 1830-'31 the Rev. Messrs. Eli Smith and II. G. O. D wight, sent by the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, explored Armenia itself. The same board had had for several years a mission in Syria, where several Armenian ecclesiastics were converted.

In 1831 the Rev. William Goodell, who went to Syria in 1823, established a mission of the board at Pera, a suburb of Constantinople, and was joined in 1832 by Mr. Dwight. These and other American missionaries who subsequently joined them directed their efforts especially to the en-lightenment and reformation of the Armenian nation, and, though bitterly opposed by the patriarch and other Old Armenians whose cooperation they sought, gradually extended their operations and influence through the empire, giving religious instruction, translating the Scriptures, preparing and distributing religious and educational works, establishing schools, promoting religious liberty, etc. In 1843 Ova-gim, a young Armenian who had in a fit of passion professed Mohammedanism and afterward returned to his former faith, was beheaded publicly at Constantinople by the Turkish authorities; but this led to the British minister's demanding and with the help of other foreign ministers obtaining from the sultan a written pledge that the death penalty should not be applied to such cases. But the opposition to the evangelical movement among the Armenians became still more violent.

June 21, 1840, the Armenian patriarch finally excommunicated and anathematized all who remained firm to their evangelical principles, and decreed that the anathema should be annually read in all Armenian churches in the empire. July 1, 1840, the first evangelical Arme-nian church of Constantinople was formed, with 40 members, including females, and one week later Mr. Apisoghom Khatchaduryan was ordained its pastor. Similar churches were formed the same summer at Ismid (Nicomedia), Adabazar, and Trebizond. Nov. 15, 1847, the native Protestants were officially recognized as constituting a separate and independent community, and in November, 1850, the sultan gave to the native Protestants of Turkey a charter placing them on an equality with the older Christian organizations, and providing for a head or agent (a layman) nominated by their regular ballot, and appointed by the Porte, and also for national, provincial, and local councils chosen by themselves, to regulate their own affairs. The Hatti-Humayvm or Hatti-Sherif, issued by the sultan in February, 1850, placed them on a legal equality with Moslems. In 1859 the appointment of a Protestant Armenian censor by the Turkish government relieved the Protestants from an-noyanees proceeding from the Old Armenian censor.

The mission of the American board to the Armenians of Turkey has now grown into four distinct missions, to European, western, central, and eastern Turkey, the first having special reference to the Bulgarians, the other three to the Armenians. In the three Arme-nian missions there were reported, in January, 1872, 37 ordained and 63 unordained (mostly female) American missionaries, 10 stations and 184 out stations, 75 churches with about 3,800 church members', 19,411 registered Protestants, nearly 50 native pastors and as many licensed preachers, several theological and training schools and classes with over 130 pupils, 115 pupils in girls' boarding schools, and 5,657 pupils in 197 common schools.