The Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger, a Native of Bavaria, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, 1396-1427Schiltberger, Johannes
History
The Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger, a Native of Bavaria, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, 1396-1427
Schiltberger, Johannes
Timur, 1336-1405 -- Early works to 1800; Turkey -- History -- Bayezid I, 1389-1403; Voyages and travels -- Early works to 1800
Rhipsime, not Susanna, was the name of the beautiful maiden the
king sought to corrupt. She was a devout woman who had fled the
importunities of Diocletian, and with Guiane and many other saintly
persons of her sex, was put to a cruel death by Tiridates. The story
goes on to say that, for these persecutions of Christians, Tiridates
was smitten by the Lord, thereby losing his reason and becoming like
a wild beast; but his favourite sister, Khosroivitouhdt, having had a
vision, caused Gregory to be summoned out of the pit. That holy man
restored reason to the king, who thereupon, with all his subjects,
became converted to Christianity (_The Crimea and Transc._, i, 236,
243).—ED.
(4.) “the King Derthat and the man Gregory.”—Tiridates was never
at Babylon, nor was any Infidel people ever converted by him to
Christianity (Bishop Aïvazoffsky); but it should be borne in mind that
although the Chaldæans and Nestorians of Kourdistan have nothing in
common with the Armenians, they hold St. Gregory in great veneration,
as he was sent by Tiridates to Cæsarea in Cappadocia to receive
consecration at the hands of St. Leontius, the metropolitan of that
country. Schiltberger would have done better to express himself to this
effect, instead of saying that St. Gregory was placed at the head of
the church by the king.—BRUUN.
CHAPTER LXIV.
(1.) “Saint Silvester.”—Agathange, secretary to Tiridates, and Zenobius,
a disciple of Gregory, speak of a journey to Rome that was undertaken
by those two personages circa 318–19, for the purpose of seeing the
Emperor Constantine and Pope Silvester, and concluding with them a
treaty of peace and friendship. They remained at Rome one month,
and returned to Armenia charged with honours. Moses of Chorene, the
catholicos John, Stephen Assolic, and other Armenian historians prior
to the 11th century, are united in support of this record of Agathange
and Zenobius. Later, during the First and Second Crusades, exaggerated
and absurd details, such as those related by Schiltberger, were
fabricated; and a monstrous document purporting to be the treaty of
peace between Constantine and Tiridates—Sylvester and Gregory, called
Tought-tashantz—The Convention—was invented and published after the
manner of the false Decretales.
It is in consequence of this controverted document that
Armeno-Catholics and other Armenians have enunciated principles and
details, such as we read in part in the text (Bishop Aïvazoffsky).
Whilst admitting the fairness of the bishop’s observation, I would
point out that Schiltberger was simply a ready listener to what the
natives, who did not even belong to the Church of Rome, believed to
be true; and to what were maintained as incontrovertible facts by the
Armeno-Catholics, who in his time were by far the more numerous.—BRUUN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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