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252 ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
In addition to absolute power over the Church and all its
affairs the Katholikos acquired a large measure of temporal
authority. The riches of the old temples, their lands and
other property, were given to the churches, which were also
endowed with new estates. In course of time the Church
came to own no fewer than 12,000 farms, and was able to
raise an army of 5,470 horsemen and 3,807 foot. To Gregory
and his family the king gave large estates in fifteen provinces,
including several princely castles. And at assemblies of the
grandees of the country the Katholikos took precedence of
them all. Up to a.d. 374 every new Katholikos was conse
crated by the Archbishop of Cæsarea and was nominally
under him, but this did not in any way detract from his position
and power in Armenia. Afterwards he became an entirely
independent patriarch, subject to no ecclesiastical authority
either inside or outside his country ; he acquired an enormous
influence over the whole nation, and has ever since been
regarded as its supreme spiritual head and guide. The
Katholikate, as we have seen, was hereditary in Gregory’s
family. If there were no heir, or the Katholikate became vacant
for other reasons, a new Katholikos was elected not at first,
by the clergy, but by the king, the army, and the leading men
of the realm. After the Katholikos Sahak died in 438 his
successor was chosen by a Church assembly, in which the
laity were also represented ; but in course of time the electoral
power was vested in the bishops.
We are told that Gregory and Trdat built numerous churches
in different parts of the country. It is typical of the conditions
in those days that the churches were usually fortified like
castles ; first, strong walls were erected round the close
where the church was to stand, and then, when these
were complete, the church itself was built. Of Gregory’s
son, the Katholikos Verthanes, we read that he celebrated
Mass in the church at Ashtishat while it was being
besieged by two thousand pagans outside its great walls.
The records tell us nothing about the shape of the earliest
churches.
Trdat probably died somewhere about a.d. 314-320. The
story runs that his dcath was brought about by a conspiracy
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