Nersēs Šnorhali. Aspirazione all’unità tra divisioni ecclesiastiche e frammentazione politica

Nersēs Šnorhali (1102-1173) is a key figure in the dialogue between the Armenian and the Byzantine churches of the twelfth century. His writings are witness to a sincere desire for the unity of the Church. However, his vision of unity was too innovative to be able to be shared by his interlocutors, who remained firmly attached to the idea of a union based on the Armenians’ capitulating and adhering to the «orthodox» positions of the Byzantines. Nersēs Šnorhali was convinced that the divisions between Christians needed to be achieved without creating new ruptures within his own Church, which had already been touched by the schism of Ałt‘amar and the centrifugal tendencies of which he was well aware. As he saw things, the lack of an Armenian political power lay at the root of the break-up of his nation, which he considered a people in exile, both on account of the lack of a political centre of gravity and on account of the historical vicissitudes of the Armenian plateau. Nevertheless, Nersēs nourished the hope that, just as the position of catholicos katholikos had returned to the descendants of Gregory the Illuminator (i.e. the Pahlawuni, to whom he belonged), so likewise the royal power might be able to be restored to the true princes, perhaps to be identified with the Hethumidi. Through their familial relationship with the Pahlawuni, the Hethumidi were able to present themselves as descendants of the ancient dynasty of the Arsacids, with whom the Pahlawuni claimed a shared origin.