142 Memoir of St. Nierses Clajensis. [March, 



Nierses accepted the proposition with great interest, and accord- 

 ingly wrote an epistle to him full of sound doctrine and incontrovertible 

 proofs. He commenced the latter by saying, " I was extremely 

 delighted by the opportunity of holding a conference with you, O 

 philanthropic and pious nobleman, respecting the doctrines and forms 

 of the Armenian Church ! But as sentiments embodied by human 

 utterance are liable to be effaced from the tablets of memory, by the 

 lapse of time, by reason of the cessation of our remembrance, I do not 

 hesitate to furnish you with a written account of all that you were 

 pleased to hear from me. I shall endeavour to perform my task with 

 as much propriety and precision, as my time and abilities will admit 

 of. Encouraged by the love of knowledge, with which you are distin- 

 guished, I feel no small alleviation in the execution of my difficult 

 undertaking. It may not be perhaps superfluous to add, that all my 

 arguments are drawn from that pure source of religious truth, for 

 which our divine fathers of old are so deservedly characterised." 



This preamble is immediately followed by an orthodox confession of 

 the Holy Trinity, and of the incarnation of our blessed Saviour. It is 

 here asserted, that the Church of Armenia admits the duality of nature 

 in Christ, and that the Armenians by the term " one nature," acknow- 

 ledge by implication an unconfounded union of the divinity and human 

 nature of our Saviour. It is also added that the Armenian Church, 

 according to old customs, commemorates the nativity of our Saviour on 

 the 6th of January, and that it is a gross fabrication that the Arme- 

 nians observe the Annunciation day on the preceding day of the Epi- 

 phany. That in consequence of a want of olives, the Armenians make 

 preparation of unction by the oil of odorous flowers. That they pay 

 due reverence to pictures. That in constructing crosses of wood, nails 

 are with no other intention affixed to them than with that of joining 

 the parts together ; while those made of silver and gold are without 

 nails. That the prayer M«^f*. (jS» '.' Holy God*," is offered in the Ar- 

 menian Church to Jesus Christ, and not to the Father, or the Holy 

 Ghost. That the custom of partaking of milk, butter, and cheese, on 



* About half an hour previously to the commencement of high mass, 

 the following short prayer is addressed to the Son in the Armenian Church: 



jlncHfi \5§», uat-l'p. L 4<£o/»> unt-pji. L- ufb Cu, i, , rtp pjujjrjuip tjniuh JIrp> a-i_apJb-ui Jhr^t 



" Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal; who wast crucified for us, 

 have mercy upon us." An erroneous impression had been made on the minds 

 of the Greeks, that this prayer was indiscriminately addressed to either of the 

 persons of the Holy Trinity, and by this conviction, they traced a fundamental 

 error in the doctrines of che Armenian Church. 



