1836.] Memoir of St. Nierses Clajensis. 151 



ficate of Armenia." The work was, at the desire of Theorianey, pro- 

 duced at the meeting, and a few passages of the same being read to 

 him, he highly admired its wholesome doctrine. A transcript of it 

 was accordingly made out at the request of Theorianey, who wished 

 to take it to Con-tantinople for the inspection of the emperor and 

 patriarch. The proceedings of this council were committed to writing 

 by Theorianey, as it appears from the panegyric written by Nierses 

 Lambronensis on Nierses the Graceful. Theorianey's account of 

 this meeting was, in the year 1578, published in Greek and Latin, in 

 conjunction with the records of the fathers of the Church. 



Before the mission had quitted Constantinople for Hiromcla, the 

 emperor Manuel communicated to Michael, the patriarch of Syria, 

 his intention of acceding to an union of the Greek and Armenian 

 Churches. Theorianey, on his arrival at Hiromcla, wrote to Michael, 

 soliciting his presence at the Council of union which was shortly to 

 be held in the pontifical house of Armenia. The latter deputed a proxy 

 in the person of Johannes, bishop of Cheson, who, reaching Hiromcla 

 after the meeting had terminated, felt great displeasure at the acquies- 

 cence of Nierses the Graceful in the doctrines of the Greek Church, 

 and began to censure him, as the representative of his patriarch, for 

 such a line of conduct. Nierses, by sensible observations, convinced 

 him of the propriety and necessity of the union, and desired him that 

 on his return to Syria he should use every means in his power to secure 

 the consent of Michael to the removal of the religious differences 

 which had for ages disturbed the peace of the sister Churches. 



On the departure of Theorianey for Constantinople in October in 

 the year 1 1 70, Nierses addressed a letter to the emperor, of which 

 the following is an outline. 



" In delivering your Imperial letter to us, Theorianey assured us of the 

 love and good-will, which you are graciously pleased to exercise in increasing 

 the spiritual and temporal welfare of our nation. The proposal of effecting 

 this happy union between the two Churches could proceed from no other source, 

 than from a mind gifted with the choicest blessings of heaven, and entirely 

 devoted to the service of its Creator. Enriched with every thing that is great 

 and good, you burn with the desire of becoming a partaker of our spiritual 

 poverty. On a conference held between us and the learned divines, whom your 

 Majesty was pleased to depute, the veil of the unjust aspersions with which the 

 two nations were covered, was rent asunder. By the collision of contrary opi- 

 nions, the truth, which was surrounded with a mist of falsehood, burst to light, 

 and shone with redoubled splendour. The result of the council of union is 

 conducive to carrying conviction to the mind of every reasonable being, that 

 the Greeks are free from the heresy of the Nestorian* division, and that the 



* For the Nestorian heresies, see Eusebitjs's Ecclesiastical history, torn. iii. 

 pp. 256 and 257. 



