I î z Travels into the L e v a n t. Pare IL 
Fables of the They have a hundred Stories, or rather ridiculous Tales, concerning the Infancy 
Sng"^o2?' of our Lord, and that is it they call the little Gofpel i as for infiance, that the 
Lord. Virgin being with Child, her Sifter Salome accufed her of having been deflowrcd 
byfomeman, and that the Holy Virgin for her own juftification bid her lay her 
Hand upon her Belly, and that (he (hould know what Fruit fhe bore ■-, which Sa- 
lome having done, a fire iffued out of it and confumcd one half of her Arm j and 
then being fenfible of her fault, (he laid the flump upon it again, by the Holy Vir- 
gins order, and fo recovered her whole Arm. They alfo fay that our Lord being 
grown pretty big, his Holy Mother put him to School to learn to Read Armenian^ 
and that his Mailer making him pronounce the ^rwewz^w Alphabet, he would not 
pronounce the hrft Letter, which is thus made ijl , unlefs his MaQeir gave him a 
reafon why it waslhaped in that manner, which made his Malkr give him correâi- 
on : Our Lord having fuffered it, told him mildly, that fince he knew it not, he 
would teach him \ and made him comprehend that it denoted the Myftery of the 
Holy Trinity, whereat the Mafter much furprifcd, returned him back to the Vir- 
gin, telling her that he knew more than himfclf. This Tale is the more ridiculous. 
The invent!- that it is not above four hundred years fince their Letters were invented, and that 
on of ^'^1^^'"' before they made ufe of the Greeks Letters : and the truth is there is in the Library 
Taftcr"' the Fre«ci5> King a large thick Armenian Book, which gives the Hiftory of their 
Letters, and by whom they were invented. 
A Ridiculous They fay that having fold our Lord, and defpairing of Pardon, refolved 
^as^ ^° ^^"8 himfelf, bccaufe he knew that our Lord was to goe to the Limbus^ to dc- 
" , liver all the fouls which he found there, and that he made account to be one of that 
number i for with them Hell and the Limbus is one and the fame thing -, but 
the Devil cunninger than he, forefeeing that, held him up by the Feet, till our 
Lord had palTed the Limbus-, and then let him fall plum into Hell. 
An Errour of The Armenians as well as the Euticheant believe but one Nature in J E S U S 
J'^J^^^™"^ CHRIST, though they condemn Entiches of Herefiei they doc not, indeed, 
the two Na- ^^Y ^^^^ Humane Nature was fwallowed up in the Divine, as the firft Entiche^ 
turcs in J E- ans did, nor doe they believe the confufion of Natures in jESuS CHRIST, 
SUS CHRIST, as Entiches did, but they will have the Divine and Humane Nature to be united in 
his Sacred Perfon, as the Soul and Body are in a man, and that fo they make but one i 
and that makes them condemn the Council of Chalcedon. 
A falfe belief They fay that JESUS CHRIST neither Ate nor Drank, and when I 
in the Ami- ^Hedged to one of them fome paflages of the Gofpel, where it is faid that he did 
The Opinion Eat and Drink, he made anfwer, that he only feemed to do fo, but that in reality, 
of the Ame- he neither Ate nor Drank. They acknowledge not the Pope to be Superiour to their 
ntans coacer- Patriarch, but only to be Patriarch of Kerne. Yet I found fome of them that were 
Blngthe Pope. ^^^^ Opinion, and who confeffed that he was Head of the Church. Never- 
thelefs, they are^encrally great Enemies to the Frank^^ and to all that profefs the 
Reman Cathslick^Faikh ■■, fo far, that there are fome of them whofticknot to fay, 
that it ist)etter to be a "îurk^ than a Koman Catbolick^: Notwithftanding all this, they 
The belief of agree with us as to the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharilh and it isa firong Argu_ 
the Armenians ^^^^ againft the European Hereticks, to objedt to them the Levantine Chriftians,who 
the Holy'^Sa- ^ ^^^^ ^^^^ declared Enemies of the Roman Catholicks., and never- 
cramcnt of thelefs are all Uniform with them, as to the Holy Sacrament and Mafs, Jacobites, 
the Altar. Nejiorians and all, which makes it appear that the Mafs is no new invented thing. 
CHAP. 
