Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/180

158 THE DECLINE AND FALL of the Greek tongue, prevented their clergy from assisthig at the synod of Chaleedon, and they floated eighty-four years ^^^ in a state of indifference or suspense, till their vacant faith was finally occupied by the missionaries of Julian of Halicarnassus,^"*^ who in Egypt, their common exile, had been vanquished by the arguments or the influence of his rival Severus, the Monophysite patriarch of Antioch. The Armenians alone are the pure dis- ciples of Eutyches, an unfortunate parent, who has been re- nounced by the greater part of his spiritual progeny. They alone persevere in the opinion that the manhood of Christ was created, or existed without creation, of a divine and incorrup- tible substance. Their adversaries reproach them with the adoration of a phantom ; and they retort the accusation, by deriding or execrating the blasphemy of the Jacobites, who impute to the Godhead the vile infirmities of the flesh, even the natural effects of nutrition and digestion. The religion of Armenia could not derive much glory from the learning or the power of its inhabitants. The royalty expired with the origin of their schism, and their Christian kings, who arose and fell in the thirteenth century on the confines of Cilicia, were the clients of the Latins, and the vassals of the Turkish sultan of Iconium. The helpless nation has seldom been permitted to enjoy the tranquillity of servitude. From the earliest period to the present hour, Armenia has been the theatre of perpetual war ; the lands between Tauris and Erivan were dispeopled by the cruel policy of the Sophis ; and myriads of Christian families were transplanted, to perish or to propagate in the distant provinces of Persia. Under the rod of oppression, the zeal of the Armenians is fervid and intrepid ; they have often preferred the crown of martyrdom to the white turban of Mahomet ; they devoutly hate the error and idolatry of the Greeks ; and their transient union with the Latins is not less devoid of truth than the thousand bishops whom their patriarch offered at the feet of the Roman pontiff, i^^* The catholic, or 1^3 The schism of the Armenians is placed 84 years after the council of Chalee- don (Pagi, Critica, ad a.d. 535). It was consummated at the end of seventeen years ; and it is from the year of Christ 552 that we date the aera of the Armenians (I'Art de verifier les Dates, p. xxxv.). 144 nfhe sentiments and success of Julian of Hahcarnassus may be seen in Libera- tus (Brev. c. 19), Renaudot (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 132, 303), and Assemannus (Bibliot. Orient, torn. ii. Dissertat. de Monophysitis, p. viii. p. 286). I'i^See a remarkable fact of the twelfth century in the History of Nicetas Choniates (p. 258). Yet, three hundred years before, Photius (Epistol. ii. p. 49,