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CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF ARMENIA 259
sin, of one nature with us. This one and the same Christ
is recognized in two natures indissolubly united but yet
distinct."
When the unfortunate Armenians who had survived the
horrors perpetrated by the Persian fire-worshippers found a
respite from their tribulations they convened a council of
their own at Vagharshapat in 491, and solemnly condemned
the formula of Chalcedon. This meant a complete breach
both with Byzantium and Rome, and the schism has continued
to this day. Throughout their troubled history the Armenians
adhered to the Monophysite doctrine of a single person and
one divine nature of Christ, refusing to countenance the idea
of two natures ; but at the same time they bitterly opposed
Eutyches, the irreconcilable antagonist of the Nestorians, who
taught that the body of Christ could not have been of the same
nature as ours, whereas the Armenians held that He was in
all respects Perfect Man.
These fine-drawn theological controversies have rent
asunder the Christian world and destroyed the lives of thou
sands of innocent people to whom these theological definitions
were nothing but empty words. In the East they helped to
pave the way, at a later date, for the advance of Islam. They
alienated Armenia from the Byzantine and the West Roman
Empires and from the numerous Christian communities in
Persia. Over and over again the Greek Church of Byzantium
tried, by every means in its power, to cajole or compel the
Armenian Church to acknowledge its supremacy and accept
the formula of Chalcedon. But the Armenian people were
always on their guard against these attempts. It is strange to
see how the Armenians, who politically have always been
weakened by domestic dissensions, have invariably closed
their ranks when any danger has threatened the doctrines of
their faith or the independence of their Church.
Under Persian and Arab Rule.
When the Persian king Yezdegerd II tried forcibly to
impose Mazdaism (the teaching of the Avesta) upon the
Armenians as the only true religion, they rose in revolt in
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