Page:The History of Armenia - Avdall - Volume 1.djvu/386

 public, Abraham sent the monks Vertannes and Gregory as his proxies, with nineteen Armenian bishops, all from the division of the Greeks. After a careful inrestigation^ and much deliberation, the conncil of Chalcedon was declared orthodox^ and the beforementioned bishops accepted it. Vertannes and Gregory refusing to recognize this decision, returned to Armenia. Hence- A.D.60(k

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forward much discord prevailed amongst the «'*<9* Armenians in the two divisions of the nation. The emperor Maurice, desiring to set at rest all further disagreement and contention, ab- solved the Armenians residing in his division from all obedience to Abraham, and appointed another pontiff over them, in the person of Johan, an amiable and virtuous character, from the Tillage of Bagaran in the province of Cog. He was also directed to fix the seat of his spiritual jurisdiction in the town of Cotais, otherwise called Avan. This separation of the two di^ idsions lasted sixteen years. Sumbat the prefect, wishing to leave behind him at his death, some monument by which the Armenians might fecal him to mind, set about building a church of hewn stone in the city of Duin, intending to dedicate it to St. Gregory the Illuminator. There had been one dedicated to this saint, built of wood and brick, by St. Vardan, which it was proposed to pull down, and erect the one con*

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