Notwithstanding the political position of the country, its poetry continued to flourish and assumed a definite character; and the voices of the poets rose continually louder and louder. This century, together with the two preceding and the two following ones, forms a flourishing age for poetry. The chief poets of this century are:—Hovhannes Tulkourantzi, Mkrtich Naghash, Grigoris of Aghtamar, Nahapet Kouchak, Arakel Sunetzi. Hovhannes Tulkourantzi (1450–1525) was Catholicos of Sis. He is a poet of the days of spring, flowers, beauty, love. He wrote also moral and religious poems, besides other things. He cannot understand how it is possible for one who loves a beautiful woman to grow old and die. “Whosoever loves you, how can he die? How can his face grow pale in death?” He sings of the sanctity of family life, warning his readers against the strange woman “who brings torment and grief. Even his lawful wife brought trouble to Adam; what then is to be expected of the stranger?” He has a striking poem on Death, which he addresses thus:— “There is nothing so bitter as thou, no venom is more bitter; only Hell surpasseth thee, and it is thou who bringest Hell in thy train. Solomon remembered thee, saying, ‘Of what profit is my wisdom? Say not I am a King possessing gold and treasures.’ “Alas, O death! thou hast a grudge against the sons of Adam and thou avengest thyself on them. “Thou didst not consider that Moses was a prophet, nor art thou ashamed of assaulting David; thou takest even Father Abraham; thou draggest King Tiridates from his throne; and thou respectest not the Emperor Constantine. [42] “If a hero is attended by 1000 horsemen and arrayed in six coats of armour, thou shootest thine arrows at him and bringest him down, then thou castest him into prison and before the entrance thou placest a great stone.” The poem continues:— “Like an eagle flying far, Forth on wide-spread wings thou farest; All the strong ones of the earth In thy wing-tips rolled thou bearest.” In other poems we see his susceptibility to passion and his sense of love’s power. In one of these poems he depicts [43] a bishop of 100 years old whose beard had turned from white to yellow and who, when officiating at the altar, suddenly uttered the name of a lady in his invocation before the cross.