"Of the rites and dogmas subsequently adopted by other bodies of Christians, there was a free importation for the two centuries that the Armenians formed a regular branch of the General Church. A special messenger was sent to Jerusalem for the ceremonies observed in that church, and brought thence eight canons regulating the sacraments and other rites. For a similar object, a correspondence was carried on with the Bishop of Nisibis. One Catholicos, who had been educated at Constantinople in the influence of all the secular ideas and regulations introduced into the Church under the patronage of Constantine and his successors, brought from thence 'various observances, which, like precious stones, he inlaid into the old.' And several who followed him distinguished themselves by their _improvements_ in the services and laws of the Church. So that when, by rejecting the Council of Chalcedon, A. D. 491, the Armenians cut themselves off from the communion of the great body of Christians, they were doubtless in possession of all the legendary dogmas and observances which had then been adopted by the Christian world."1 1 _Researches in Armenia_, Amer. Edition, vol. ii. pp. 290-292. CHAPTER VII. THE ARMENIANS. 1827-1835. Mr. King's "Farewell Letter to his Friends in Syria and Palestine" was translated into the Armenian language by Bishop Dionysius, and a manuscript copy was sent by him, in the year 1827, to some of the more influential Armenians in Constantinople. Its effect was extraordinary. A meeting was called in the Armenian patriarchal church, at which the letter was read, and the marginal references to Scripture were verified. It was then agreed, by common consent, that the Church needed reform. The famous school of Peshtimaljian grew out of this meeting, at which it was decided, that no person should be ordained in the capital to the priest's office, who had not completed a regular course of study at this school. In the year 1833, the missionaries were invited to be present at the ordination of fifteen Armenian priests in the patriarchal church; and they were then informed, that no one had received ordination in the metropolis since the adoption of the rule above stated, and that only such as had received a regular education at that school were regarded as eligible for ordination. As the result of this, nearly all the candidates were comparatively well-educated men, and one of them, hereafter to be more specially noted, had a high reputation for learning.