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...[so that] it may be a bulwark of strength around the vineyard of this our ancestral, Apostolic, and most pious Church against the malevolent machinations of the little foxes, the spoilers of rational vines. This very work of ours—which we have entitled *Refutation of the Slanderous Babblings of Certain Feeble-Minded Persons Among Our Nation*—we commit to your Patriotism, that [you] may cause it to be delivered to the printing press at the expense and through the means of your God-given resources.

MATTEOS, CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS. In the year of our Savior 1860, on the 15th of December, at Holy Ejmiatsin.