NOTE: 8

[A] COPY OF THE WATERY BABBLINGS OF CERTAIN FEEBLE-MINDED PERSONS OF OUR OWN NATION

We, the undersigned, being by nation Illuminatorian [Apostolic] Armenians, acknowledge ourselves to be submissive, obedient, and tax-paying subjects of the benevolent Great Ottoman Empire, [and] of the August Autocrat Sultan Abdul Mejid Khan. But our orthodox faith differeth from that of the Echmiadznite Armenians in the following [respects]: 1. We confess the holy Council of Chalcedon, in accordance with the three holy former councils, namely: of Nicaea, Ephesus, and Constantinople. 2. We believe that there are in Christ two perfect natures, that is, Divine and human, according to the upright confession of our holy Nerses Shnorhali, who saith: "He dieth by our nature, [yet] is confessed as the immortal God." 3. We offer full faith in the doctrine of Purgatory, in accordance with what the Holy Church singeth: "The fire is quenched, darkness is repelled . . . that there may be remission of sins." 4. We recognize as correct the wondrous Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ [to be] on the 25th of December, and the Baptism on the 6th of January; likewise the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin on the 25th of March, and also the Forty-Day Presentation on the 2nd of the month of February. Wherefore, we also celebrate these wonder-renewing solemnities together with the Greeks and with the Latins.