[NOTE:] — 58 —

[...forn]ication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well” (Acts 15:5, 6, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29). Dost thou see that in the councils under the holy Apostles, no one was able to advance his own pleasure, but the counsel of the mind and will of all was to minister unto the pleasure of the will of the Holy Spirit of God? [Wherefore] they offered prayers unto the same Spirit of God, that He might inspire and reveal His pleasure and the profit of the Church by His grace. Just as also, when they gathered together to choose someone in the place of Judas the betrayer, they set forth in their midst Joseph and Matthias, and then resorted first to prayer unto the Lord, as it is also written: “And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place” (Acts 1:24, 25). Then the divinely inspired holy Fathers recognized as the head and president in their councils the universal Head of the Church, the all-powerful and omnipotent Jesus Christ, according to His unfailing promise: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). And the Holy Spirit, God, they held as the infallible teacher of truth and the fountain of heavenly wisdom: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things” (John 14:26). Behold, the holy Patriarch Nersēs Shnorhali maketh known the fervent obligation of this spiritual council, writing thus unto Manuel, the Emperor of the Greeks: “And this shall be made worthy of you and of the saints with you through supplications unto God, so that in the future convening of our council—which [is composed] of the bishops and doctors of Greater Armenia and all regions—the Lord Himself, according to His promise, shall be in the midst, giving the word of peace into the minds and upon the tongues of all. That they may speak, not through human passion—by unprofitable dispute and vain love of victory, from which the Church hath profited nothing for so long a time—but by the counsel of the Spirit of God for the edification of souls. And as it is with us, likewise let there be among you a holy, solemn council; this counsel having begun, through Him let it find its completion. Whereby God also may be glorified in all tongues...”