The original of the copy from which the following letter is
printed by Father Basil Sarkisean[1] in
his volume on the ‘Manichean Paulician Heresy’ (Venice, 1893, in Modern Armenian),
is preserved in a codex called the Book of Letters, which used to be in the
library of the Fathers of Antony at Constantinople. This codex was written out
in 748 of the Armenian Era = A.D. 1300, in Hromkla by Thomas the Vardapet, on
charta bombycina, from an older copy which belonged to Gregory Vkayaser in the
year 527 = A.D. 1079. The convent of Kdjav, to the Abbot of which the letter
was written, was very ancient, and was situated in the province of Mokatz.
About the year 987 accusations were made against many
Armenian monks and priests of being secret or open members of the Thonraki sect.
Among those accused was Gregory of Narek, the famous saint and author of a book
of devotions which is still in the hands of every Armenian priest. A council
was held at Ani before which he was acquitted, and, to fully exculpate himself,
he was forced to write the following letter to the Abbot of Kdjav, who
notoriously leaned to the side of the heretics.
[1] Many of Father Sarkisean’s valuable notes I translate, adding his
initials B. S.