[History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I. by Rufus Anderson]@TWC D-Link book
History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I.

CHAPTER VII
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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.
Peshtimaljian, the head of the school, was an uncommon man.

His inquisitive mind was ever gaining knowledge, and what he acquired his memory retained.

He was a critical and accurate scholar in the language and literature of his nation, and made himself familiar with the theology and history of the Eastern and Romish Churches, and with the general history of the Church from the earliest ages.
He was able to quote from the Scriptures with wonderful facility and accuracy.

His confidence in the Bible, as the true Word of God and the only standard of faith, had indeed been shaken for a while by his disgust with the superstitions of his Church, and by the low character of many of its clergy, but he had recovered from this.
Though timid and cautious to a fault, like Erasmus, and sometimes open to the charge of time-serving, he gradually led his pupils into new paths of inquiry, until they came to believe that the Church not only may err, but that it had actually erred in many of its teachings.
Peshtimaljian became convinced at length, that his pupils were consistently carrying out the principles they had learned from him, and he strongly, though still privately, encouraged them in their labors for the spiritual good of their countrymen.


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