summoned before their ecclesiastical rulers
for this purpose. The creed contained the worst errors of Popery.
The recantation required was, in substance, a confession that "being
deceived by the enticements of Satan" they had "separated from the
spotless bosom of the holy Church," and had "lovingly joined the
impious New Sectaries," which they now saw to be "nothing else but
an invention of arrogance, a snare of Satan, a sect of confusion, a
broad road which leadeth to destruction." Wherefore repenting of
their "impious deeds," they "fled again to the bosom of the
immaculate and holy Armenian Church," and confessed that "her faith
is spotless, her sacraments divine, her rites of apostolic origin,
her ritual pious," and promised to receive "whatever this same holy
Church receiveth, whether it be a matter of faith or ceremony," and
to "reject with anathemas whatever doctrines she rejects."1

1 Appendix to _Christianity Revived in the East_, p. 272.

The persecutions designed to enforce this bold and cruel measure,
both at Constantinople and elsewhere, were too numerous to be fully
set forth in this history. It appears, from a statement drawn up by
the missionaries at Constantinople, that nearly forty persons, in
that city alone, had their shops closed and their licenses taken
away, and were thus debarred from laboring for an honest livelihood.
Nearly seventy were ejected from their own hired houses, and
sometimes from houses owned by themselves, and were thus exposed as
vagabonds, to be taken up by the patrol and committed to prison; and
could find shelter only in houses provided for the emergency at
Pera, or Galata, through the charity of Europeans or Americans. To
increase the distress, bakers were forbidden to furnish them with
bread, and water-carriers to supply them with water. Thirty or more
persons were exiled, imprisoned, or bastinadoed, on no other charge
than their faith. Many were compelled to dissolve partnerships, and
bring their accounts to a forced settlement, involving their utter
ruin. Where the agents of the Patriarch ascertained that debts were
due from the anathematized to faithful sons of the Church, the
latter, however reluctant, were compelled to urge an immediate
settlement.1

1 _Annual Report_ for 1846, p. 98.

Dr. Dwight gives us a glimpse of the working of the Anathema in the
following narrative: "At one time the Patriarch called before him
several of the leading Protestants, and sought to