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Some accounts have been preserved of men who devoted their lives to visiting and strengthening such churches and to preaching the Gospel, * men of Apostolic spirit, strong, patient, hurnble-minded and of an undaunted courage.
One who attached himself to these companies was Constantine, later called Silvanuis. About the year 653 an Armenian, who had been held captive by the Saracens, was released, and on his homeward journey was received and kindly entertained by Constantine in his house. The conversation between them showed the observant Armenian that he had been led to a man of unusual capacity, and seeing how deeply interested his host had become in the Scriptures which they had read together, the grateful and farseeing traveller left with his new friend a very precious gift-a MS. which contained the four Gospels and the Epistles of Paul.
This book became the absorbing study of Constantine, and was the means of bringing about a radical change of life in him. He soon began to bear witness to what he had received, changed his name to that of Silvanus, the companion of the Apostle Paul, and, by attaching himself to the believers who rejected the image worship and other superstitions of the Byzantine Church, drew upon himself the anger of those in authority.
He made Kibossa in Armenia his dwelling place, and from there as a centre he worked among the various peoples round about for some thirty years, many being converted, both from among the Catholics and the heathen. His journeys brought him along the Euphrates valley, across the Taurus Mountains, and into the western parts of Asia Minor, where his successful activities attracted the attention of the Byzantine Emperor, Constantine Pogonatus.
This Emperor issued a decree (684) against the congregations of believers and against Constantine in particular, sending one of his officers, named Simeon, to put it into effect. In order to give special significance to the execution of Constantine, Simeon supplied a number of his personal friends with stones and ordered them to stone the teacher whom they had so long revered and loved.
{* "Die Paulikiamer im Byzantischen Kaiserreiche etc." Karapet TerMkrttschian Archidiakonus von Edschmiatzin
"The Key of Truth A Manual of the Paulician Church of Armenia" F. C. Conybeare.
"The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" Edward Gibbon.
"The Later Roman Empire" Prof. J. B. Bury, vol.II, c. 14.}
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