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will be interesting to note that six years afterwards, when visiting the same place, sixteen were found who were believed to be earnest converts. In Broosa, too, where a mission had been established, the work was progressing finely. The first converts meant much for the cause, for they were two young teachers of influential positions, having under their tutorship many young people. But despite all hopes, this tranquility was not destined to continue long, and opposition very soon began to molest the workers. At Erzroom and at Trebizond, two mission stations of the American Board, outrages were continually perpetrated.

The Patriarch, heretofore so kindly to all mission enterprises, fearing that the movement meant an encroachment upon the National Church, declared himself in word and deed against it. In the year 1837, Patriarchal bulls were repeatedly issued threatening anathemas against all who should be found guilty of associating with missionaries or reading literature circulated by them. The Patriarch at Constantinople at that time was almost of Papal power and influence. He banished a number of Protestants from the Capital, imprisoned many and threatened to exile the missionaries, when the war between the Sultan and Mohammed Ali interfered, attracting the minds of the people to more serious problems. While we sadly lament this action of the Patriarch, we have no doubt as to his conscientiousness. He was, as he thought, protecting his people; for since the State had fallen, the

Church remained as the only bulwark of a distinctive nationality, and his fears were not ill-founded if the past is to be taken into account. Years before, the Roman Church had materially weakened the Armenian by proselyting large numbers of her members. Was the present measure, then, injudicious? We believe not.

Let us consider, too, that conservatism is the distinctive characteristic of all Oriental Christians. Ritualism, in vogue for ages, becomes sacred from use. It cannot

be denied that for centuries the conservative ritualism of the Armenian Church was a bulwark of defence against Roman and Greek heresies. The severe animosity and antagonism existing between the Eastern and Western churches is an apt illustration of the Armenian Church as well. During the siege of Constantinople by the Turks, united forces of all Christians against Mohammedans was desirable, and to this end the Papal legate was to conform the reunion of Christendom at St. Sophia. Even at this critical moment the fiery protest rose in unison with Patriarch Gennadius from all Grecian lips, "Give us Sultan's turban rather than Cardinal's hat." It is easy to imagine if this was the feeling between cognate churches, what the feeling against a church which is altogether foreign and strange would be.

Things slowly came to a crisis; the methods of persecution were many and divers. Superstitious reports of the most absurd nature were circulated everywhere and believed, until the whole Church, with but few exceptions,

changed its front to the offensive. Although in the year 1843 the Sultan, urged by Sir Stratford Canning and others, had ordered that no person should be persecuted for his religious opinions in the empire, anathemas and excommunications were repeatedly issued and produced their dire effects upon the minds of the people. With excommunication came social degradation and disgrace; the accursed one was excluded from home and relations, the bakers were forbidden to sell to him, and he was confined in prison. The terrible cruelties practiced upon the Christians in the three years following would take volumes to adequately relate. Many were the heroic souls who, still inspired with zeal, remained steadfast through the storm of conflict. The culmination of it all was the formation in 1846 of the first Armenian Evangelical Church.

However, before we enter into a detailed account of this, we propose to present a short sketch of a factor which all these years had exercised no little power as an auxiliary to the more strictly religious work. Missionaries soon discovered that if the presenting of Christianity were accompanied by educational work, much more tangible good would be accomplished. Accordingly, from almost the very outset, schools were established at nearly every mission. station; thus the education of the intellect kept pace with the higher education of the heart. These are the handmaids of civilization.

The school that probably has had the most influence in this formative and unsettled epoch was that established

at Constantinople in 1827. Indirectly the school had its origin in a farewell letter written by Jonas King, a manuscript copy of which was sent to some influential Armenians in the capitol. By this letter conviction came that reformation was necessary, and the institution referred to was founded with an eminent and learned man, Peshtimaljian, at its head.

We will not speak at length of the valuable services of this school of the mission, suffice it to say that six years later fifteen of its graduates were ordained as priests, one of them, Dere Kevork, being immediately placed at the head of another new school in the same city that had just been founded by both Turks and Armenians. Had it not been for the earnest work of the missionaries, it is doubtful whether this school would have ever come into existence.

The educational work increased in power and scope, and the following year, 1834, a high school was located at Para. Its principal was a very consecrated young man by the name of Hohannes Sahakian, who had been a short time before a student at Constantinople. While there a New Testament had fallen into his hands, and as a result he became an earnest Christian and gave some very valuable assistance in translation work at the mission. His companion, Senakerim, a teacher in the palace of the Patriarch, was converted about the same time, and also labored in a school for children at one of the stations.

But even the schools received their share of the general persecution, and as a result of the interference of the Vicar

of the Armenian Patriarch, the High School at Pera was compelled to stop its work. However, the result was not wholly evil, for another was immediately started at Hasskioy by a rich banker, with Sahakian as superintendent and Der Kevork as one of its teachers. Although this school, with an attendance of over six hundred, was recognized by the Armenian Synod and made a national institution, it was done away with the following year because of certain threatenings made by a number of hostile bankers.

The work at Smyrna was significant for a remarkable advance in a world where women are esteemed of little importance. Here a female seminary was opened, and owing to the urgent appeal of an influential citizen, besides tendering back the former aid proffered by the mission, soon became self-supporting. The influence of the school, with an attendance of about forty at the outset, cannot be estimated.

Another important educational institution was the Seminary at Bebek, a theological school, in which, besides a critical study of the Bible, were taught Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

As we mentioned before, it was not the object of the missionaries to attack the outworks of the national church, nor to found a separate body. From the first, they, along with the converted numbers, objected very seriously to being known by the designation "Protestants," or any other name that would apear as an indication of disunion.

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