CHAPTER XXXI.
THE BULGARIANS OF EUROPEAN TURKEY.
1857-1862.
The geographical position of European Turkey brings it directly in contact with European civilization. Its interior may easily be reached from the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmora, the Dardanelles, the Grecian Archipelago, the Adriatic Sea, and from the Danube flowing down from the heart of Europe. The Mohammedan population is estimated at four millions, and three fourths of these are supposed to be of Christian origin, and less firmly wedded to the Moslem faith than the remaining million of Osmanly Turks. And even these, born and educated on the borders of Europe, in the midst of divers Christian races, must form a character different from that of the Asiatic Turks in other parts of the empire.
Of the various races in European Turkey, the Bulgarians, properly so called, who are estimated at four millions, speaking the Bulgarian language, claim our first attention. They inhabit not only Bulgaria proper, extending from the Danube to the Balkan Mountains, but also an extensive region south of these mountains, reaching to the Bosphorus, the Marmora, and Albania; and embracing a good part of ancient Thrace, Albania, and Macedonia.[1]
[1] On the map, this country is called Bulgaria, Roumelia, and Macedonia. Roumelia, formerly called Moldavia and Wallachia, north of the Danube, is peopled by a race supposed to be descended from the old Roman military colonies. The language has an affinity to the Latin. Servia is peopled by Slavs, who speak substantially the same language with the Bulgarians. The population of Roumania is estimated at 3,864,000, and that of Servia at 1,078,000.
The Bulgarians are of Slavonic origin, and their race is among the oldest in Europe. In the latter part of the fifth century they crossed the Danube, and gave their name to the country between that river and the Balkan Mountains. In subsequent ages they extended their conquests into Thrace and Macedonia, and, encamping before the walls of Constantinople, sought to drive the Byzantine emperors into Asia Minor. In 712, the Bulgarian troops defeated the armies of the Eastern Roman Empire, and laid siege to Constantinople. Three years later their king concluded a commercial treaty with the Emperor Theodosius III. which is said to have remained in force for a long time. In the year 814 the Bulgarians again invaded the Roman Empire, captured Adrianople, and carried a bishop named Manuel, with others of the citizens, into captivity. This person formed the companions of his captivity into a church, and they remained true to their faith, and labored earnestly for its spread. Having made proselytes among the Bulgarians, the bishop and many of the captives suffered martyrdom. Somewhat later, a captive monk, named Constantine Cypharas, endeavored to carry forward the work thus commenced; but the Greek empress, Theodora, for some special reasons, was led to redeem this monk, and procure his return to his native country. At this juncture, a sister of the Bulgarian king Bogoris was residing at Constantinople, whither she had been conveyed as a captive in early youth, and where she had been educated as a Christian, and the effort to secure the return of the monk resulted in her being sent back to her friends. She now labored to gain over the king, her brother, to the Christian faith. Circumstances at length favored her pious efforts, and she sent for Methodius of Thessalonica, a monk and a skilful painter. He was afterwards joined by his older brother Constantine, or Cyrill, surnamed the Philosopher, on account of his learning. Cyrill reduced the Slavonic language to writing, taught the barbarous nation the use of letters, and translated the Scriptures into that language. In the year 861 he baptized king Bogoris. The king undertook to force his people to change their religion and they revolted. He succeeded in suppressing the rebellion, and showed the superficial nature of his Christianity by the cruel revenge he took on the leaders of the revolt. Then the nation followed the lead of their king, and has ever since been nominally Christian. Neander says, that Cyrill was distinguished from all other missionaries of that period, by not yielding to the prejudice which regarded the languages of the rude nations as too profane to be employed for sacred uses, and by not shrinking from any toil which was necessary to master the language of the people among whom he labored.
The Bulgarians wavered for a time, according to the sway of their political interests, between the Greek and Latin Churches, until finally they decided wholly in favor of the former, and a Greek archbishop and bishops were set over them.[1]
[1] Neander's Ecclesiastical History, vol. iii. pp. 307-316, Torrey's Translation; and Dr. Murdock's Note to p. 51 of Mosheim's Institute of Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii.
In the year 924, Simeon, the Bulgarian monarch, compelled the Byzantine Emperor, Romanus I., to recognize the National Church of Bulgaria as wholly independent of the Greek Hierarchy. This independence, after about fifty years, was partially destroyed by a Greek Emperor; and in 1018, Basil II. restored the supremacy of the Patriarch of Constantinople. The kingdom was revived in the latter part of the twelfth century, but was again overthrown in 1393, by the Sultan Bajazet I. Mohammed II., when he subverted the Eastern Empire in 1453, made the religious chiefs of the Christian sects responsible, not only for the spiritual administration of their respective flocks, but also for that of a large share of their temporal affairs,—such as public education, civil suits, contracts, wills, and the like. The Bulgarians appear for a time not to have been formally recognized by the Turks as belonging to the Greek Church, and of course were not subject to its Patriarch; but the Fanariote Greeks succeeded at last in making the Porte believe that, being of the same religion with the Greeks, they should be placed under the direct authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople; and this was effected in the year 1767. Thus the Bulgarians lost their religious independence.
Since then, they have ever cherished an intense dislike of the Greek bishops, whose aim has always been to extinguish every remnant of national feeling, and obliterate all traces of their origin. They earnestly desired to have the Bible and the church-services in their own vernacular language, while the Greek Patriarch and his bishops insisted upon using only the ancient Greek. The people desired to have their children taught in the schools through the language of their own homes, while the bishops insisted that the instruction should be in the Greek language. They desired that their bishops and other ecclesiastics should be chosen from among themselves; but the Patriarch forced upon them Greek bishops, men of a foreign tongue, and foreign habits and sympathies, whose whole aim was to keep the people under the galling yoke of ecclesiastical tyranny.[1]
[1] Missionary Herald, 1858, p. 322.
What the Bulgarian people specially desired was ecclesiastical independence; and, in order to be freed from their forced dependence on the Greek Patriarchate, their leading men sometimes inclined to go over to the Pope. This of course was favored by the intrigues of the Jesuits, and politically by all the power of France. This awakened state of mind led many to examine the teachings of Scripture, and compare them with those of the Greek and Papal Churches; and some made inquiries of the missionaries at the several stations, as to Protestantism; and the question naturally arose, whether it would not be as well to become Protestants, as Roman Catholics.
The Greek Patriarch was decided and bold. In 1861, he summoned the Bulgarian bishops to appear and answer for themselves before his great ecclesiastical Council at Constantinople; but they refused, declaring that they owed him no allegiance. The summons was thrice repeated, but in vain; whereupon the bishops were anathematized, and it was resolved to banish them to Mount Sinai. This was prevented by the interference of the Protestant Ambassadors, and the Bulgarians rallied to the defense of their bishops. Three thousand of them gathered at one time in one of their churches in the metropolis, and were prevented from proclaiming a Free Bulgarian Church only by the intervention of the Turkish government. Meanwhile the Bulgarian nation was agitated with the discussion of religious doctrines and ecclesiastical relations, and the Papists flooded the land with their publications. When the anathema against the bishops was sent to the Bulgarian towns, the people in some places would not allow it to be read, and publicly burnt it. They even caused a counter anathema to be read against the Greek Church. They doubtless regarded this matter as wholly a religious one; but, in an evangelical point of view, it was little more than a national movement for securing their rights. Sentiments were sometimes uttered, however, which strongly reminded one of the commencement of the Reformation in Germany. "The religion of the Greeks," says Mr. Crane, "has been denounced as contrary to the Bible, and the Scriptures eulogized and recommended to the people. In their printed speeches we have seen no instance, in which they have called upon Mary and the saints for protection, but many in which they have called upon God to vindicate their cause."
Roumelia was partially explored in 1857 by Dr. Hamlin, accompanied by the Rev. Henry Jones, Secretary of the Turkish Missions Aid Society, then visiting our missions in Turkey. From Rodosto to Adrianople, a distance of seventy-two miles, they saw but few Bulgarian villages. Yet what came within their observation was of special interest, "Wherever we saw flocks, we saw Bulgarian shepherds; and wherever we saw cultivation, we saw Bulgarian laborers. They are indeed spread all over Roumelia, as laborers and shepherds, and the industry of the country is in their hands. The land is generally of excellent quality. It lies spread out in beautiful levels, and undulating, gently rising hills. In the neighborhood of villages it is covered with rich fields of grain, but elsewhere, for successive miles, it is roamed over by flocks of sheep, which, however, cannot crop a tithe of the grass. It is a beautiful region, waiting for the taste and intelligence of virtuous industry to make it a paradise."
We have also a charming view given us of the hundred miles of country between Adrianople and Philippopolis, as it presented itself to the travellers in the opening of spring. "The Greek race disappears entirely from the soil, and the predominant race is the Bulgarian. So entirely unconscious are the people of the Balkan's being the boundary, that when I spoke of Bulgaria, I was repeatedly corrected by the remark, 'You are now in Bulgaria.' The soil along our route is of the finest quality, and large villages were occasionally seen on our right and left, with magnificent views of cultivated lands and vast pastures, the snowy Balkan summits bounding the north, and lower ranges of hills the south. The fields, clothed in the brightest verdure of spring, gave promise of unsurpassed abundance; and in view of the inspiring scenes before us, we could not forbear exclaiming, with the Psalmist: 'Thou crownest the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drop fatness. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.'"
Dr. Hamlin speaks thus of the people: "In the midst of this fertility, we had only to cast the eye upon one of the villages in order to feel that cruel oppression and spiritual darkness are upon the people. In some of the Bulgarian villages we saw no window, nor even a place for one, in a single house. The country being destitute of forest trees, there is no timber, except what is brought from a great distance, and so they construct their dwellings of the lightest material possible. They are generally of wicker work, plastered within with mud. A large mud chimney and a door are the only openings. And yet the Bulgarians, in these miserable cottages, are the cleanliest people in the world. Excepting the rice cultivators, who dress expressly for their muddy work, we saw not a ragged Bulgarian between Adrianople and Philippopolis. Their clothes are of home manufacture, coarse, strong, whole, and clean. The unembarrassed, kind, respectful bearing of the people, men, women, and children, must impress the most cursory observer. An impudent laugh, an over-curious gaze, or a rude remark, we did not meet with from old or young. We could hardly say this after going ten steps into a Greek or Turkish village."
The favorable report made by Dr. Hamlin to his mission, awakened much interest, and it was resolved, "That the Bulgarian and other Slavonic races inhabiting European Turkey, call loudly for immediate and vigorous missionary efforts; and being providentially thrown upon the American churches as the chosen instrumentality for evangelizing them, are worthy of their most devoted patronage."
The mission was commenced with the understanding, that the operations of the American Board would be in the country south of the Balkan Mountains; while the missionaries of the American Methodist Episcopal Church were to occupy stations north of these mountains. The Methodist brethren desired the aid of one of the older missionaries at Constantinople in the selection of their first station, and Mr. E. E. Bliss accompanied them. They visited Varna, Shumla, Rasgrad, and Rustchuk, and decided upon occupying the first and second of these places. The acquaintance thus formed between the two missions was ever after a source of mutual pleasure and profit. Mr. Bliss thus concludes a report of his visit:—
"This, my first acquaintance with the Bulgarians, has given me a very favorable opinion of them. Others have expressed a different opinion, but I should rank them before the Armenians in native intelligence and cultivation. Certainly a higher degree of civilization prevails among them, than among the Armenians of Asia Minor. They have better homes, better vehicles, better implements of husbandry. Wherever we went, we found much to remind us that we were in Europe, and not in Asia. Our road from Varna to Rustchuk was bordered by the posts and wires of the telegraph. Every town had its telegraphic station and corps of operators—French, English, and Polish gentlemen. More than once, through their unsolicited kindness, our approach to a stopping place was announced by the wire, and we found lodgings made ready against our coming. This, to me, was quite a strange feature of missionary travelling, very unlike my experience in Asia Minor."
The Rev. Charles F. Morse, who joined the Armenian mission in 1857, was appointed to commence the mission. Leaving his family at Constantinople until he had completed his arrangements, he proceeded to Adrianople in March, 1858, with Hagopos, a graduate of the Bebek Seminary, as an assistant. The population of Adrianople was then estimated at one hundred and forty thousand, of whom forty thousand were supposed to be Turks. The books in the Turkish language found in Mr. Morse's baggage, including a large number of New Testaments, were at first detained at the custom-house, under instructions from the Porte, but were released upon application of the American and English Consuls. His bookseller obtained a firman for the sale of books, and freely exposed the Turkish Testament, and Mr. Morse was himself allowed free access to the largest and finest of the mosques,—a favor not granted at the capital.
The most formidable opposition apprehended was from the Romish missionaries. They had been quick to see a double advantage in the disaffection of the Bulgarians with the Greek Church, and the fall of the Russian Protectorate, and had already erected a fine church. The French residents, their consul, and even the English consular agent, were Catholics. An intelligent Bulgarian expressed the opinion that Protestant missions furnished the only possible safeguard against Rome in that country, and one of the best informed of the American missionaries declared his belief, that the greatest contest of Protestantism with Rome, since the era of the Reformation, would be in Turkey.
The Rev. Theodore L. Byington and wife joined the mission in 1858, and were stationed at Adrianople. In the next year, the mission was strengthened by the arrival of Rev. Messrs. William W. Meriam and James F. Clark and their wives, who commenced a station at Philippopolis, in ancient Thrace. The Rev. William F. Arms and wife arrived in 1860, and were associated with Mr. Byington in a new station at Eski Zagra, seventy-five miles northwest from Adrianople, sixty northeast from Philippopolis, and twenty miles south of the Balkan Mountains. Mr. Oliver Crane was transferred from the Western Turkey Mission to Adrianople, in 1860. The population of Philippopolis was estimated at about sixty thousand, of whom twenty thousand were Bulgarians, sixteen thousand Mohammedans, fourteen thousand Greeks, and five thousand Jews. Surrounding the city, there were, within a circuit of thirty or forty miles, more than three hundred villages, including a large population, mostly Bulgarians. These villages were easy of access, and some of them would afford a healthy retreat in summer. There were numerous mosques, and five Greek and three Bulgarian churches. The Romanists were building a large church edifice. The situation of Eski Zagra was at the northern extremity of a luxuriant and beautiful plain, and contained ten thousand Bulgarians and eight thousand Turks.
Mr. Byington found a remarkable zeal for education. There were in the town six Bulgarian schools for boys, with eight hundred scholars, and four for girls with one hundred and thirty-five scholars; and in the surrounding villages there were eleven schools, with three hundred pupils. For the two principal schools they had spacious buildings, that would grace a New England town. The teachers were gentlemenly men, and enthusiastic in their work. This class of teachers had generally received their education abroad, for the most part in Russia, where they could secure it without expense. They were earnest in their efforts to introduce a higher civilization, and gave the missionaries a cordial reception. It was otherwise with the priests.
The readiness of the Bulgarians to receive the New Testament in their spoken language, is deserving of special note. An English gentleman, at one of the fairs in 1857, sold four hundred copies, which was all he had. Several editions were printed under the direction of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and were exhausted in 1859. At least fifteen thousand copies had been distributed, chiefly by sale, and the demand did not seem diminished. Mr. Byington reports at Eski Zagra in September, 1860, that, at the examination of one of the schools, each of twelve members of the most advanced class was presented by the Trustees with a handsome copy of the Bible Society's edition of the New Testament. Subsequent experience tended somewhat to diminish the value of such facts.
A church was formed at Adrianople, on the first Sabbath in 1862, with a mixed membership. Pastor Apraham, already known to the reader in connection with the church at Rodosto, came by invitation, with one of his deacons, to assist in its formation; as also did the missionaries from Eski Zagra.
Mr. Meriam at the close of 1861, stated as the results of observations in his recent tours, that in villages and towns where colporters had penetrated with the Word of Life, the people were no longer afraid of Protestants, but respected and confided in them; while they venerated and clung to their own form of religion; and that the obvious way to benefit the people, spiritually and temporally, most thoroughly and speedily, was to have suitable native helpers quietly settled in such villages. His account of some of the incidents on these tours will prepare the reader to sympathize with this excellent missionary, and his estimable wife, in the sad events soon to be narrated.
"On reaching Tatar Bazarjik, the family of one of our boarding scholars would not permit me to go to a public khan, but insisted that I should go to their house. I accepted the kind invitation, and while with them, at their request, conducted family worship, morning and evening. Visited a dozen families and was cordially welcomed by all. In walking the street, one morning, I heard a voice from a shop inviting me to come in, and on entering found a company of Bulgarians, with their faces all aglow with the questions they had to ask. A number of persons collected from other shops, and after an hour, all seemed still unwilling that the conversation should be broken off. Their questions showed an intelligent desire for light on the true way of salvation."
"Early Sabbath morning, a number of Bulgarians came to our room at the khan (at Otluk-Keuy), and began to ask questions about Christ, the Virgin Mary, the New Testament, Popery, Protestantism, the ceremonies of the Greek Church, etc., etc. The number of persons increased until we had an audience of forty. They gave us no time to eat until nightfall; and in the evening nine more came, and seemed convinced of the truth. We spent a week in this village. Wine is drank largely, and most of the young men are very wild, but we found some whose conversation encouraged us much. For example, there are three who hold regular meetings for the study of the New Testament on Sabbaths and fast days. Such questions as they cannot solve for themselves they reserve, until some one who can, passes through their village. They have become fully aware, by their study of the New Testament, that the Greek Church is not the one established by the Apostles. One of their earnest questions was, 'Can we find salvation in the Greek Church?' We found one enlightened priest in this village, and spent a half day conversing with him. He informed us that he was endeavoring to have the church service in the vulgar tongue, so that all might understand. He quotes Scripture readily, and is doing much good. All the other priests are miserable wine drinkers. On my refusing the invitation of one of these to drink with him, he exclaimed in astonishment, 'What! are you not a Christian'?"