Scores of men, women, and children were wandering houseless, for the faith of Jesus, in the streets of the great metropolis, but they could not be left thus to suffer. Through the kindness of Mr. Allan, missionary of the Free Church of Scotland to the Jews, twenty individuals were comfortably lodged in a large building he had secured for a chapel and mission house. For the rest, the missionaries hired such tenements as could be found; at the same time providing bread for those cut off from all means of procuring their own subsistence. Nor was any time lost in appealing for aid to evangelical Christians throughout the world; and responses were received from the United States, from England, from every country in Europe, and from India; and five hundred dollars were contributed by foreign Protestant residents on the ground.
One good resulting from this evil should not be overlooked. The evangelical brethren in Constantinople had lived scattered over a territory eight or ten miles in diameter, so that they could rarely, if ever, come together. But while driven from their homes, and sheltered by the hand of Christian charity, they were, for many weeks, almost in one neighborhood, with abundant opportunity to cultivate each other's acquaintance. Most of their time, indeed, was spent in social prayer and religious conference; the effects of which were seen in a deeper interest felt for one another, and in a stronger bond of union.1
1 Christianity Revived, p. 208.
Early in March, Reschid Pasha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, called up the Armenian Patriarch, and charged him to desist from his present course. This was an important point gained. It was now virtually decided, that the evangelical subjects of the Porte could have a civil existence in Turkey, without being under the spiritual dominion of the Patriarch.1
1 Missionary Herald, 1846, p. 218.
But freedom from the Patriarch's civil power they did not actually attain until their full and formal recognition as a Protestant community. In point of fact, there was no material relief from the persecution; though the Patriarch issued a pamphlet, about this time, utterly denying that there was any. He even proclaimed from the pulpit, that religion was free in Turkey. There was no doubt a change for the better in the Turkish government, and the Patriarch was gradually learning that persecution for religious opinions was not to be allowed. Therefore he felt constrained to use every artifice, so that nothing should seem to be done contrary to law; and, if possible, so that no ambassador should be able to prove upon him an act of persecution. At that very time, however, thirty-four shops were closed in Constantinople, and their former occupants were forcibly kept from resuming their business, merely because they did not subscribe to the Patriarch's creed. This was all, however, under the pretense of law. The Patriarch was the civil head of the Armenian community, and as such was responsible to the government for every trade. No person could open a shop without a license, and each trade was incorporated, and regulated by a small committee of the most prominent persons in that business. The license came from this committee; and each one taking out a license was required to give two or more sureties for good conduct. Licenses were refused to the evangelical Armenians; or if not, they were not accepted as sureties for each other, and none others ventured to assume the relation. Thus, until the slow moving Turk discovered the abuse, the persecutor pursued his work with impunity under the broad shield of the law.
It was specially so in the interior. One of the most trying cases of persecution was that of Priest Haritûn at Nicomedia, whose conversion was mentioned in connection with that of Vertanes, more than twelve years before. When Der Vertanes was anathematized, the bishop of Nicomedia required Haritûn to write a confession of his faith, in order to show the people that he was a true son of the Armenian Church. The document was far from being satisfactory, and his letter appended to it was still less so, for in that he affirmed the Holy Scriptures to be the only infallible rule of faith and practice, and declared his willingness to receive whatever punishment was prepared for him. He was naturally timid, but now he was filled with the spirit of martyrdom. He was brought to the church on the Sabbath, and the bishop, after reading his confession, immediately pronounced him excommunicated and accursed. Two priests then violently tore his clerical robes from his shoulders, and with boisterous shouts, cried, "Drive the accursed one from the church." The excited rabble now fell upon him, and with kicks and blows thrust him into the street. All this he received with the greatest meekness, and returned to his house exceeding glad that he was counted worthy "to suffer for the name of Jesus."
The bishop then sent him a paper of recantation to sign. Refusing to do this, he was by an easy artifice, thrown into prison. Finding that he owed small sums to different individuals, the debts were all bought up by a magnate of the place, and immediate payment was required. Being unable to meet the demand, as it was well known he would be, he was cast into prison. It was under sanction of the law. After thirteen days, he was conducted by a soldier to the bishop's palace, where the Patriarch's creed was offered for his signature. When they could not persuade him to sign it, he was threatened with the loss of his beard, which was considered the greatest indignity to a priest. He replied, "For the wonderful name of Christ, I am, God helping me, ready even to shed my blood." A barber was called in, and not only his beard, but all the hair from his head was shaved off. They then tore his clerical cap, and cast it into a filthy corner of the street, together with the hair and beard. A mob of boys now fastened the beard and the disfigured cap to the end of a long pole, and paraded through all the wards of the city, shouting, "Heads out! behold the cap of the accursed Haritûn." He was afterwards sent back to prison, the soldiers leading him by a circuitous route to prolong his sufferings, and the mob continually following him with opprobrious language. "I entered the prison," he wrote to a native brother, "with a joyful heart, committing myself to God, and giving glory to Him, that He had enabled me to pass through fire and sword, and brought me to a place of repose."
The Turkish governor of the prison, moved by pity, immediately released the unoffending old man. Passing through a Turkish burying ground, he reached his home unobserved. It was the Sabbath day, and he says, "Being delivered from the hands of reckless men, I fell down on my face about the eighth hour, with my wife alone, and gave glory to God that He had accounted me worthy of such an honor, which I formerly avoided, but now by his grace he has made me cheerfully to receive, though I am altogether unworthy. He has kept me for such a day."
Haritûn's inability to pay his debts subjected him to a second imprisonment; but as his cup increased in bitterness, his resolve was the more firmly fixed, never to deny his Lord and Saviour. His spotless reputation, and his meekness in suffering, procured for him many friends, even among the Mohammedans.1