Volume I Part 21 (1/2)
It was specially so in the interior. One of the most trying cases of persecution was that of Priest Haritn 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 Haritn to write a confession of his faith, in order to show the people that he was a true son of the Armenian Church. The doc.u.ment 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 p.r.o.nounced 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, G.o.d 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 Haritn.” 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 G.o.d, and giving glory to Him, that He had enabled me to pa.s.s 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. Pa.s.sing through a Turkish burying ground, he reached his home un.o.bserved. 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 G.o.d 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.”
Haritn'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
1 _Missionary Herald_, 1846, pp. 219-223, 366.
It deserves to be recorded, that the magnate who secured his imprisonment, was thrown from his horse, not long after, and received a fracture of the skull, from which he died; and his splendid mansion was subsequently consumed by fire.
After having thus cruelly treated Priest Haritn, the bishop summoned the evangelical brethren before him, as a body, and so wrought upon their fears, that they all agreed to sign the paper of recantation. Some of them, however, declared to the bishop, at the time, that they should continue to read the Gospel, and come together for prayer; and he a.s.sured them, that he merely wanted their signatures as a matter of form, and that they should be left at liberty to believe and act as they pleased. But they lost all peace of mind from that moment, until they had abjured their recantation, and publicly declared their determination to abide by the doctrines of the Gospel, even unto death. This was in March, 1846. They were all soon after excommunicated.
At Adabazar, there was much suffering. Four of the brethren were seized for debt, and thrown into prison. The Protestants were a.s.sailed with hootings and curses. Fresh outrages were of daily occurrence. A native brother, named Hagop, on his way from Adabazar to a village an hour distant, was pa.s.sed by one of the persecutors on horseback, who turned upon him and cruelly beat him. Returning home with eyes and forehead swollen and blackened, and his limbs b.l.o.o.d.y from the blows he had received, he was taken by his friends to the Turkish governor, and two Turks came in as witnesses; but the governor refused to give him a hearing. Soon after, the houses of the brethren were stoned, and some of them were imprisoned on false pretenses, while the governor and judge, though perfectly aware of these things, cared not for them. Emboldened thus, the chief ruler of the Armenians headed a band of about fifty desperate fellows, and went in the evening to the house of Hagop, who had been beaten a few days before, broke down the door, rushed up-stairs, and, in the presence of his family, beat him on his nose and mouth, and wherever else the blows happened to fall, and threw him down stairs. They there beat him again, pushed him into the street, and dragged him to a place of confinement. Other brethren were subjected to similar violence, until the mob became so outrageous that the governor and judge were obliged to interfere.1
1 _Missionary Herald_, 1846, p. 270.
At Trebizond, a young man, refusing to sign the recantation, was beaten on the soles of his feet, the vartabed aiding with his own hands in inflicting the blows. He was afterwards thrown into a miserable stable as a prison; water was plentifully poured upon the cold, damp ground on which he stood with mangled feet; his hands were tied behind him by the two thumbs; a rope was pa.s.sed under his shoulders and fastened to a beam over his head; and in this torturing condition he was left to stand during the night. Orders were also issued that no one should give him food. After being kept here nearly two days, with some mitigations, and repeatedly importuned to sign the recantation, with terrific threatenings in case he did not, the sufferer was induced to yield. The ecclesiastics were encouraged by this to bastinado and imprison all who refused to comply. Those who could, fled to the house of the missionary, and ten men were at one time lodged in the chapel, and fed at his table.
This mode of proceeding could not continue. The British Consul interposed and gave information to the Pasha, who arrested the barbarous proceedings, and virtually advised the brethren to secede from their persecuting Church. Mr. Powers thought the effect of these sufferings had been salutary on all the brethren.1
1 _Missionary Herald_, 1806, [sic, 1846?] pp. 298-300.
Another case occurred at the remote station of Erzroom, and I mention it because of the extreme violence of the persecutors, though regretting that they partially gained their point. The man was a recent convert, but his answers when interrogated, were so judicious and decisive, and so sustained by Scripture proofs that his adversaries were unable to reply. The main question was, whether he would wors.h.i.+p the sacred pictures. This he refused to do, whereupon he was severely bastinadoed; and afterwards some of the priests kicked him, spat in his face, and smote him on the face, till the blood gushed from his nose and mouth. He was then put in chains, and thrust into a cold prison, without being allowed water to wash the blood from his face, though he earnestly requested it.
During the evening two priests went to his prison, and he begged them to secure his removal to a stable. They called him a dog, and told him he could receive no favor unless he submitted in everything. This he said he could never do. He was afterwards removed to a stable, and the next day was brought before his persecutors and required to sign a creed they had drawn up. This he did, after the most objectionable parts had been erased. Emboldened by this, and by the refusal of the Pasha to protect the sufferer, the ecclesiastics next Sabbath ordered the same man to appear before them, and he was immediately thrust into prison. In the evening he was taken into the church and brought before the altar, where, in the presence of a great mult.i.tude, curses were heaped upon him without measure. The vartabed who performed this service, used language fitted to stir up the worst pa.s.sions of the people; many of whom being partially intoxicated, became so enraged that when the brother was conducted to the vartabed's room they grossly abused him, not only by words, but by blows and spitting in his face. They crowded the door, declaring that he was worthy of death, and that they were ready to shed his blood, even if for so doing, they should have to shed their own, and it was with difficulty they were prevented from rus.h.i.+ng upon him. Indeed some actually entered and kicked him on the head as he was seated on the floor, without one word of rebuke from the ecclesiastics. Their object was to compel him to sign a paper recently sent them by the Patriarch. He told them he could never heartily sign such a paper. ”No matter about your _heart_,” they exclaimed, ”perform the outward act.” In consequence of this remark, and terrified by the mob, which seemed panting to lay violent hands upon him, and into the midst of whom he was to be thrust if he did not sign his name, he at length yielded, and the next morning his sentence of excommunication was revoked.
A month later, this man much regretted having done so, even under such a pressure, and had no thought of abandoning the new religious life. He continued his efforts to enlighten the dark minds of those to whom he had access, though by so doing, he exposed himself to new trials.1
1 Mr. Peabody, in Missionary Herald, 1846, pp. 265-267.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE ARMENIANS.
1846-1848.
We are now in the middle of the year 1846. Hitherto no one has voluntarily separated himself from the Armenian community. The so-called ”schismatics” were made such by the exscinding act of the Patriarch himself. For nearly six months anathemas had been dealt out in the patriarchal church every Sabbath until many of the people grew weary of them. Through ecclesiastical influence, bread and water were still withheld from many Protestant families by the dealers in those articles, and everything was done that could be done with impunity to afflict those who remained steadfast in the truth; nor did the Patriarch or the magnates give them any hope of relief, except through unconditional submission to their demands.
Their only earthly hope was in the Protestant Amba.s.sadors, and in Reschid Pasha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Sir Stratford Canning, the English Amba.s.sador, whose n.o.ble efforts for religious liberty in Turkey are worthy of all praise, did not cease urging the government to secure to their Protestant subjects the right of pursuing their lawful callings without molestation. As to sureties for those who were excluded from their shops and business, he represented that the demands of the law might be met by their becoming sureties for one another. He at length succeeded, and Reschid Pasha, who soon became Grand Vizier, gave orders that the Protestants be permitted to resume their business on this condition.
A new officer was put in the place of the one who had turned a deaf ear to their pet.i.tions. When summoned before him, they declared themselves to be Armenians, and he told them it was ”Protestants,”
whom he was to allow to open their shops. They had never adopted that name, as it had been applied to them by their enemies by way of reproach,--as probably the term ”Christian” was to the disciples at Antioch,--but called themselves the ”Gospellers,” or ”Evangelists.”
But now, whether they wished it or not, they were constrained to adopt the designation of ”Protestants.”
A letter from the Grand Vizier, written at this time to the Pasha of Erzroom, also recognized them as Protestants. It was the first doc.u.ment issued by the Turkish government for their protection, and began with stating, that certain Armenians at Erzroom, who had embraced the Protestant faith, were represented to the government as suffering various forms of persecution, from which they prayed to be delivered. The Grand Vizier says that the same thing had occurred at the capital, where the Protestants, having been anathematized by the Patriarch, were cut off from both social and commercial intercourse with their countrymen. While the Sultan would not interfere with the spiritual duties of the Patriarch, he could not allow his Protestant subjects to be hindered in their lawful pursuits. As the Armenian Primate had converted the law, requiring every subject entering into business to provide sureties for his good behavior, into an instrument of oppression, by refusing to accept Protestants as sureties for each other, the Pasha was to see that they had the same liberty, in this respect, as was enjoyed by their countrymen. This was their privilege at Constantinople, and the Grand Vizier hoped the Pasha of Erzroom would secure the same for them in his province.