ng them were
bishops, priests, and bankers, some of whom were to be banished
immediately. Few dared to visit the missionaries, and those only
under cover of the night. A proclamation was issued by Hagopos,
forbidding the reading of books printed or circulated by the
missionaries, and all who had such books were required to deliver
them up without delay. On the 14th of March, Der Kevork was arrested
and thrown into prison; and when respectable Armenians of Has Keuy
made application for his release, they were rudely told to mind
their own business. After lying in prison for more than a month, he
and several others were banished into the interior. A rich banker,
who had long been on friendly terms with the missionaries, was
arrested and imprisoned in a hospital as an insane person,--a method
of persecution not unfrequently resorted to in Turkey. He was
released after a week's confinement, on paying a large sum for the
college at Scutari.

Nor were the Greek ecclesiastics behind the Armenian in hostility to
the reformation. The Greek Synod and Patriarch issued a decree,
excommunicating all who should buy, sell, or read the books of the
"Luthero-Calvinists;" and condemning in like manner the writings of
Korai, the illustrious restorer of learning among the Greeks, and of
the learned Bambas, the friend of Fisk and Parsons. An imperial
firman was also published, authorizing, and even requiring, the
several Patriarchs to look well to their several communions, and to
guard them from infidelity and foreign influence; thus connecting
the Porte itself with the persecution.

A strong effort was made to procure the expulsion of the
missionaries. Multitudes were active, from diverse motives, to
secure this end. One of the most conspicuous of these was a renegade
Jew, once baptized by an English missionary, but now an infidel who
seemed to have satanic aid in the invention of slanders against
Protestants and Protestantism. Another was a disappointed infidel
teacher, whose malice and bitterness made him a fit ally for the
Jew. The enemy seemed to be having everything in his own way, and
strong was his confidence of success.

At this crisis, Divine Providence interposed. The army of the
Egyptians was on the march towards Constantinople, and the Sultan
deemed it necessary to call upon all the Patriarchs and the chief
Rabbi of the Jews, each to furnish several thousand men for his
army. It was an unprecedented demand, and occasioned g