(4.) Protestantism. — The most important Protestant churches in the Turkish empire are under the care of Am.erican missionary societies. The Rev. Pliny Fisk and the Rev. Levi Parsons were appointed by the Amer- ican Board in 1818 "missionaries to Palestine, and ar- rived at Smyrna in 1820. In the next year Mr. Parsons went to Jerusalem. A printing-press, designed to print books for Turkey, was set up at Malta by the Rev. Daniel Temple in 1823, and was removed in 1833 to Smyrna. The Rev. Messrs. William Goodell and Isaac Bird were stationed at Beirut, where they began the Syrian mis- sion in 1823, and opened schools the next year. In the same j-ear the circulation of the Scriptures was forbid- den by the government. The station at Jerusalem was suspended for nine years after the death of Mr. Fisk, in 1825, and the mission in Syria was suspended for a short time in 1828. It was soon resumed; the Rev. William (ioodell was ajipointed to Constantinople, and a deputation was sent to visit the Armenian populations of the empire. Mr. Goodell visited the Armenian patri- arch and ecclesiastics at Constantinople in 1831, and was at first welcomed by them. Schools were 0|)ened near Constantinople, and in 1834 stations were establish- ed at Trebizond and HmuKa. The (ireek and Armenian ecclesiastics became jealous of the progress of the mis- sions, and a strong opposition was instigated against them ; but in 1839 the new sidtan made the first of a series of concessions of reli;rious libertv. In 1841 the
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Rev. Cyrus Hamlin opened a school at Bebek, near Con- stantinople, which was the beginning of what is now Robert College.
Churches were formally organized at Constantinople, Adabazar, and Trebizond in 1!S46. In the next year the Protestants were recognised by the government as an independent community, and in 1850 they were accord- ed a charter, placing them on the same basis as the other Christian communities of the empire. In 1856 the sultan granted, and in 1860 formally proclaimed, the hatti-hunwyum by which religious liberty and equal rights were conferred upon all classes. The missions in Syria were transferred to the Board of Foreign Mis- sions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1870. Tiie churches of the American Board are distributed through a territory extending from Mosul, on the Tigris, to Monastir, in Macedonia. They are arranged into four missions, which are known as the Eastern Turkey (Armenia), Central Turkey (em- bracing the country south of the Black Sea), Western Turkey (Asia Minor), and European Turkej' (Constan- tinople, Eastern Roumelia, Bulgaria, and Macedonia) missions, and include 90 churches with 7300 mem- bers. The Presbyterian Church has 12 churches in Syria, with 716 communicants. The Synod of the Re- formed Presbyterian Church of North America has a mission at Latakia, with 94 members; the Free Church of Scotland has two missionaries, with 26 members; an independent Baptist missionary reports 11 members, and the Friends have 14 members, all in Syria. The Rev. Samuel Gobat, an agent of the Church Missionary So- ciety, went to Palestine in 1841, and was afterwards ap- pointed bishop of Jerusalem. He founded schools, which passed in 1877 under the control of the Church Mission- ary Society. This society returns 12 native Protestant coiigregationsin Palestine, having 1108 members. Other societies engaged in Palestine are the London Jewish Mission, the Jewish Mission of Berlin, the Crischona Mission, and the Kaiserswerth Deaconesses' Associa- tion.
The Methodist Episcopal Church has a mission in Bulgaria, begun in 1857, which included, in 1878, 5 stations, 38 members, and 13 probationers. The Disci- ples of Christ appointed a missionary to Constantinople in 1878. The mission of the United Presbyterian Church of North America in Egypt, after twenty-five years of development, has 9 churches and 947 communicants. The Protestant churches have in all in the empire about 385 preaching-places, more than 100 ordained mission- aries with as many churches, and about 10,000 com- municants. Besides these, the Jewish mission societies of London, the Established and Free Churches of Scot- land, and the Irish Presbyterian Church have stations and schools at Alexandria, Smyrna, Beirut, Constantino- ple, Salonica, Adrianople, and Rustchuk.
The Protestant religious work is supplemented by efficient schools of every grade. The American Board has 300 common-schools, 16 boarding-schools for girls, and 12 seminaries and training-schools, with a total at- tendance of more than 11,000 pupils; the Presbyterian Mission in Syria has 84 common-schools, 3 high-schools, and 2 female seminaries, with a total of 4097 pupils, a college, and a theological seminary ; the Reformed Pres- byterian Mission has 476 day-school scholars; the So- ciety of the British Syrian Schools and Bible Mission, 30 schools and 3000 scholars: and in Syria proper, not including Palestine or Asia Minor, there are 1 1,000 chil- dren in evangelical schools, of whom about one half are girls. In Palestine, there are under the control of the Church missionary and other societies some 36 or 37 Protestant schools, which are attended b^^ Mohamme- dan, Jewish, Druse, and Samaritan pupils. The United Presbyterians in Egypt have 39 schools, with 1893 pupils, and 6 theological students in the training-schools. The English Church schools at Cairo and Damietta have 590 pupils. Of the Jewish mission schools, those of the Church of Scotland return 1702 Jewish and other X.-Pp
than British pupils. At the Syrian Protestant College of the Presbyterian Mission at Beirut instruction is given in the English language, while the Arabic is taught as a classic. The college has a faculty of 8 professors, 120 students, and a medical department which had 23 students in 1877, and which has sent out several graduates, who are practicing as phjsicians in different parts of the empire. Robert College, near Constantinople, is not immediately connected with any Church organization, but is under Protestant direction, with a board of trustees composed of citizens of the United States. It has a faculty of 15 instructors, in- cluding American, European, Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, and Turkish professors, and registered, in 1878- 79, 151 students, among whom fifteen nationalities and all the religions prevailing in the empire were represent- ed. Instruction is given in the usual collegiate studies, and in fifteen ancient and modern languages. The col- lege has a library of 6000 volumes. Central Turkey College, at Ain tab, is also an independent Protestant in- stitution, in which instruction is given in the branches of science and literature, the English, Turkish, and Ar- menian languages.