er able to maintain his right. The last ambassador of that country
representing Napoleon III., had even supported the pretensions and favored
the machinations of the Kupelianites. The Porte was induced to treat
Hassoum as a seditious person, and banished him from the country. The
exile found his way to Rome, where he was kindly received by Pius IX. He
did not return to Constantinople till 1876. Meanwhile, persecution was
cruelly carried on. Bishops were expelled from their sees, rectors from
their parishes, churches, monasteries and hospitals were seized by force
of arms. At Damascus, Broussa, Sinope, Mardyn, Mossoul, all the principal
towns of the Ottoman Empire, Armenian Catholics were forcibly driven from
their churches, in order to make room for mere handfuls of Kupelianists.
The persecution extended as far as Cairo. At Augora, twelve thousand
Armenian Catholics were dispossessed in favor of twelve dissenters, one of
these twelve being an apostate monk, the delegate of Kupelian. At Adana,
the church, the school, and the residence of the Catholic Armenian bishop,
with all the revenues attached thereto, became the prey of two
individuals, a priest and a lay person. At Trebizonde, the bishop was
expelled by Russian bayonettes, and died of grief. The value of property
taken from Catholics is estimated at one hundred millions of livres. For
what, it may be asked, was the power of an empire exercised, and so much
robbery perpetrated? In favor, at least, one would say, of some important
sect? No such thing. It was all for the would-be Kupelian schism, seven
hundred strong. It is needless here to say how soon the degenerate Sultan,
Abdul Aziz, and his prevaricating empire met their reward, whilst the
legitimate Armenian patriarch, Hassoum, so long the victim of persecution,
has been restored, is honored by the government of his country and held in
the highest esteem by the Chief Pastor of the Christian fold. All this was
foretold by Pius IX., although, indeed, the Holy Pontiff pretended not to
utter a prophecy. In a letter intended for the consolation of the banished
Archbishop of Mardyn, in Mesopotamia, and the Armenian Catholics, he says:
"It behooves us not to lose courage, nor to believe that the triumph of
iniquity will be of long continuance. For, does not the Scripture say:
'The wicked man is caught in his own perversity; he is bound by the chains
of his crimes, and he who digs a pit for others will fall into it himself: