“In 1834 these schools had two thousand scholars, and though supported by the people, yet, having been established by the advice and assistance of the mission, their influence was great in its favor, till the monks and priests began to preach violently against the mission and schools, ‘_and even against the patriarch for favoring them_.’ But it was too late to destroy their influence. The Armenians had become roused by the spreading light,” and “in 1835 the revival of learning and piety among the Armenians continued to advance hand in hand.”[95] The Seminary at Bebek in 1840 commenced with three scholars. The following year the number of the students had increased to twenty-four, and many had been refused for want of funds. A few years later a female seminary was started at Pera, Constantinople, and this had a wonderful effect upon the community. Education of the female, neglected for centuries, began to revive in the East, even the adult women and matrons attempted to learn to read their Bibles and they generally succeeded well. “Fifty adult females have begun to learn to read during the year; more than fifty have already learned to read well, and many others are in the process of learning.” Wherever the missionaries went there they started schools, and these schools were not only the centers from which the light of truth radiated around, but they also became in many places nuclei for new churches. The Bebek Seminary, in 1854, reported its number of students as fifty, and “its former pupils are employed as preachers, teachers, translators, and helpers in many places.” In the following year the demand for teachers and preachers from the seminary was so great that other schools were started--one at Tokat, and another at Aintab. The number of free schools had increased this year (1855) to thirty-eight, and the whole number of pupils nine hundred and sixty. It was in the same year that the American Board sent the Rev. Dr. Anderson and Thompson to India and Turkey. In the previous year the Baptist Missionary Society also had sent its deputation to India. “The result of these delegations was that the character of the education of nearly all the missionary institutions of the highest grade was wholly changed. The English language was proscribed and the curriculum of studies reduced to a vernacular basis. Many schools were closed and some missionaries came home, and considerable friction was occasioned, but the new system was rigidly enforced.”[96] Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, Dr. H. J. Van Lennep, and some other missionaries advocated the importance of a thorough education and the knowledge of the English language for the native ministry, believing that “no country was ever reformed but by its sons, and that for such a great work a better education IS necessary.” They, however, met not a little opposition from the Board and some of their associates in the mission.