Contrary to expectations, observing Moslems were attracted by the fact that the Protestants made use of neither pictures nor images in their worship, and demanded purity of life, honesty, temperance, and truthfulness in their adherents. This was to them a new phase of Christianity, one that accorded more with the Mohammedan ideas than the practises of the Catholic and Oriental Churches with which they were familiar. Among the early inquirers there were many Mohammedans. In 1835 Dr. Goodell of Constantinople wrote, “Almost every day I am visited by Mohammedans. I could very profitably devote my whole time to them.” In cases not a few, in the early days, the Turkish officials were not slow to shield the evangelical Christians from the persecutions of the officials of the old Churches. As it did not occur to the sultan that there was any danger that Moslems could look with favor upon Christianity, he was the more free to grant full religious liberty under the importunity of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, the British ambassador. It was not, therefore, a difficult matter for Sultan Abdul Medjid to issue, November 3, 1839, an imperial rescript named the _Hatti Sherif of Gul Hane_, promising to protect the life, honor, and property of all his subjects irrespective of race or religion. At that time the sultan was eager to enlist and hold the sympathy of European rulers, and believed that such a concession would materially help toward it. This directly pledged the protection of the imperial government to every subject of the empire in the exercise of his rights as a citizen, without regard to religion or sect. It was the first declaration of the Turkish government putting Christians upon a parity with Mohammedans before the law. It was a long forward step in the way of administrative reform. In August, 1843, an Armenian youth, some twenty years of age, was beheaded in the streets of Constantinople and his body exposed for three days, because he had once declared himself a Moslem and then later recanted. It seems that through fear of punishment this young man had accepted Islam and left the country. Later he returned and resumed the practises of his former religion. In spite of threats and promises, he adhered to his ancestral faith with the above results. Sir Stratford de Redcliffe did all in his power to save his life, but without success. This execution aroused the ambassadors of England, France, Russia, and Prussia, who united in a formal demand upon the sultan to abolish the death penalty for a change of religion. Hitherto, there had been full liberty to change any and all non-Moslem religions, and for any one to abandon the faith of his fathers and to embrace Islam, but the right had been denied to a Mohammedan to depart from that faith.