Under pressure brought to bear by the four named ambassadors, led by the British, the sultan on the twenty-first of March, 1844, gave a written pledge as follows: “The Sublime Porte engages to take effectual measures to prevent, henceforward, the persecution and putting to death of the Christian who is an apostate.” Two days later Abdul Medjid, in a conference with Sir Stratford, gave assurance “that henceforward neither shall Christianity be insulted in my dominions, nor shall Christians be in any way persecuted for their religion.” The giver of these pledges was not only the sultan of Turkey, but he was also the caliph of the Mohammedan world. The year 1844 is memorable in Turkey and among the Mohammedans for this record of concessions in the interests of religious liberty in Turkey, and for all races, including Moslems. In 1847 the Protestants had no standing in the Turkish empire. Nominally they were under the protection of the patriarch at Constantinople, but in fact they were without protection since their formal excommunication from the Old Church in the previous year. When their separation had been made complete, it was necessary that some recognition be secured for them from the sultan himself in order that they might continue to live in the empire. Through the British ambassador negotiations were carried on which resulted in the issuance of a firman by the grand vizier declaring that “Christian subjects of the Ottoman government professing Protestantism shall constitute a separate community with all the rights and privileges belonging to others,” and that “no interference whatever be permitted in their temporal or spiritual concerns on the part of the patriarch, monks, or priests of other sects.” This Protestant charter of 1847, as it was called, covered all Protestants who should change from the ancient Churches, but seemed studiously to avoid giving recognition to the possibility of Moslems accepting Protestantism. This charter was not issued with the imperial authority of the sultan, but only under the ministerial authority of the Porte. It was, therefore, liable to appeal at any time by either the sovereign or any succeeding ministry. In November, 1850, the reigning sultan, Abdul Medjid, granted an imperial charter to the Protestants confirming their distinct organization as a civil community and guaranteeing them religious rights and privileges equal to those granted all other religious organizations.