This secured in _perpetuum_ to the Protestants the right to choose their own political chief, to transact business, to worship, to marry, to bury, and to perform all the functions of a religious organization under imperial protection. This was the Magna Charta of Protestantism in Turkey, and is called “The Imperial Protestant Charter of 1850.” This was supplemented in 1853 by an imperial firman which was sent to all governors in the provinces, as well as to the head men of the Protestant communities, requiring that the charter of 1850 be strictly enforced. The above were issued in the interests of the Protestants alone. Besides the written pledge of the sultan given to the ambassadors in 1844, there was no charter in Turkey insuring religious liberty to Mohammedans, except as the above mentioned Protestant charters admitted of such an interpretation. That was indefinite and, it was feared, did not guarantee safety to a Mohammedan who should change his faith. The European nations had demanded that the death penalty for Moslems upon changing their religion should be abolished. In February, 1856, Sultan Medjid issued what is called the Magna Charta of religious liberty in Turkey. It is entitled the Hatti Sherif (Sacred Edict) or Hatti Humayoun (Imperial Edict). It was regarded at that time as guaranteeing full religious liberty to all Turkish subjects of every creed and faith. One sentence reads, “No subject of my empire shall be hindered in the exercise of the religion that he professes, nor shall he be in any way annoyed on this account. No one shall be compelled to change his religion.” Lord Stratford assumed in his correspondence with his government that hereafter no one was to be molested on account of his religion or punished “whatever form of faith he denies.” This imperial charter was recognized by Great Britain, France, Austria, Russia, Sardinia, and Turkey, through their representatives who met in Paris in the same year to form the Treaty of Paris, to which body it was communicated by “His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan” and as “emanating spontaneously from his own will.” However, it was clearly understood that no right was conceded to the above named Powers “to interfere either collectively or separately in the relations of His Majesty, the Sultan, with his subjects nor in the internal administration of his empire.” This left Turkey the only interpreter of the document, and as sovereign in the administration of her own internal affairs, including the actual granting of religious liberty.