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At Constantinople, Der Kevork, the most learned of the fifteen priests ordained in 1833, was at the head of a school of four hundred boys, supported by his countrymen and having no connection with the mission. Kevork boldly introduced the custom of daily reading and explaining the Scriptures. He also selected twenty of his most promising scholars for the critical study of the New Testament.
A proclamation was issued by Hagopos, forbidding the reading of books printed or circulated by the missionaries, and all who had such books were required to deliver them up without delay. On the 14th of March, Der Kevork was arrested and thrown into prison; and when respectable Armenians of Has Keuy made application for his release, they were rudely told to mind their own business.
His appearance was peculiarly devout, and when the missionary brethren called upon him, some days afterwards, in one of the cloisters of the patriarchate, he was deeply impressed by what they said to him as to the responsibilities of office-bearing in the Church of Christ. This was Der Kevork,1 whose subsequent influence in promoting the reformation was by no means unimportant.
Some of these became hopeful converts, and one a preacher of the faith he had endeavored to destroy. The spirit of freedom and Christian boldness was increased. Priest Kevork and Priest Vertanes were more active than ever. Attempts to break up the mission seminary failed, because neither scholars nor parents would obey the mandate of the vakeel to withdraw from connection with the missionaries.
Having liberty of action, he devoted an hour each day to giving special religious instruction to a select class of sixty of the more advanced pupils, besides his more general teaching, and the daily good influence exerted by Der Kevork and himself.
Der Kevork spent much time in going from house to house, reading the Scriptures to the people, and exhorting them to obey the Gospel. At Broosa, the number of visitors at the house of the missionaries was increasing, and among them were two young teachers in the Armenian public school, who were specially interested in the subject of personal religion.
In preparation for this, a College had been built at Scutari, some months before, on an extended scale; and the public school in Has Keuy, superintended by Kevork, had been committed to the general supervision of one of the great bankers residing there, that it might be remodeled according to his own wishes, and made a first-rate school.
They could not afford to lose one of the leading bankers; and one of the principal opposers, finding it necessary, in a business transaction, to throw himself on his clemency, opposition ceased for a time, and a school of six hundred scholars went into successful operation, with Hohannes for its superintendent, and Der Kevork, the active priest, for one of its principal teachers.
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