A MOHAMMEDAN CONTROVERSY.
By Editor
THE Missionary Herald for June has a paragraph which forcibly reminds one of the late controversy between Catholics and Protestants in Boston, concerning the suppression of Swinton's History, because it stated some facts regarding the sale of indulgences by Tetzel, just before the German Reformation. The paragraph is this:— "The London papers report a conflict between the Ottoman Government and the Armenian Patriarch at Constantinople. The Ottoman Government notified the Patriarch that the study of Armenian history should not be allowed in Armenian schools, but that Ottoman history must be studied. The Patriarch replied that the relations of these two branches of study were such that one could not be taught without the other, and that it was out of his power to carry out the demand of the porte. This attempt to suppress history has caused much irritation, and we must wait to see what the outcome will be." The Papacy and the Ottoman power, though opposed to one another, are both off the same piece, and the fundamental principle of both is a union of Church and State, and, as might be expected, their methods are not dissimilar. While we do not know that there is much difference between the Patriarch and the Sultan, we hope that the latter will not be able to suppress the teaching of history.