THE PROTEST ANT CHURCH in KOREA A. the First Protestant Efforts in Korea the History of the Protestant Churches in Korea Begins
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CHAPTER FIVE THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN KOREA A. The First Protestant Efforts in Korea The history of the Protestant churches in Korea begins with certain mis sionary probes which were made from the first third of the nineteenth century onwards. All of these early moves were seen as an extension of the work of various missionary bodies in China. One also gathers from reading the various sources that these early Protestant missionaries were comparatively ignorant of the development of the Roman Catholic Church in Korea. The first Protestant missionary who is known to have made efforts to begin evangelism in the peninsula was Carl FA Gutzlaff (1803 to 1851). A native of Pomerania, and a graduate of the theological school at Halle, Gutzlaff originally served with the Netherlands Missionary Society until 1828 when he resigned from their service. Eventually, he went to Macao, were he renewed his frendship with the great Chinese missionary, Robert Morrison (1782 to 1834). Between the years 1831 to 1833, Gutzlaff undertook several exploratory trips along the coast of China to evaluate the possibility of commencing mission work there. Later, during the years 1833 to 1839, he conducted further explorations and, follow ing the conclusion of the Opium War, created the China Union in 1843. This organization was to be an evangelistic society using native evangelists, and is often referred to as the 'grandfather' of the China Inland Mission. Gutzlaff's untimely death in 1851 precluded further development of this group. During the first series of missionary expeditions, Gutzlaff visited the coast of Korea in 1832 with copies of the Scriptures in Chinese which Morrison had given Gutzlaff to distribute. The ship on which Gutzlaff was sailing anchored off the Korean coast at two points, once off the Changsan Peninsula in Hwanghae Province, and later at the mouth of the Kum River in South Ch'ungch'ong Province. In both cases, attempts were made to contact the court in Soul but to no avail. At the latter place, they did come in contact with some persons who were Catholics, and who were with difficulty persuaded to write the Lord's Prayer in the Korean alphabet. Gutzlaff had had some prior knowledge of the trials of the Catholic Church in Korea but was unable to discover the extent of Catholicism at that time. Given the troubled circumstanes in which the Church existed, it is perhaps not too surprising that traces of it were not immediately manifest. Paik reminds us that the Protestant missionary's behaviour would have seemed very odd to the Catholics. Contrary to the Catholics' expecta tions, Gutzlaff came boldly in the daylight requesting an audience with the royal court, and did not bring rosaries and images but Bibles. The next missionary who had contact with Korea was Robert Jermain Thomas 102 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN KOREA (1840 to 1866), a graduate of New College, University of London. He was ordained in June of 1863, and left with his wife in July for China. Shortly after the Thomas' landing in Shang-hai, Mrs Thomas died. The grief stricken young husband removed from that city to Pei-ching. In 1865, he was in Chih-fou where he made the acquaintance of Alexander Williamson, the agent for the National Bible Society of Scotland. In the autumn of that year, a junk appeared in this Chinese port with several Korean Catholics on board. Williamson was greatly impressed by the fact that these men had little knowledge of the Scrip tures. Thomas then offered to go back to Korea with them and to distribute copies of the Bible. He and his Korean companions arrived off the Korean coast on 13 September 1865, and stayed two and a half months. There is no known record of the place which he visited. He returned to Pei-ching, via Manchuria in January 1866. A year after his first trip. Thomas returned to Korean waters in August 1866 on board an American trading vessel, the General Sherman. The provocative nature of this voyage caused it to end in disaster. The captain of the vessel foolishly tried to force his way up the Tae dong River to P'yongyang. An altercation with the defending Korean army ensued, the ship was set afire, and the escaping sailors were massacred. Thomas himself died as he distributed his copies of the Scriptures to those around him. Alexander Williamson, the agent who had sent out the unfortunate RJ Thomas, made a tour through Manchuria and got as far as the customs barrier between China and Korea. Whilst he was there, he came into contact with some Koreans and was able to sell them copies of the Scriptures. John Ross (1841 to 1915), a missionary of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, arrived in Chih-fou with his bride in the autumn of 1872. Seeing that there were sufficient missionaries in the Shan-tung peninsula. Ross decid ed that his efforts would be better applied in Manchuria, where ground had already been broken by William Burns of the mission of the Presbyterian Church of England in 1867, and by the Rev. James Waddel and Dr. Joseph Hunter of the mission of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. He settled in at Ying-k'ou and like Thomas tragically lost his wife. However, he threw himself with complete dedication into the work of reconnoitring the area, going as far east as the customs barrier with Korea in the autumn of 1874. Ross was fully aware of the events of Mr. Williamson's journey there a few years before and must have borne in mind the sacrifice of WC Burns as well. The thing which distinguishes Ross from these others is that he became enthusiastic about the prospects of missions in the Hermit Kingdom. He made one further expedition to the Chinese-Korean border in the spring of 1876 and with some difficulty was able to persuade an herb drug merchant who had lost his merchandise en route to the customs barrier that he should instruct Ross in the Korean language. While Ross concentrated most of his missionary efforts in Man churia, he was largely responsible for initiating interest in missions in Korea. In 1877, he published the first grammar of the Korean language in English, and in 1879 the first history of Korea in any Western language. By 1882, he .