tical parties. The missionaries carefully refrained from
intermeddling with politics, but every political party had more or
less of a religious basis, having something to do with the question,
whether a religious reform should be permitted. Early in 1840 the
government discovered the existence of a secret association, called
the "Philorthodox," one object of which was to preserve unchanged
all the formality and superstition which had crept into the Greek
Church. It had both a civil and a military head, and was believed to
be hostile to the existing government, and on the eve of attempting
a religious revolution, by which all reform should be excluded.
Several of the leaders were arrested; and the Russian Ambassador and
Russian Secretary of Legation were both recalled, because of their
connection with it. The leaders were brought to trial, but the
society had influence enough to procure their acquittal. Its civil
head was banished, and its military head was sent to AEgina for a
military trial. The king then changed most of the members of the
Synod, and more liberal ideas seemed to be gaining the ascendency.1

1 Tracy's _History_, p. 414.

This reform was only partial and temporary. An order was issued by
the government in the next year, requiring the Catechism of the
Greek Church to be taught in all the Hellenic schools, and Mr.
Leyburn was informed that this order applied to his school. The
catechism inculcates the worship of pictures and similar practices,
and the missionary decided, that he could not teach it himself, nor
allow others to teach it in his school. A long negotiation followed,
principally conducted by Dr. King. It was proposed that the
government employ catechists to teach the catechism to the pupils in
the church. The government assented on condition, that no religious
instruction should be given in the school, meaning thereby to
exclude even the reading of the New Testament; but the missionaries
would neither consent to teach what they did not believe, nor to
maintain a school from which religious instruction must be excluded.
The school was therefore closed, and the station abandoned. It
should be noted, that the school was not supported by the
government, but by the friends of Greece in the United States, and
that no impropriety was alleged on the part of the resident
missionary.

As Mr. Leyburn must now leave Greece, and had not health to learn
one of the languages of Western Asia, he returned ho