The two brethren seem to have been very popular among the Japanese soldiers. Perhaps they already dreamed of planting the faith in Corea, when, suddenly, their work was arrested at its height by Kato, whose jealousy of Konishi was only equalled by his fanatical zeal for the Buddhist faith. Being in Japan he denounced the foreign priest to Taikō, declaring that these zealous endeavors to propagate the Christian faith only concealed a vast conspiracy against himself and the power of the mikado. At this time Taikō was dealing with the Jesuits in Japan, and endeavoring to rid the country of their presence by shipping them off to China. He fully believed that they were political as well as religious emissaries, and that their aim was at temporal power. These suspicions, as every student of Japan knows, were more than well founded. Besides accusing Cespedes, Kato insinuated that Konishi himself was leading the conspiracy. The cry of chō-téki (rebel, or enemy of the mikado) in Japan is enough to blacken the character of the bravest man and greatest favorite. Treason against the mikado being the supreme crime, Konishi found it necessary to return to Kiōto, present himself before Taikō, and cleanse his reputation even from suspicion. This the lull in the active operations, occasioned by the negotiations of Chin Ikei, enabled him to do. Immediately sending back the priest, he shortly afterward crossed the straits, and, meeting Taikō, succeeded in fully ingratiating himself and allaying all suspicion.