The Patriarch's attention was next turned to Priest Vertanes, who was already in his hands as a prisoner at the monastery of Armash, whither he had been sent by his predecessor. It was found that he had been preaching to the monks salvation through the blood of Christ alone, without the deeds of the law. It was represented to Matteos, that if the Protestant priest was not removed, the inmates of the monastery would soon become corrupted. An imperial firman was therefore procured for his banishment to Cesarea, whither Hohannes had been sent, six years before, for a like offense. On his way there, in charge of a Turkish officer, and indeed after his arrival, he ceased not to preach the Gospel for which he was in bonds. In the same year the Sultan gave orders, on occasion of a great feast, to have all the exiles in the country set at liberty, and Vertanes returned to Constantinople. Letters came to the Patriarch from Cesarea, soon after, saying that he had seduced many, and that had he remained there much longer, all would have gone after him.1 1 _Christianity Revived_, p. 152. Authority for most of the following statements concerning these persecutions, may be found in the _Missionary Herald_ for 1846: pp. 193-203, 218-230, 263-273, 298-304, 397-406; and for 1847, pp. 16-22, 37-45, 75-83, 150, 193-199, 264-273, 298-301, 372-374. The account of them given by Dr. H. G. O. Dwight, in his work entitled _Christianity Revived in the East_, published in 1850, is so well written, that I cannot confer upon the reader a greater favor than by a free, though much abridged, use of his language. At the metropolis there were restraints upon the hierarchy, that were unfelt in the provinces. Ephrem, bishop of Erzroom, had once acknowledged the errors of his Church, and had often strongly expressed his desires for reform, though now among the most zealous and persevering of the persecutors. The same was lamentably true of Boghos, Vartabed of Trebizond. Ephrem and Boghos had actually suffered persecution, on the charge of being Protestants. The change in their conduct was owing to the change in their relations, and to their loving the praise of men more than the praise of God.