62 



CEYLON BRANCH 



particular assemblies ; whether it was right to communicate 

 with an unregenerate congregation ; and such like. 



These individuals collected about 50 adherents, some- 

 Church members and others not; and two of the krankbezoe-* 

 kers took an active part in their meetings. The commotion 

 created by this new doctrine, threatened, as the consistory 

 apprehended, a dangerous schism in the congregation. At a, 

 special meeting the two krankbezoekers were summoned, one 

 of them Portous by name, being examined and exhorted to 

 withdraw from those dangerous persons, obstinately refused,, 

 and treated the authority of the consistory with disrespect, 

 which constrained them to apply to Government for his re- 

 moval to Galle. When about to proceed thither, Portous 

 applied to the consistory for an attestation of membership and 

 good conduct, which was of course refused unless he recanted, 

 and professed penitence for his other acts of impropriety ; when 

 he again set them at defiance he was ordered to Batavia to be 

 further examined. The other krankbezoeker, Erfson, promised 

 amendment and was retained. The consistory complained to 

 Government of the Hernhutters, who finding their position 

 unpleasant applied for leave to return home. In a letter from 

 the Cape of Good Hope, where these passengers had touched 

 on their voyage to Ceylon, they were recommended to the 

 consistory's notice as Moravian Missionaries; the consistory 

 replied that they had received no official information of their- 

 missionary designs, that these men did not go into the country 

 but remained at Colombo, and that they could not be recognized 

 as fit instruments for religious instruction, as their tenets 

 were discountenanced by the Synod. From this incident it 

 would appear that religious toleration was not much under- 

 stood, A letter from the classis in the subsequent year ad-*. 

 vised the clergy to guard against the freaks of ambitious 

 krankbezoekers. 



