Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/528

468 known by those who understood the situation that this ruling was aimed directly at Mrs. Stetson. With other healers of her congregation she had maintained handsome offices in the First Church in New York, where she healed patients, instructed classes and individuals, and daily met her friends and co-workers. Mrs. Stetson obeyed this by-law. She merely retreated to her house, which adjoins her church and is connected with it by a covered passage, and conducted her work as before.

Mrs. Eddy, however, was not to be thus easily defeated. She was determined that Mrs. Stetson, whom she considered as an open rival, should be removed as such, and that her circle should be broken up. During the summer and early autumn of 1909 Mrs. Stetson was brought before the Mother Church directors in Boston and closely questioned, and many of her students were also examined before this court-martial. It was decided that Mrs. Stetson must be disciplined, and she was officially deprived of her rank as a healer and as a teacher. She was forbidden to teach or practise Christian Science until she had proved her fitness for such work. She was, therefore, placed on a three years' probation, at the conclusion of which, if her conduct has been exemplary and if she has met Mrs. Eddy's requirements as to loyalty, she may, if Mrs. Eddy sees fit, again be permitted to teach and practise. The reasons given by the directors for reducing Mrs. Stetson were: erroneous teaching of Christian Science; the exercise of undue influence over her students, which tended to hinder their moral and spiritual growth; turning the attention of her students to herself and away from Divine principle; teaching and practising contrary to Science and Health; and finally, that "Mrs. Stetson