The affairs of the society were managed by the sixteen members of the highest class, who had their seat at Moscow and maintained a ruling committee in almost perpetual session. The second class was called the Priests of Eleusis, and they were informed in a general way that the time for struggle with the Turks was approaching, but nothing more definite was told to them. This class included nearly all the Greek priests, and also no less than one hundred and sixteen prelates of their religion. The third class was the Systemenoi, or Bachelors, selected with care from the better classes of society; they were informed that the object of the society was to effect a revolution and separate Greece from Turkey. The lower class, which included every Greek who wished to join it, was by far the largest; the only information that was given to this class was that the object was to ameliorate the condition of the people by the spread of education and by securing changes in the laws. The secret of the society was kept in the most remarkable manner; though having such a large membership it was betrayed but once, and then in such a way that no suspicion was excited. The Turks were as much astonished when the society revealed itself in the outburst of the revolution of 1821 as though a volcano had opened under their feet.
All the Hetairists looked hopefully towards Russia, partly in consequence of their community of religion, and partly because of the fellow-feeling of the two countries in cordially detesting the Turk. The Empress Catherine excited two insurrections in Greece during the latter part of the eighteenth century; the Turkish fleet had been burned by the Russians in the Bay of Tchesmé; Constantine was christened by that name because the empress designed him as the successor of Constantine Paleologus, the last of the Cæsars; and the intervention of the European powers in 1789 had alone prevented the accomplishment of that design. The Greeks could hardly
