The prospect of substituting the republican form of government for a one man rule was perturbing to the members of the Church, who saw in it a repudiation of the established system, and of the laws King Mosiah had left but a few years before. They knew that Amlici was a wicked man and that he, if he gained governmental control, would dispossess them of justice and whatever was right, including any privileges the Church afforded them. Many of the Nephites succumbed to the false promises of Amlici, and yielded to his flattery; he thus lured them into supporting his ambitious cause.