Between A.D. 26 and 30 the people became very wicked, and "the church was broken up in all the land save it were among a few of the Lamanites who were converted unto the true faith." (3 Nephi 6:10-14.) The "chief judges, and they who had been high priests and lawyers" entered into a covenant to destroy "the people of the Lord" and to "destroy the governor, and to establish a king over the land, that the land should no more be at liberty but should be subject unto kings." (3 Nephi 6:21-30.) This secret society did not succeed in establishing a king over the land; but "they did destroy upon the judgment seat, yea, did murder the chief judge of the land." (3 Nephi 7:1.) The people were so divided they could not agree on a form of centralized government, so "they did separate one from another into tribes, every man according to his family and his kindred and his friends; and thus they did destroy the government of the land." (3 Nephi 7:2.)