"You are joking, Sir Chancellor," said Parson Suter with a puzzled look.
"How," rejoined Probus, "have you not read the Geneva ordinances, which prescribe what the Genevese are allowed to eat and drink? Did not Calvin forbid them to eat the dried fruits of the South, did he not also refuse to allow the poorer classes to feast on baked meats, venison, or game? Did he not make it a law, that no Genevese should invite more than ten persons to dinner? Did he not order that none dare wear velvet, silk, or garments of a red color, although Geneva possesses the largest dye-works and velvet manufactures? If the Presbyterium can determine that Hans cannot tie the nosegay for Gretchen with costly ribbons or gold threads, as decreed by the Geneva ordinances, why shall it not cast a fatherly eye on the number of glasses, swallowed down every evening by Parson Neuser? Should that thirsty gentleman exceed the number limited, he must beg pardon of the congregation in the Church on bended knee."
"Then is it well to drink another beaker today," squeaked out Parson Suter in his thin voice, "here Klaus!"
"I was in Geneva," now began Parson Willing, with a diplomatic smile, while his cunning eyes winked slyly at the Chancellor. "I know from experience how things are managed. If a man lives too well, he is punished by flagellation and pillory. In my time a baker was imprisoned, for not eating meat on Fridays, as Master Calvin smelt Kryptopapism therein. A bereaved widow was even brought up before the Consistorium for having used the words over the grave of her husband 'requiescat in pace.' That young women should be flogged because their way of dressing the hair and the cut of their clothes was not pleasing to Calvin, is easily understood, but he also imprisoned the dressmaker, who made the clothes, and the friends who helped to dress them. It will be a nice time for Heidelberg, when the consumptive butter-colored faces, which Ursinus and Zanchi have called together, stick their noses in every pot. I remember right well, how in Geneva they ordered me to repeat the Catechism like a school-boy, looked over my books, sent elderly gentlemen and worthy women to the head of the hospital to learn to pray, and made us attend for a whole year the Sunday-school, so that we might obtain proper notions on the matter of praedestination."
A pause testified to the impression produced by the remarks of the experienced Parson. "Even Sunday-walks," continued he, "picnics, bowling, singing and dancing must the inhabitants of the Palatinate banish from their minds, for those lead to Church excommunication, and excommunication means imprisonment and banishment."
"The foreign gentlemen need not banish me," said Neuser angrily, "for I am about to leave of my own accord."
"Where will you go then?" rejoined Xylander. "To the Hugenots, there will you have to rise even earlier, as they have early service before sun-rise. To the Saxons? Think of their wretched beer, and the doctrine of Ubiquity. To the Hanseatic towns? With Hesshufen and Westphal you jump from the frying pan into the fire. Easier is it to throw thirteen spots with a pair of dice than find a Church, which respects your freedom. It is of no avail, brother, you must submit."
"I know of a place, and the Inspector and my friend Suter know it also. We shall soon have followers, if the foreigners have it here their own way. We quit."
"Klaus will also be of your company?" laughed Xylander.
"Klaus will become a Turk," put in the waiter, "there a man has but one God and three wives. That is better than the reverse way."