[777] 'En portera la pâte au four.'
[778] Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. pp. 475, 480, 502. Gautier MS.
[779] See nineteen letters from the bishop to William de la Mouille, his chamberlain, printed in Galiffe, Matériaux pour l'Histoire de Genève, ii. pp. 461-485.
[780] Galiffe, ii. p. 477.
[781] Memoir to Lord Townshend on the History of Geneva, by Mr. Secretary Chouet. Berne MSS. vi. 57.
CHAPTER VII.
INTRIGUES OF THE DUKE AND THE BISHOP.
(Spring and Summer 1528.)
THE first measure Charles exacted from his new ally was to revoke the civil rights he had conceded to the citizens. The bishop consented. In order to deprive the secular magistrate of his temporal privileges, he resolved to employ spiritual weapons. Priests, bishops, and popes have always found their use very profitable in political matters; princes of great power have been known to tremble before the documents launched into the world by the high-priest of the Vatican. The bishop, therefore, caused an order to be posted on the church doors, forbidding the magistrates to try civil causes under pain of excommunication and a fine of one hundred pounds of silver. It seems that the bishop had thought it prudent to attack the purses of those who were not to be frightened by his pastorals. 'Remove these letters,' said the syndics to the episcopal secretary, 'and carry them back to the bishop, for they are contrary to our franchises.' At the same time they said to the judges: 'You will continue to administer justice, notwithstanding the excommunication.' This, be it remarked, occurred at Geneva in the beginning of the sixteenth century.
=THE BISHOP AND THE SYNDICS.=