[633] It seems clear from Froment's narrative (p. 48) that the first communion took place before the riots (p. 51), and therefore probably before the middle of March. Spon confirms Froment's account (i. p. 481). On the other hand Sister Jeanne de Jussie says that a sacrament was celebrated after the first riot, on Holy Saturday, April 10th (Le Levain du Calvinisme, p. 61). The only way of reconciling these two statements is to admit (as we have done) two different celebrations (in March and April), and not one only.
[634] 'Furtivo conventu.'—Spanheim, Geneva restit. p. 45.
[635] Froment, Gestes, pp. 48-51. Gautier MS. Spon, Hist. de Genève, i. p. 481.
[636] Vie de Farel. Choupard MS.
CHAPTER XIV.
FORMATION OF A CATHOLIC CONSPIRACY.
(Lent, 1533.)
EVANGELICAL zeal was the occasion of the persecution. Its enemies were angered; they could not understand the inappreciable life then fermenting among their people. If a meeting was suppressed in one house, it was held in another. 'They could not find any remedy against this.'
One, however, offered itself. A dominican monk, an inquisitor of the Faith, had just arrived in Geneva. 'He is a great orator,' was the report in the city, 'a fervent catholic, just the opposite of Bocquet.' He had come to preach the Lent sermons in the greyfriar's stead, and everybody hoped he would repair the evil the other had done. 'Deliver us from this heresy,' said the heads of the Dominicans to him. The monk, flattered by this confidence and proud of his mission, prepared a fine discourse, and the next day or the next but one after Guerin's departure he went into the pulpit. St. Dominic's church was crowded, and a good many evangelicals, including Olivetan, were present. After a short introduction the monk began with loud voice and ardent zeal to decry the Bible, to abuse the heretics,[637] and to exalt the pope. 'He uttered without restraint all that came into his head.' 'I will blacken them so,' he had said, 'that they shall never be washed clean.'
=OLIVETAN BANISHED FROM GENEVA.=
Great was the excitement among the huguenots. 'If any one of us is so bold as to move his lips,' they said, 'such a little liberty makes our masters bawl out like madmen; but they are allowed to pour out their poison and infect the world with it.' Olivetan, who was present during the sermon, could hardly contain himself, but as soon as it was ended, he got upon a bench, thinking it would be wrong of him not to make the truth known. 'Master,' he said, 'I desire to show you honestly from Scripture where you have erred in your discourse.' These words created great astonishment. What! a layman presume to teach the Church.... The priests and some of their creatures surrounded Olivetan, abused him, pushed him off the bench, and would have beaten him. 'Whereupon up came Claude Bernard, Jean Chautemps, and others, who took their friend away from the monks and people who desired to kill him.'... But he did not escape so easily: the council sentenced him to banishment, without hearing or appeal. Everyone regretted him: 'He was a man,' they said, 'of such learning, godly life and conversation!' Olivetan was forced to leave. Geneva, suffering under a violent commotion, cast off the evangelists one after another, as the sea casts up the fragments of a wreck.[638]