=THE TOCSIN SOUNDS.=
However, three other priests, less notable but quite as violent—Bertholet, Manillier, and Servant—ran to St. Pierre's and ordered the ringers to sound the tocsin loudly and hurriedly. These men, themselves alarmed at what was told them about the riot, rang immediately, 'to the great terror of Christians,' says sister Jeanne. Over all the city swelled the majestic voice of Clemence, an ancient bell, well known at Geneva, which bears this inscription on the rim:
EGO VOCOR CLEMENTIA.
AVE MARIA, GRATIA PLENA.
PLEBEM VOCO, CONVOCO CLERUM,
VOX MEA CUNCTORUM
FIT TERROR DEMONIORUM.
In truth Clemence at this moment 'was calling the people and convoking the clergy,' and as for the 'demons, whom her voice was to affright,' ... they were the reformed—at least in the eyes of the priests. The huguenots who remained in the Molard, thought that the papists meditated returning to the attack and killing them in their houses. The darkness increased the agitation caused by the dismal sounds from the belfry. 'What is the matter?' said the citizens. 'The heretics are assembling in the principal square to plunder the churches,' answered some of the catholics. 'Let us rally on the other side, in front of the stalls,' was the reply. Some said truly that it was a false alarm; that the huguenots had gone to the river bank simply for a walk, as is everywhere customary on a Sunday evening, and that they were already returning home; but the more violent would listen to nothing; they hurried from all quarters, summoned by the tocsin, and displayed their banners. On the side of the stalls they shouted with all their might: 'Rally here, all Christians, and be of good heart in defence of holy faith.' And great was the tumult among them. It was quite pitiful to hear their cries in the streets.[717] The other churchmen, who at the first moment had hesitated to follow the canon, took courage, and leaving the vicar's house, descended to the Molard.
In the priests' eyes it was a decisive moment. A great number of them, no doubt, thought only of their personal interests, but many believed that the issue of the struggle was a question of life or death for catholicism in Geneva. They shuddered when they saw those whom they termed unnatural children, turning away from the bosom of their mother's breast—the papacy. 'These curious and rebellious minds,' they said, 'imagine that they will overthrow the Church ... but the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.... O bride of Christ! thou who procurest for us the chaste and everlasting embraces (castos æternosque amplexus) of the divine Spouse, we are thine for ever!'
=WERNLI'S APPEAL.=
Wernli had made up his mind to give his life, if necessary, for the cause of Rome. This was not with him the hasty resolution of a moment. Seeing the progress of the Reformation, he had vowed to sacrifice everything for its destruction, and it was with this intention he now descended from the neighbourhood of St. Pierre's to the Molard. It was necessary to accomplish on the 4th May what the 28th March had been unable to do. 'Wernli desired to be the first,' says Froment, 'to support as a man of war the holy mother Church.' He was both the hero and the victim of this important day. Vainly did the people shout to him on every side that 'Peace was made;' ... he would hear nothing. 'He was the most obstinate and the maddest of the priests.'[718] Full of venom and devotion for the cause of popery, he exclaimed: 'Ho! all good christians to my aid.' Many laymen and clerks joined him, and they proceeded hurriedly towards the square. 'The canons and other churchmen were the first under the flag,' says Sister Jeanne. In a short time fifteen hundred men, 'many of them priests,' were assembled.[719]
During this time, other ecclesiastics were gathering in arms in the court of St. Pierre, so as to stop the huguenots who might desire to go to the scene of the tumult. Three reformers, coming from the Bourg du Four, soon arrived with hasty steps in front of the cathedral. The sacerdotal corps immediately barred the way, and the priests began to attack them. One of them was 'unfortunate enough to receive twenty-eight wounds at their hands, and fell to the ground.' As for the other two, 'the dogs took flight,' says the bulletin of St. Claire.[720]
=WERNLI HEADS THE FIGHT.=
At this moment Wernli and his followers reached the Molard. The night was dark, the stars above gave a faint light; men appeared like shadows, and it was hard to distinguish friends from foes. Obscure and confused noises, inarticulate sounds, marks of approbation or of anger, issued from the darkness. It was like the hoarse roaring of the sea before the storm bursts forth. For a few seconds there was a dead silence, then on a sudden loud shouting. When the canon arrived, armed from head to foot, he heard the cries of the reformers, and, stirred with anger, he flourished his halberd, and pointing it in their direction, shouted out in his Friburg patois: 'Dear God! where are these Lutherans who speak ill of our law?... God's blood! where are they?'[721] With a coarse oath, he turned round to his followers, and said, 'Courage, good christians! do not spare those rascals.' One might fancy him the giant Goliath, who, with a helmet of brass upon his head, and armed with a coat of mail, came forth, spear in hand, to defy the army of Israel.[722]