Next morning at sunrise, a few citizens left their houses and proceeded towards the field of battle. They perceived a man, dressed like a warrior, lying on the steps of a house; a great sword lay a few paces off. They approached, stooped down and touched him ... he was stark dead ... it was the canon, Messire Pierre Wernli. His body had lain all night in the street, unobserved by every one. As Councillor Chautemps, a peaceable man, had remained indoors, the body had not been perceived. The cuirass bore the marks of the blows received by the champion of the priests. His garments were bloody and his features still wore a fierce look. Those who gazed upon him were moved. A canon, a chief of the Church, he who the day before had officiated with so much state at St. Pierre's, surrounded by all the pomps of the service, had been struck down by the huguenots ... and there he lay dead. Some ran off to spread the news: 'Messire Pierre lies bathed in blood near the Molard.' Canons and priests, monks and mamelukes, and even the huguenots, ran out and surrounded the dead body. 'All the city was troubled when they found the corpse.'[729] The devout knelt down, and striking their breasts, exclaimed with tears: 'O blessed martyr, sacrificed to God!' According to some good catholics, he took his place in the ranks of the confessors who, like Thomas à Becket, had been put to death for honouring the holy Roman Church. This species of canonisation disgusted the huguenots: 'What!' they said, 'a priest fights with the halberd and sheds the blood of citizens—he turns soldier, and you make him a saint! Rather recognise in his death the just judgment of God.'[730] At that moment, there came up a woman of mean appearance, who fell shrieking on the body. She pressed it in her arms, with many sighs and groans. She was the canon's housekeeper, they said; but the manuscript which records this incident gives her a more significant name.[731]
This death was a great event, and the members of the council felt the liveliest apprehensions. Wernli was not only a canon, but a Friburger, and belonged to a powerful family. What would not be the wrath of his fellow-citizens! 'Had we known of this murder last evening,' said the mamelukes, 'the sword would have taken vengeance on Messire Pierre's assassins, and the night would have been a night of terror and death.' Their rage would have been so great that they would have entered every house and made a general massacre. But the abler men of the party made less noise, and thought of the advantage they might derive from the catastrophe. The most extreme measures now became legitimate, and the canon's death was to result in the triumph of the pope. Even now, a few catholics assembling round the corpse, traded upon the scene, and uncovering Wernli's wounds, pointed them out to the people, and thus sought to arouse their anger. Others succeeded in preventing the gates from being opened, lest the huguenots who had crossed swords with the canon should escape. When the reformed learnt that the city was closed, although it was broad daylight, they asked if it was intended to murder them, and some immediately armed themselves and went to Baudichon de la Maisonneuve's house.[732]
=BURYING THE DEAD.=
About nine o'clock the body was lifted up and carried into Chautemp's house, where it was placed decently on a bed. The cuirass was taken off, the stains of blood washed away; it was arrayed in the priest's canonical robes, and the devout folks knelt around it. Every moment other catholics, men and women, took the places of those who left. The same day, at five in the afternoon, an immense procession descended from St. Pierre's to do honour to this 'blessed martyr.' The priests placed the canon on a showy bier, and when they came out of the house, 'the people uttered a loud cry.'[733] Some of the reformed joined in the funeral train; all enmity (they thought) should perish in the presence of the dead. The body was taken into the cathedral, and buried at the foot of the great crucifix. The council, wishing to hold the balance even, imprisoned a few men who passed for the most violent of both parties.[734]
=WERNLI'S RELATIONS ARRIVE.=
Five days later, a herald from Friburg and many of Wernli's relatives appeared in deep mourning, and demanded that the body should be given up to them; they also called for signal reparation. At five o'clock the same day, the body was exhumed in the presence of an immense crowd, and, wonder unheard-of! the canon stood upright, and the blood flowed from his wound as fresh as if he had been alive. 'Of a truth,' said those in the cathedral, 'this is a miracle, a testimony borne to the holy Roman faith, for the maintenance of which his body was mangled. His blood cries for revenge.'[735]
But the reformed said that popery is full of such cheats (piperies) and idle dreams, opposed to common sense, by means of which impostors deceive the simple. They believed that when the Son of God became man, many signs of divine power had accompanied that great miracle; and that if the sun acts upon the earth, and transforms a poor grain of wheat into a magnificent ear of corn, it is very reasonable to admit that he who created the sun exercises his sovereign action here whenever he wills it, and effects transformations still more marvellous; but they would not suffer the tricks of men to be placed in the same rank with the interventions of the supreme power of the Creator. The miracle having been confirmed by eight hundred witnesses, says Sister Jeanne, the body was laid in a coffin and carried to the lake, all the priests singing, while the women and some of the devout made the air re-echo with their cries and groans. The coffin was placed in a boat and taken to Friburg.[736]
=THE REFORM MUST BE CRUSHED.=
The priests thought the moment had now come for getting rid of the evangelicals for ever. At first, the reform had been a mere thread of water, but the thread had suddenly increased, and become like an Alpine torrent, which, if it were not checked, would overthrow the altars and sweep away crosses, images and holy water, priests and prelates. Had not an illustrious canon been attacked and carried away by this devastating flood? 'Now,' said the priests, 'must be accomplished what our Lord told the apostles: He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. If we do not crush these accursed Lutherans now, they will never cease to trouble the churches, to plunder, beat and kill.... Let us sell everything, even our wallets, to procure spears and swords.'[737] They set the example; they never went out except well supplied with arms under their frocks. The sisters of St. Claire and all the devout women of Geneva exclaimed with delight on seeing the clergy so resolved: 'Ah, if the clerks were not so stout-hearted, these ravening wolves would exterminate us.'[738] But the more reasonable of the men saw that the clubs of the priests would not suffice alone. 'The hour is come,' said they at Geneva and Friburg, at Chambery, and wherever Rome had faithful followers; 'the bishop must return to Geneva, and resume his former authority.' A deputation started from Friburg for Arbois to entreat Pierre de la Baume to return to his episcopal city.
=THE BISHOP AT ARBOIS.=