When they arrived at the hôtel-de-ville, the council of sixty was still sitting. They gave a faithful account of their mission. They reported that the bishop-prince persisted in his iniquitous non possumus, and although the council felt deep pain at hearing the statement, no one flinched. These Genevans knew the fidelity that freemen owe to the institutions of their ancestors. The ambassadors of Berne then asked to be admitted. Importuned by their allies, the Friburgers, and by the councillors of the bishop, these haughty Bernese, unfaithful to their renown, had come to imagine that the Genevans might very well, for once, on this solemn occasion, renounce their charter and their rights. Sebastian de Diesbach therefore invited the council to try if they could not 'consent to this citation, which the prelate positively would not recal.' Thus the only allies of Geneva solicited them to enter voluntarily upon the path of concessions.... The council deliberated, and the Sixty were unanimous. Here is the resolution which the secretary entered upon the register: 'Ordered to reply to My Lords of Berne, that we will not consent to this citation, as it is entirely contrary to our franchises, and resolved to ask them to be pleased to aid us with their advice.' My Lords of Berne did not like to see their advice rejected, but as they withdrew they said that such men deserved to be free.[780]
This new refusal exasperated the mamelukes. They were determined to use Wernli's death as an instrument of war to beat down the ancient edifice of Genevese liberties, to root up the foundations of the Reformation, and to establish on the ruins their own theories concerning the absolute power of the pope and the prince. Consequently they demanded the convocation of the Two Hundred, hoping to find favourable voices among them. The great council met the next day, and the Friburg ambassadors appeared before it, attended by a great number of the relations and friends of the canon—all dejected, gloomy, and silent, like the suppliants of ancient times. It was not fanaticism which animated the greater part of them. They had played with Wernli in their childhood; they had loved him in their youth; they venerated his memory now that a terrible catastrophe had stretched him dead in the streets of the city. If they had been unable to defend him in the hour of danger, they wished to do everything now the hour of vengeance was come. It was not sufficient to have sprinkled his body with their tears, the blood of victims must flow in the very spot where the martyr had been struck down. 'Most honoured lords,' said the canon's brother, 'the justice which men owe to one another is written on earth in the hearts of the just; why, then, should you trample it under foot? You have not yet done justice for the death of him who was our brother and our friend; on the contrary, you left the criminals free to come and go for six weeks. His body lies in the grave, but his blood, sprinkled on the stones of your city, calls for vengeance. If you are armed with the sword, it is not for mere show but to strike malefactors. And yet your tribunals are dumb, and your sword slumbers in the sheath. Permit my lord bishop to cite the case before him. If you refuse, you may rest assured that we shall seek other means of avenging the death of our friend, and we shall drown our sorrow and anger not in the waters of justice but in blood.' The Friburgers spoke as if it were a murder: they forgot that the canon had put on a cuirass, that he had grasped the halberd, that he had gone fully armed to the scene of tumult, that he had rekindled the dying flames, and attacked the huguenots, who had only used their arms in legitimate self-defence. The avoyer of Friburg seconded the eloquent menaces of Wernli's brother.[781]
=REFUSAL OF THE TWO HUNDRED.=
The Two Hundred saw that a war with Friburg and Savoy would be the consequence of their refusal, but they had taken their stand on the rock of right and were not to be moved. 'We do not know of any guilty persons who have been allowed to come and go freely in the city,' they said. 'If it be so, the blame lies with the procurator-fiscal whose duty it was to apprehend them, and not with us who are judges. As for permitting my lord to cite the cause before him, we cannot do so; it would be a violation of the franchises, for which we and our forefathers have often risked our bodies and our goods.' The syndic added that the council would consent to the bishop's naming two persons to be present at the examination, but on condition that they had no deliberative voice. The Friburgers and mamelukes could not make up their minds to accept this proposition. They were specially vexed that Coquet, syndic of the guard, whom they looked upon as devoted to the reform, should be among the number of the judges, whilst in their opinion he ought to be in the prisoner's dock.[782]
=ARGUMENTS FOR THE TEMPORAL POWER.=
If it had been a mere question of punishing the author of the canon's death, the prelate would perhaps have trusted to the syndics; but he aimed at destroying both liberty and the Reformation in Geneva, and for that he trusted to himself alone. To supplications, threats, and violence some consented to add reasons. There was a kind of argument used only in scholastic debates to prove that priests were the best judges both in civil and political matters. This strange proposition was demonstrated by syllogism. The major was: 'He is the best fitted to judge who is nearest to God.' The minor this: 'Ecclesiastics are nearer to God than laymen.' The conclusion is evident. They had recourse also to arguments derived from astronomy. 'As there are two great lights in the universe,' it was said, 'so there are also two in society. The Church is the sun and the State is the moon. Now the moon has no light of her own; all her light is derived from the sun. It is evident, therefore, that the church possesses in itself, formally and virtually, the temporal jurisdiction of the state.'[783]
Such arguments had great strength in the prelate's eyes: he appointed two deputies, his bailiff and his attorney, and sent them to the Two Hundred with orders to defend the rights of the sun. The union of the two powers in a single individual supplied them with their principal argument. The bishop was hardly mentioned in their speech but only the prince. 'The bishop is your prince,' they declared; 'and you, the syndics, are his officers. He may therefore command you as his subjects, and when he transfers to his tribunal a cause which is in your hands, you have only to obey.' This theory of absolute power could not pass in Geneva. 'We are not the prince's officers,' replied the magistrates, 'but syndics of the city, elected by the people and not by my lord. He has no power to institute us, and even his own officers, nominated by himself, make oath to us, whilst we make oath to nobody.' Then the syndics, turning to the Friburg deputation, continued: 'Sirs, you helped us in the time of Berthelier, help us again now. It is not we, but the bishop and his officers who alone occasion the delay of which you complain. Let two deputies from the bishop, two from Berne, and two from Friburg, assist at the trial, and be witnesses of our uprightness.'[784]
The bishop persisted in his demand: the deputies from Berne, desiring to terminate the difference, proposed that the cause should be remitted to two judges nominated by the council, two by the bishop, two by Berne, and two by Friburg. The Genevans replied that a people were not at liberty to sacrifice the smallest portion of their rights; and fatigued with these endless importunities, they added: 'If our offer is refused, we will convoke the general assembly of the people and do what it shall ordain.' The Bernese, knowing very well that if the matter was referred to the people no arrangement would be possible, exclaimed: 'Pray do nothing of the kind.'
Whilst even Berne was soliciting the syndics to give way, the wives, relations, and friends of the prisoners conjured them to persevere in their resistance. They feared to hear every morning that it was too late to act. 'It is time to bring the matter to an end,' said the syndics to the Bernese. 'The prisoners are only accused; is it just to make them suffer as if they were guilty? Go and speak plainly to the prince; make him comprehend the duty which our liberties impose upon us.' The Bernese went to the episcopal palace, but neither the bishop nor the Friburgers who were with him would yield an inch. 'Messieurs of Geneva will not do otherwise than they have said,' coldly answered Pierre de la Baume. 'Very good! and we for our part will not do otherwise than we have declared.' The Friburgers added with a menacing tone: 'We are about to return home and there ... we shall consider another remedy.' This remedy was war: the Friburg deputies would return with an army.[785]
=THE PRISONERS IN THEIR CELLS.=