On Monday, the 11th of May, the festival of the Rogations afforded the prisoners a spectacle calculated to break the uniformity of their lives. They proceeded to the garden, and presently a noisy crowd gave indications of the grand procession, which was now returning to St. John’s church, adjoining the archiepiscopal prison, whence it had started. The priests went first, with crosses and banners, reciting prayers or singing hymns; after them came the people. De la Maisonneuve and Janin said that such a ceremony was an abuse, and that it would have been far better to have given to the poor the money which those fine banners had cost. The procession having at last reëntered the church of St. John, the singing, shouting, and noise became insupportable, even in the garden. Baudichon, according to the evidence of one of his accusers, withdrew, saying: ‘Those people must be fools and madmen, or do they imagine that God is deaf?’[[559]]
The next day the festival continued, and just as the prisoners were going to dinner, the noise of singing was heard. It was a new procession. ‘Where do they come from?’ asked Maisonneuve. The jailer’s wife answered: ‘From the church of St. Cler.’ ‘And what have they been doing there?’ said Baudichon; ‘have they been looking for St. Cler? They will not find him or God either, for they are in Paradise; and it is great nonsense to look for them elsewhere.’[[560]]
On the 28th of May, the depositions made by the prisoners with reference to the language used on the Rogation days were read. ‘I would sooner be torn in pieces,’ said De la Maisonneuve, ‘than have uttered the words contained in that deposition.’[[561]] The Court having summoned the priest Delay before them, the latter declared that he adhered to the main points, with the exception of the words ascribed to Baudichon. ‘He only said,’ continued Delay, ‘that it would have been better to give the poor the money paid for the banners. I did not hear him use the other words.’[[562]]
Janin, who had hitherto been the most ardent of the two prisoners, now began to grow dispirited, as is usual with such temperaments. He looked upon his condemnation to death as certain; and was quite unmanned by the thought that he would never see Geneva again. On Whitsunday, a turnkey having gone to fetch him from his dungeon to hear a mass which the other prisoners had asked for, Janin, far from refusing, did not betray the least sign of opposition during the service, but behaved himself decently, ‘which he had not been accustomed to do before,’ said one who was present. He quitted the chapel, dejected and silent. Just as he was about to re-enter his narrow cell, De la Maisonneuve came up: he knew the state of his friend’s soul and desired to cheer him. Leaning against the door, he said to Janin, who was already inside: ‘Do not fret yourself; be firm, and make no answer. I would sooner it cost me five hundred crowns, than that any harm should come to you or me. My lords of Berne will not suffer them to do us any mischief.’[[563]]
Opinion Of Baudichon.
Janin’s alarm was not, however, without foundation: false evidence multiplied. Louis Joffrillet accused De la Maisonneuve of having said to him at the door of his master’s shop: ‘Pshaw! if you were at Geneva I would give you a horse-load of relics for a dozen aiguilettes.... They sell relics there at the butchers’ stalls.’[[564]] On hearing the unbecoming words ascribed to him, Baudichon exclaimed: ‘That witness is a little brigand, a young thief; he has told a lie. I demand that he be detained, and (he added in great anger) I will have him hanged!’ Manicier, Joffrillet’s deposed that he had no recollection of such words being used by De la Maisonneuve.[[565]]
All these depositions, De la Maisonneuve’s courage, and the interest felt for him in high places, created a greater excitement every day in the second city of France. ‘There was much noise in Lyons about those two Lutherans of Geneva.’[[566]] Some eagerly took their part; others, who detested them, hoped to see them burnt. But as the two protestants had powerful protectors, the clergy dared not proceed to extremities without sufficient proof. The canons of St. John sent M. de Simieux, a gentleman of Dauphiny, who was related to one of them, to Geneva to try and hunt up some capital charge against Baudichon. De Simieux alighted at the Hôtel de la Grue, in the Corraterie, and immediately entered into conversation with the landlord, who promised to introduce him to some worthy people, from whom he would receive accurate information about that wretched Baudichon.[[567]]
Meanwhile, the gentleman amused himself by walking up and down in front of his lodging. Presently he saw fifteen persons, ‘of the most respectable of the city,’ approaching, who saluted him and said: ‘We have heard that you are come from Lyons; is it true that Baudichon is about to be released?’ De Simieux asked the gentlemen what they thought of the prisoner. ‘If he is discharged,’ said one of them, ‘we and all the Catholics in Geneva will be totally ruined and lost. His accomplices, the Lutherans of the city, have prepared their plan, and the only thing they are waiting for, before putting it into execution, is Baudichon’s release.’ ‘Yes, yes,’ said all the fifteen, ‘we are sure of it.’[[568]]
De Simieux asked them to specify some overt act. ‘On Corpus Christi day,’ said one, ‘as the procession was passing Baudichon’s house, his wife was at the window with her maid, and both were spinning with their distaffs. When Madame de la Maisonneuve saw the priests marching before her all in white, she exclaimed: “Look what fine goats!” ... as if a flock of those animals had been passing by twos before her.’[[569]] As this remark of the wife was not sufficient to burn the husband, De Simieux asked for something more. ‘It is notorious,’ they told him, ‘that Baudichon is the person most employed in seducing the city of Geneva to the Lutheran heresies; that it was he who caused the preachers to come; and that, if he is liberated, everybody will go over to his faith.’[[570]]
While this conversation was going on in a narrow street, an official interview of far greater importance was taking place not far off. Two ambassadors from the King of France had just arrived at Geneva, and the syndics who waited upon them declared they thought it very strange that messieurs of Lyons should presume to give them the law. The ambassadors promised to speak to the king on the subject.[[571]]