Baudichon Locked Up.
Meantime, matters were looking worse at Lyons. On Thursday, the 18th of June, Florimond Pécoud, the merchant, seasoned his deposition with some piquant expressions which he falsely ascribed to Baudichon. ‘Telling him one day that I had just come from mass,’ said Pécoud, ‘Baudichon made the remark: “And what did you see there? ... a slice of turnip, ... nothing more.”’[[572]] At these words the prisoner rose indignantly, and said to the judges: ‘I will not make any reply, I have made too many already,’ and proceeded to leave the hall. ‘We order you to stay,’ said the judges; but De la Maisonneuve would not stop. ‘Positively,’ said the judges, looking at each other, ‘he flees our presence.’ To the jailer who was sent after him to bid him return, he answered haughtily: ‘I am not disposed at present; let them wait until after dinner.’ Baudichon reappeared in the afternoon, but his anger had not cooled down. ‘I know that Pécoud,’ he said; ‘he has cheated the merchants, he has been a bankrupt, and his wife and he live by the debauchery of others. I guarantee to prove what I say.’
The next day there was a scene quite as lively. Maisonneuve having contradicted a witness: ‘I command you to sit in the dock,’ said the president. ‘I will not sit in the dock,’ answered the citizen of Geneva; ‘I have sat there too long.’ This was too much for the judges. The procurator-fiscal ordered Baudichon to be taken away and put in solitary confinement: no one was to speak to him. The prisoner was accordingly removed and locked up.[[573]]
The Court immediately increased the number of witnesses for the prosecution: it is useless to name them. De la Maisonneuve, more indignant than ever, thought it enough to say: ‘They are false witnesses, tutored to procure my death.’[[574]]
Such was indeed the intention of the Court, and, considering the power of the ecclesiastical tribunals, it seemed impossible they should fail to attain their end. De la Maisonneuve was not prepared to die. His knowledge of the Gospel had stripped death of its terrors in his eyes, but the work of his life was not terminated: the reformation of Geneva was not accomplished, there was still many a tough contest to be fought for liberty. A man of resolution was wanted at Geneva—a man to launch the bark with energy towards the happy shores it was to reach. That man was De la Maisonneuve.
On the 1st of July, seeing the eagerness of his adversaries, he petitioned the court to grant him an advocate. The judges would not consent: the prosecution was difficult enough already. ‘The case does not require it,’ said the procurator-fiscal, ‘the accused must answer by his own mouth. The said Baudichon is not an ignorant man; he is prudent and astute enough in his business.’[[575]]
De la Maisonneuve could indeed speak freely in the uprightness of his heart; but a formal defence alarmed him. Anticipating, however, the unjust refusal of his judges, he had resolved to protest against it. Producing certain papers, he said, as he pointed to them: ‘This document was written by my own hand; I desire that it be inserted among the minutes of the trial, and propose to read it word for word.’ He was permitted to do so; upon which Baudichon, standing before his judges with the paper in his hand, reminded them of the fact of his unjust imprisonment, which had already lasted three months; contended that his judges had no authority to take cognizance of anything he had done out of the kingdom, and added: ‘I call upon you to do me speedy justice; if you refuse, I will prosecute each one of you, and force you to make compensation and reparation for the injuries I have suffered.... I appeal to his Majesty.’[[576]]
Treatment Of Baudichon.
The vicars-general could not believe their ears. What impudence! The accused presumes to attack the members of the Court, and his judges are to be put on their defence. Are they not the representatives of the Church? ‘You have no cause to complain of your long detention,’ they said. ‘It proceeds solely from your having refused to answer us. We cannot send you before the syndics of Geneva, because, as laymen, they have no cognizance of such matters. Besides, the king understands that you demur concerning the offences committed by you in the kingdom of France.’ Then pressing him with questions, they said: ‘Are you a Christian? What is your faith? Do you believe in the holy catholic Church? Do you obey our holy father the pope? We are judges of your faith, and we require you to answer, under pain of excommunication and other lawful penalties.’ ‘I will not answer,’ returned Maisonneuve, quite as determined as they, ‘and I appeal from your order to every court in the kingdom.’ After this answer, Baudichon, in the eyes of the Court, was nothing but an obstinate heretic. The inquisitor, Morini, conjured him to return to the catholic faith. It was useless.[[577]]
A man who struggled with so much courage against unreasonable judges, who, in their despotism, claimed the right to forbid him to display before God the faith, homage, and obedience which his conscience imposed upon him,—a man who, in the first half of the sixteenth century, bearded the inquisitors even in sight of the stake, as if his forehead had been made of adamant, harder than flint, deserves some respect from an easier age, which is no longer called to such combats, and which perhaps would be unable to sustain them.