[525] 'Habere quæ lectum ejus sternerent, tibialia exuerent, ac familiarius dormituro adessent.'—Farel to Calvin.
[526] 'Satagebat per Bernardum Carolus ut præsideret in disputatione, et omnia resolveret.'—Ibid.
[527] Froment, Gestes de Genève, p. 134.
[528] Girardin de la Rive, J. Balard, Cl. Richardet, and Cl. de Châteauneuf.
[529] Michel Sept, Cl. Savoye, Ami de Chapeaurouge, and Aimé Curtet.
[530] Registres du Conseil du 29 Mai 1535.
CHAPTER IV.
THE GREAT PUBLIC DEBATE ON THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE EVANGELICAL FAITH.
(June 1535.)
Sunday, the 30th of May and the feast of Pentecost, the day on which the discussion was to begin, came at last. A year had passed away since the Reformation had made its public entrance into Geneva; it was now about to take another step—one that would secure its triumph. The day of Pentecost, so important for the establishment of Christianity, was to be important also for the Reformation. The same Spirit which had begun the Church, is also that which will renew it when it has fallen. Friends and enemies crowded that day to the convent of Rive, animated with the liveliest and most opposite emotions. Nothing had been spared so that the debate should take place with solemnity. 'A theatre,' that is to say, a platform, had been erected in the great hall. The eight commissioners took their seats, and an immense concourse of Genevans and foreigners filled the vast auditory. A table had been placed in the arena for the combatants. Jacques Bernard appeared first: he was followed by Farel, Viret, and Froment; but the places set apart for the champions of the Roman Church remained unoccupied, and people began to ask if Rome would fail to appear. At last two ecclesiastics came forward: one was Chapuis, prior of the Dominican convent, the most learned man at that time in Geneva; the other was Caroli, the Sorbonne doctor.
=BERNARD AND CHAPUIS.=