The two champions joined in combat; and Viret refuted Caroli's assertions so clearly and so completely, that all the spectators took his side.[541] Caroli, not knowing what to say, began to vociferate a long 'Bah! bah! bah!'[542] It was useless for Viret to adduce the most solid reasons, the Sorbonne doctor could find no other argument than that foolish interjection. 'What do I hear?' exclaimed Farel; 'we should blush to answer in such a manner.' Caroli held his tongue, and some catholics began to ask themselves whether the doctrines they had held for sacred might not be merely the opinions of men.[543]
Quitting this part of the subject, the doctor proceeded to defend the forms of popery. 'How much more august is the service,' he said, 'if it is celebrated in Latin! What majesty there is in the Roman ceremonies! The tonsure of the priests is a crown to them.'—'It is Christ's wish,' said Farel, 'that leaving shadows, we should worship the Father in spirit and in truth. If we load the Church with ceremonies, signs, and ornaments, we rob it of the presence of Jesus Christ. If King Hezekiah broke the brazen serpent, what must be done with all these superstitions, which surpass the idolatry of the Jews in scandal?'
It was too much. The bishop, informed of the progress of the discussion, issued from Arbois on the 13th of June, in the very midst of the debates, an order, 'forbidding people of every condition to be from that day forward so bold and daring as to speak or trade with the syndics, preachers, and citizens of Geneva, under pain of excommunication and a fine of twenty-five livres.'[544]
Thus the bishop set up a quarantine to separate Geneva from Christendom; but it was precisely at this epoch that the obscure city of the Allobroges came into communication with the world, and spread abroad the light which it had received. While the papacy ceased to utter its oracles there, and had in its service none but the dumb, the Word of God made its loud and mighty voice heard through the mouths of the Reformers. Such was the result of the discussion. 'In that controversy,' says a modern historian who does not belong to the Reform, 'the catholics were defeated by the reformers.'[545]
[531] 'Nollet alium respondere quam Bernardum.'—Farel to Calvin, p. 77.—Jeanne de Jussie, Commencement de l'Hérésie dans Genève, p. 125.—Froment, Gestes de Genève, pp. 139, 140.
[532] Jeanne de Jussie, Commencement de l'Hérésie dans Genève, p. 80.
[533] 'Frustra hominem conari sine gratia, nec ordiri, nec prosequi, nec perseverare posse.'—Farel to Calvin, Epist. Calv., p. 77.
[534] Jeanne de Jussie, Commencement de l'Hérésie dans Genève, p. 80.
[535] Ibid. pp. 80, 81.
[536] 'Succedere matrem Filio.'—Farel to Calvin.