Many eyes, from all quarters, were now turned to the small town of Geneva. Clement VII. and Charles V. were anxiously watching the struggle; but God's purpose was to bless, and He overruled all these commotions for the accomplishment of His gracious object. After a great deal of menacing and remonstrance between Berne and Friburg, the grand question came to a public disputation.
On the 30th of May, 1535, the disputants met in the grand hall of the Convent de Rive. Caroli, a doctor of the Sorbonne, and Chapuis, a Dominican of Geneva, appeared as the champions of the church; while one Bernard, a newly converted Franciscan, took the lead in defense of the Reformed doctrines, supported by Farel, Viret, and Froment. Eight members of council were appointed to preside, and four secretaries were to take down all that was said on both sides. The disputation lasted four weeks. Victory, as usual on such occasions, rested with the Reformers. Indeed, it was so complete, that both Caroli and Chapuis acknowledged themselves vanquished, and declared, in presence of the vast assembly, their conversion to the Reformed faith. Multitudes professed their faith in the truth as brought forward by the Reformers; and many ecclesiastics and monks followed the stream.
But Rome's resources were not yet exhausted; she had not given up hope. The anathemas of the pope, the armed priests, the furious women, had all failed; but to uphold the Catholic faith a darker deed was yet to be perpetrated. It so happened that the three ministers, Farel, Viret, and Froment, lodged in the house of Bernard, which gave a favorable opportunity to cut off the three at once by poison. A woman was induced to leave Lyons, on pretense of religion, and come to Geneva. She was received into the house of Bernard as a servant. Shortly after she mixed her poison with the dinner prepared for the ministers. Happily, however, Froment dined elsewhere that day, and Farel, being indisposed, did not dine; but Viret tasted the drugged dish, and was brought to the point of death. He recovered, but the effects of the poison remained with him till the end of his days. The wretched woman confessed the crime, but accused a canon and a priest of having bribed her to commit the offense. They denied the accusation by oath and were released, but the poor woman was executed.
The miscarriage of this and several other cruel plots of the Catholics opened the eyes of many, and tended greatly to hasten the downfall of the Romish superstition in Geneva. The feeling of the public was now in favor of Reform; but the council was disposed to check, rather than to encourage the popular zeal. At length, however, after the sense of the great majority of the citizens had been ascertained, the council of Two Hundred was assembled, and the celebration of the mass was officially suspended. This decree was followed by a general edict to the effect: "That the services of God were thenceforward to be performed according to the statutes of the gospel; and that all acts of papal idolatry were to cease altogether." Ever after that day the evangelical ministers preached with perfect freedom. The monasteries were next invaded; and there were some startling revelations of the frauds by which the people had been so long and so grossly deluded, and the vast superstition upheld.