In the meantime, the priests became more active than before. One of them, called Claude Pelliez, gave notice that he would preach against the heretics in the large church of which he was the vicar. The church was crowded by the papists. And several of the gospellers went to hear also. The vicar praised “the church,” and the head of it—not Christ, but Clement VII, the pope at Rome. The vicar further described our poor little Anthony as an ignorant liar, and a wolf who prowled around the fold to devour the sheep. After the sermon, four Huguenots called at the vicar’s house. “Froment,” they said, “is a good and learned man. You say he has lied. Prove it by the Bible.”
The vicar said he would do so. The Huguenots demanded that he would give his proofs in public. But the vicar said he would only do so in the presence of a few friends at the parsonage. The discussion was fixed for the last afternoon of that year, 1532.
Anthony had, you see, been scarcely two months in Geneva. The work the Lord had already done by him had been as rapid as it was astonishing.
When the afternoon came which Claude had named, the four Huguenots went to the parsonage. Some priests whom the vicar had invited were already there. But the vicar himself was still shut up in his private room. He was looking vainly for texts. He had not yet found one. The Huguenots and the priests sat together for a long time. They drank some wine which they found under the table, and which Perrin, one of the Huguenots, paid for. The vicar did not appear. They were beginning to despair of him, when suddenly he walked in, a huge book under his arm. It was stuck full of slips of paper to mark the places. The vicar opened his book, and read a long piece in contradiction to Froment’s sermons.
“What book is that?” asked Perrin: “it is not a Bible.”
“Ah!” said the others, “you have not been able to find one text in the Bible to suit your purpose.”
The priest grew red with anger. “What do you mean?” he said, “this book is the Postillæ Perpetuæ in Biblia of the illustrious Nicholas Lyra.”
“But you promised to prove Froment wrong out of the Bible,” said the Huguenots.
“Lyra is the best commentator,” said the vicar.
“We don’t want commentators, we want the Bible,” repeated the Huguenots.
Perrin grew angry, and the vicar more so.
In fact they both lost their temper completely.
Perrin was one of those Huguenots who had taken part with Froment out of dislike to the priests, not out of love to Christ. One of the vicar’s friends stole out of the room, and called in a band of armed priests, who were ready waiting—the foremost with a naked sword in his hand. The four Huguenots were indignant at this treachery. They seized the swords they had taken off when they first came into the room, and, making a way through the regiment of priests, rushed into the streets. One of the priests ran to ring the alarm bell in the belfry of the church hard by. Before the four Huguenots could get away, a crowd had collected. Huguenots and papists alike hurried to the spot.
“The Huguenots want to seize the church, and make Froment preach in it!” shouted the priests.
A mob rushed forward to attack the four Huguenots. Their friends gathered round them. The shouts and cries from all sides terrified Sister Jane and her nuns behind their convent walls.
“Alas, they are coming in to marry us!” exclaimed the poor ladies, starting up from their dinner, with many tears. They resolved to make a procession round the garden forthwith, to implore Mary to defend them from so terrible a fate.
Meanwhile the magistrates came upon the scene. They dispersed the crowds, and followed the priests into a distant quarter of the town, where they had hoped afresh to raise a riot. The town council then met, to form plans for preventing any further disturbance. The chief Huguenots were summoned to appear.
The magistrates said, “We charge you to stop Anthony Froment’s preaching, either at the Golden Cross or in private houses.”
The Huguenots replied, “We will hear the Word of God wherever we can; no one has a right to stop it.” “The council,” they added, “decreed that the Word of God was to be preached in every parish; but this decree has not been obeyed: we must, therefore, hear Anthony Froment.”
The council now sent for the bishop’s vicar, and begged him to provide preachers. They mentioned especially a Grey Friar, who had preached during advent, and who had been generally liked, because his sermons were neither one thing nor the other. The vicar was to promise that the Word of God should be preached in every parish church. The vicar, who liked a quiet life, was ready to promise everything; and the council, who seemed to think they could give an order for preachers as they might for musicians or town criers, considered that they had made a satisfactory arrangement.