it, fearing that, unless they did so, public order would be seriously disturbed, and the city depopulated; the pastors were afraid that the civil powers would attack the independence and rights of the Church, and were more and more anxious to assert and use them so that they might be secured. The commencement of the year 1538 was at hand, the time when the magistrates were to be re-elected by the citizens; the pastors insisted on the acknowledgment of their right of excommunication before they would consent to celebrate the Lord's Supper; the Council considered this threat too dangerous, and declared that communion must be refused to no one. The pastors gave way for the moment, for they were themselves anxious as to the sentiments of the people and the result of the approaching elections, and as we have seen already, Calvin was not incapable either of prudence or patience. The elections were unfavourable to him; three at least of the four new syndics were taken from the ranks of his enemies. The pastors restrained themselves for some weeks longer, and were content to do no more than call the attention of the Council to 'certain immoralities in the city both by night and day, as well as indecent songs and language.' {226} The new magistrates, on their side, received these complaints with due consideration, and 'sent criers round the town to announce, to the sound of trumpets, that no one should dare to sing indecent songs, or to go out after nine o'clock at night, or to cause any disturbance or altercation in the city, on pain of condemnation to bread and water for three days.' Both sides now hesitated at the prospect of the contest towards which their own passions, and those of their party, had been hurrying them for the last eighteen months.