The strong religious feeling of these refugees was shown by their flight from their own country; they were undoubtedly reliable and zealous allies for Calvin and his party. The Libertines were not slow to perceive this, and from the very first they displayed the most active ill-will towards the new-comers. They found many who were only too ready to join them; there were the old-established burgesses of the city, who were annoyed at seeing strangers invested with the rights, and sharing the advantages offered by their country; and there were men of the lower and labouring classes who dreaded the competition of labourers and artisans who were often much more skilful and industrious than themselves. {285} Appeals were made both to national feeling and personal interest, in order to keep up this hostility, and the discontented rich fostered the jealousy of the discontented poor. Sometimes their animosity was shown in the sneers uttered by men who had secretly remained Catholics. 'Why, my good friends,' they said to the French refugees, 'you were in a great hurry to leave your country; the consecrated wafers seem to have stuck in your throat.' At other times it was popular jealousy which broke forth: 'By my faith,' said some, 'these people who ran away from the fire for the sake of the Gospel, raise the price of provisions very considerably.' 'See!' said the women, 'when the Frenchmen are here, there is nothing done for the townspeople; may the devil break the necks of all these Frenchmen!' Some of the principal Libertines took advantage of the popular ill-will to procure the passing of measures which would tend to weaken the position and influence of the refugees. Calvin wrote to Bullinger: 'They treat barbarously our brothers in the cause of Christ who have fled to us. They subject them to inhuman outrages, and yet the refugees bear it with a gentleness and patience which even those who injure them cannot deny.' Ami Perrin allowed the shops of the French refugees to be plundered; he proposed to take all arms from them except their swords, which they were no longer to be allowed to wear in public. Some days later he went a step further, and demanded that the refugees should also be deprived of their swords, as he was afraid of some treason on their part in behalf of Henry II. king of France. {286}