At Neuchatel the Bernese supported the Evangelical citizens. The governor, whose resources were exhausted, sent ambassadors to the princess, "begging her to cross the mountains, to appease her people, who were in terrible trouble in consequence of this Lutheran religion."[1008] [1008] Letter from the Governor to the Princess. Meantime the ferment increased. The townspeople prayed the canons to give up the Mass: they refused; whereupon the citizens presented them their reasons in writing, and begged them to discuss the question with Farel. Still the same refusal!--"But, for goodness' sake, speak either for or against!" It was all of no use! [Sidenote: FAREL IN THE CATHEDRAL.] On Sunday, the 23d of October, Farel, who had returned to Neuchatel, was preaching at the hospital. He knew that the magistrates of the city had deliberated on the expediency of consecrating the cathedral itself to the Evangelical worship. "What then," said he, "will you not pay as much honour to the Gospel as the other party does to the Mass?......And if this superstitious act is celebrated in the high church, shall not the Gospel be proclaimed there also?" At these words all his hearers arose. "To the church!" cried they; "to the church!" Impetuous men are desirous of putting their heads to work, to accomplish what the prudence of the burgesses had proposed.[1009] They leave the hospital, and take Farel with them. They climb the steep street of the castle: in vain would the canons and their frightened followers stop the crowd: they force a passage. Convinced that they are advancing for God's glory, nothing can check them. Insults and shouts assail them from every side, but in the name of the Truth they are defending, they proceed: they open the gates of the Church of our Lady; they enter, and here a fresh struggle begins. The canons and their friends assembled around the pulpit endeavour to stop Farel; but all is useless. They have not to deal with a band of rioters. God has pronounced in his Word, and the magistrates themselves have passed a definitive resolution. The townspeople advance, therefore, against the sacerdotal coterie; they form a close battalion, in the centre of which they place the reformer. They succeed in making their way through the opposing crowd, and at last place the minister in the pulpit without any harm befalling him.[1010] [1009] This is the conclusion I draw from various papers, and in particular from the report of the meeting held at Neuchatel by the Bernese deputies, in which the heads of the burgesses declare, _that it appeared to them a very good matter to take down the altars_, &c. Hitherto only one phasis of this action has been seen,--the popular movement; and the other, namely, the legal resolution of the magistrates of the city, seems to have been overlooked. [1010] Choupart MS.