[Footnote 726: 'Si prædicatores haberent, fore puto ut pontificia doctrina labefactetur.'—Ibid.] [Footnote 727: 1 Cor. i. 27.] [Footnote 728: Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. p. 461.] [Footnote 729: 'Ne sont-ce pas nos écus qui font bouillir le pot de l'évêque?'] [Footnote 730: 'Querelaverunt de putanis et certis religiosis qui ibidem affluunt.'—Registres du Conseil du 10 mai 1527.] CHAPTER III. THE BISHOP CLINGS TO GENEVA, BUT THE CANONS DEPART. (SUMMER 1527.) [Sidenote: THE BISHOP'S NEW SCHEMES.] The sack of Rome had made a great sensation in catholic countries. Pierre de la Baume almost believed that the reign of popery had come to an end, and was much alarmed for himself. If a prince so powerful as the pope had succumbed, what would become of the Bishop of Geneva? The alliance with the cantons, and the Gospel which a Swiss magistrate had just been preaching, seemed to him the forerunners of his ruin. He had no lansquenets before him, like those who had compelled Clement VII. to flee, but he had huguenots, who, in his eyes, were more formidable still. Liberty seemed to be coming forth, like the sun, from the night of the middle ages; and the bishop thought the safest course would be to turn towards the rising orb, and to throw himself into the arms of the liberals. He had a strong preference for the Savoyard despotism; but, if his interests required it, he was ready to pay court to liberty. Other instances of this have been seen. The bishop, therefore, sanctioned the sequestration of the property of the mamelukes, and made Besançon Hugues a magnificent present. He conferred on him the perpetual fief of the fishery of the lake, the Rhone, and the Arve, reserving to himself (which showed the value of the gift) the right of redemption for two thousand great ducats of gold.[731] All this was but a step towards the accomplishment of a strange design. The bishop had taken it into his head that he would form an alliance with the Swiss, feeling convinced that they alone could protect him against the impetuosity of the huguenots and the tyranny of the Duke of Savoy. He therefore sent Robert Vandel to Friburg and Basle, to entreat these states to admit him into their citizenship. This move caused the greatest surprise among the Genevans. 'What!' said they, 'is Monseigneur turning huguenot?' The Swiss rudely rejected the Romish prelate's request. 'We will not have the bishop for our fellow-citizen,' they made answer, 'and that for four reasons: first, he is fickle and changeable; second, he is not beloved in Geneva; third, he is imperialist and Burgundian; and fourth, he is a _priest_!' The cantons did not mention the strongest reason. Friburg and Berne, allies of the city, could not be at the same time the allies of the bishop, for how could they have supported the rights of the Genevans against him?[732]