The prelate, who was then at dinner, did not like to be disturbed in this important business; being puzzled, moreover, as to the course which he ought to adopt, it appeared that the best thing he could do was to be deaf. He therefore answered his servants, who asked him for orders, 'Do not open the door;' and raising the glass to his lips, he went on with his repast. But his heart was beginning to tremble: the shouts grew louder, and every blow struck against the gate found an echo in the soul of the guilty priest. His servants, who were looking stealthily out of the windows, having informed him that the magistrates had arrived, Pierre de la Baume left his chair, paler than death, and went to the window. There was a profound silence immediately, and the syndics made the prelate an earnest but very respectful speech. The bishop, terrified at the popular fury, replied: 'Certainly, gentlemen, you shall have the young woman.... I only had her carried off for a harper, who asked me for her in return for his services.' Monseigneur had not carried off the girl in the violence of passion, but only to pay the wages of a musician! It was not more guilty, but it was more vile. The palace gates were opened, and the girl was restored to her mother. Michael Roset does not mention the harper, and leads us to believe that the bishop had taken her for himself. This scandalous abduction was the last act done in Geneva by the Roman bishops.[744] From that moment the deposition of the bishop was signed, as it were, in the hearts of most of the citizens. 'These, then, are the priests' works,' they said, 'debauchery and violence!... Instead of purifying the manners of the people, they labour to corrupt them! Ha! ha! you bishopers, a fine religion is that of your bishop!' Opposition to a corrupt government soon began to appear a duty to them. The right of resistance was one of the principles of that society in the middle ages, which some writers uphold as a model of servility. In the Great Charter of England, the king authorised his own subjects, in case he should violate any one of their liberties, 'to pursue and molest him to the uttermost of their power, by seizing his castles, estates, possessions, and otherwise.' In certain cases, the vassals could separate themselves entirely from their suzerain. Some vassals, it is true, might carry this principle too far, and claim to throw off the feudal authority _whenever it pleased them_; but the law made answer: 'No, not unless there is _reasonable cause_.'[745] When freeing herself from the bishop-princes, who had so often violated the franchises and connived with the enemies of the city, Geneva thought she was acting with very reasonable cause, and not going beyond the bounds of legality. The ruin of the bishops and princes of Geneva, already prepared by their political misdeeds, was completed by their moral disorders.