The Genevans wanted neither duke nor bishop; they went farther still, and being harassed by the court of Rome, they were going to show that they did not care for the pope. They had hardly done talking of La Baume's flight and of the Savoy escutcheon, when they were told strange news. A report was circulated that an excommunication and interdict had been pronounced against them, at the request of the mamelukes. This greatly excited such citizens as were still attached to the Roman worship. 'What!' said they; 'the priests will be suspended from their functions, the people deprived of the benefit of the sacraments, divine worship, and consecrated burial ... innocent and guilty will be involved in one common misery.'... But the energy of the huguenots, whom long combats had hardened like steel, was not to be weakened by this new attack. The most determined of them resolved to turn against Rome the measure plotted against Geneva. The council, being resolved to prevent the excommunication from being placarded in the streets,[761] ordered 'a strict watch to be kept at the bridge of Arve, about St. Victor and St. Leger, and that the gates should be shut early and opened late.' This was not enough. Five days later (the 29th of December, 1527), the people, lawfully assembled, caused the _Golden Bull_ to be read aloud before them, which ordered that, with the exception of the emperor and the bishop, there should be no authority in Geneva. Then a daring proposition was made to the general council, namely, 'that no metropolitan letters, and further still no apostolical letters (that is to say, no decrees emanating from the pope's courts), should be executed by any priest or any citizen.'—'Agreed, agreed!' shouted everybody. It would seem that the vote was almost unanimous. In this way the bishop on the banks of the Tiber found men prepared to resist him on the obscure banks of the Leman. This vote alarmed a few timid persons of a traditional tendency. Advocates of the _status quo_ entreated the progressionists to restrain themselves; but the latter had no wish to do so. They answered that the Reformation was triumphing among the Swiss; that Zwingle, Œcolampadius, and Haller were preaching with daily increasing success at Zurich, Basle, and Berne. They added that on the 7th of January, 1528, the famous discussion had begun in the last-named city, and that the Holy Scriptures had gained the victory; that the altars and images had been thrown down 'with the consent of the people;' that a spiritual worship had been substituted in their place, and that all, including children fourteen years old, had sworn to observe 'the Lutheran law.' The huguenots thought that if excommunication came to them from Rome, absolution would come to them from Berne—or rather from heaven. [Sidenote: FUNERAL PROCESSION OF POPERY.]