This exclamation had hardly resounded through the church, when a great uproar, caused by the people, drowned the Lutheran's voice. The men who were present would have rushed from their places upon the disturber; but the women who filled the nave were before them. 'All with one accord fell upon the said Christopher, tore out his beard and beat him; they scratched his face with their nails and otherwise, so that if they had been let alone, he would never have gone out of the said church, which would have been a great benefit for poor catholics.'[383] Thus spoke the grand banneret, who had lost, as it would seem, a little of the moderation he had shown on other occasions. The castellan, Anthony Agasse, was not of his opinion: he wanted the culprits, if there were any, to be punished by the law and not by the populace; and rushing into the midst of this savage scene, he rescued Hollard from the hands of the furies, and threw him 'into a dungeon to avoid a greater scandal.' [370] Matthew, x. 34. [371] Calvin _in loco_. [372] Bonivard, _Chronique de Genève_, passim. [373] 2nd Timothy, ii. 5. [374] Michelet, _Hist. de France au seizième siècle_.—_La Réforme_, pp. 483, 484, 518. [375] Ancillon, _Vie de Farel_, ch. xi. [376] Revelation, vi. 2. [377] _Hist. of the Reformation of the sixteenth century_, vol. iv. bk. xv. ch. iv, vii, viii, and ix. [378] _Hist. of the Reformation_, vol. iv. bk. xv. ch. ix. [379] Choupard MS. [380] See the manuscript _Mémoires du Sire de Pierrefleur, grand banneret d'Orbe_, p. 2, published by M. Verdeil in 1856. [381] _Mémoires du Sire de Pierrefleur_, p. 13. [382] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, pp. 24-28. [383] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, p. 16. CHAPTER II. PLOT OF THE WOMEN AGAINST REFORM; FAREL'S PREACHING. (1531.) The Reformation brought great benefits to women. The divine Word which it placed in their hands, and which it desired to see in their hearts, would free them from the dominion of the priest to put them under that of the Saviour; give them that meek and peaceful spirit which (as Calvin says) becomes their sex; and substitute for a religion of external practices an inner, holy, and useful life. However, the women, attached to their priests and ceremonies, and who are easily aroused, were often opposed to the Reform, of which we shall have instances.