The Two Hundred saw that a war with Friburg and Savoy would be the consequence of their refusal, but they had taken their stand on the rock of right and were not to be moved. 'We do not know of any guilty persons who have been allowed to come and go freely in the city,' they said. 'If it be so, the blame lies with the procurator-fiscal whose duty it was to apprehend them, and not with us who are judges. As for permitting my lord to cite the cause before him, we cannot do so; it would be a violation of the franchises, for which we and our forefathers have often risked our bodies and our goods.' The syndic added that the council would consent to the bishop's naming two persons to be present at the examination, but on condition that they had no deliberative voice. The Friburgers and mamelukes could not make up their minds to accept this proposition. They were specially vexed that Coquet, syndic of the guard, whom they looked upon as devoted to the reform, should be among the number of the judges, whilst in their opinion he ought to be in the prisoner's dock.[782] [Sidenote: ARGUMENTS FOR THE TEMPORAL POWER.] If it had been a mere question of punishing the author of the canon's death, the prelate would perhaps have trusted to the syndics; but he aimed at destroying both liberty and the Reformation in Geneva, and for that he trusted to himself alone. To supplications, threats, and violence some consented to add reasons. There was a kind of argument used only in scholastic debates to prove that priests were the best judges both in civil and political matters. This strange proposition was demonstrated by syllogism. The major was: 'He is the best fitted to judge who is nearest to God.' The minor this: 'Ecclesiastics are nearer to God than laymen.' The conclusion is evident. They had recourse also to arguments derived from astronomy. 'As there are two great lights in the universe,' it was said, 'so there are also two in society. The Church is the sun and the State is the moon. Now the moon has no light of her own; all her light is derived from the sun. It is evident, therefore, that the church possesses in itself, formally and virtually, the temporal jurisdiction of the state.'[783]