The catholic party became alarmed; their leaders met, and the procurator-fiscal with the bishop’s officers and the priests, who were ‘greatly envenomed against the two reformers,’[412] resolved to apprehend them. Whenever a meeting was formed, the sergeants came upon it unexpectedly. ‘But as soon as they saw the levelled halberds, the faithful, greatly increased in number, did their duty, surrounded their ministers, and helped them to escape.’ In consequence of this, the episcopal police went more craftily to work: they kept watch upon the ministers, and came upon them when they were alone, ‘aiming at nothing less than their lives.’[413] But these efforts of the priests increased the respect men felt for the evangelists. ‘Such persecutions,’ said the huguenots, ‘are a sign by which we may know that the ministers are excellent servants of Christ.’[414] The bishop, vexed at having left his episcopal city, could find rest nowhere. At one time he was at the Tower of May, at another at Lons-le-Saulnier, now at Arbois, now elsewhere. The thought that two reformers had come to take his place in Geneva disturbed him; and when he found that the citizens paid no attention to his strict prohibition of Gospel preaching sent on the 24th of October, his exasperation was at its height. ‘We must apply an heroic remedy to the disease,’ he said, and on the 20th of November he dictated letters patent addressed to the procurator-fiscal. [Sidenote: Gospel Preaching Forbidden.] The Great Council met on the 30th of November to hear the letters read. ‘We command,’ said the bishop, ‘that no one in our city of Geneva preach, expound, or cause to be preached or expounded, secretly or publicly, or in any manner whatsoever, the _holy page_, the _holy Gospel_,[415] unless he have received our express permission, under pain of perpetual excommunication and a fine of one hundred livres.’ The Two Hundred were astounded, the evangelicals were indignant, and the better catholics hung their heads. A bishop to forbid the preaching of the _holy page_, of the _holy Gospel_! ... to forbid it too in the very season (Advent) when it was usual to proclaim it! To excommunicate all who preach it! To forbid its being taught _in any manner whatsoever_! To forbid them to talk of it in courts or gardens, or elsewhere! Not a room, not a cellar, kitchen, or garret was excepted! The Apostle Paul declares, however, that _the Gospel of Christ must not be hindered_. The emotion of the Two Hundred was so great that all deliberation became impossible; ‘_the whole council rose and went out_,’ we read in the minutes of the sitting. Such was the mute but energetic reply made by Geneva to its bishop.