_Lettres certaines_, 1534. Footnote 468: Froment, _Gestes de Genève_, p. 245.—_Chron. msc._ de Roset.—_Hist. msc._ de Gauthier.—Registre du Conseil. Footnote 469: Registre du Conseil du 3 Février, 1534.—MSC. de Roset, _Chron._ liv. iii., ch. xix.—MSC. de Gautier. Footnote 470: Registre du Conseil du 3 Février, 1534. Spon. i. p. 516. Ruchat, iii. p. 276. Balvignac, _Mèm. d’Archeologie_, iv. pp. 101-102. Footnote 471: Registre du Conseil des 3 et 8 Février, 1534. Ruchat, iii. p. 277. Mém. de Gautier. Footnote 472: ‘Quand se virent l’un l’autre, ne se purent tenir de pleurer.’—La Sœur Jeanne, _Levain du Calvinisme_. Footnote 473: Ibid. pp. 82-83. Footnote 474: MS. du Procès inquisitionnel de Lyon, p. 32. Footnote 475: Registre du Conseil des 8 et 10 Février, 1534. CHAPTER VI. A FINAL EFFORT OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM. (FEBRUARY 10 TO MARCH 1, 1534.) [Sidenote: Furbity Summoned Before The Council.] Unequivocal tokens soon made known the change that had taken place. Every one knew that the critical moment had arrived; but that it should be salutary, it was necessary to enlighten the people and set distinctly before them the end which it was proposed to attain. In all that concerns religious questions, the first point is to understand them thoroughly; vagueness always does injury to true religion. The magistrates determined to make clear the points on which the discussion turned, and accordingly the new syndics ordered Furbity to appear before the Council. This body, which had called to their aid the deputies of Berne and the three reformers, invited the monk to prove by the Holy Scriptures, as he had promised, the doctrines he advanced. ‘In the first place,’ they said, ‘you have accused those who eat meat, _which God hath created to be received_,[476] of being worse than _Turks_.’—‘Sirs,’ answered the monk, ‘I confess that our Lord did not make the prohibition of which I spoke; I will, therefore, prove my statement by the decrees of St. Thomas.’—‘Ho! ho!’ said Farel, ‘you pretended to prove everything by the Word of God; you even consented, in the opposite case, to be burnt at the stake, and now ... you give up the Scriptures!’ They did not confine themselves to this question; the lords of Berne proved by fourteen witnesses the other errors preached by Furbity; for instance: that God will punish those who read the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, and that Christ had given the papacy to St. Peter. They proved, also, the reality of the abuse uttered by the Dominican against the reformed Christians, except, however, that a _German_ (a Swiss German) was among the executioners of our Lord: it appeared that some wag had invented the story to ridicule the monk. The Bernese declared that, as the monk was, according to his own confession, only ‘a preacher of the decrees of St. Thomas’ and a story-teller, justice ought to have its course.