The fanatical Dominican, empowered to deliver the Advent lectures, having compromised catholicism, and the council having declared against every preacher who should not preach according to God’s Word, the Genevan clergy determined to make a last effort. They said they must choose a monk of another sort for the Lent course, and consequently turned to the Franciscans, who had often dreamt of a transformation of religious society. There were great differences between these two mendicant orders: the Dominicans were rich, the Franciscans poor; the Dominicans aimed at dominion, the Franciscans at humility; the Dominicans were fossilized in their doctrines and customs, the Franciscans were flexible and had a taste for innovations. They knew how to catch the multitude by their enthusiasm and flagellations, by their insinuating manners and miraculous visions. It is a man of this sort, said the oldest of the catholics, that we want after the Dominican. If Geneva had resisted the roughness of the one, it would be captivated by the flatteries of the other. In this manner the clergy hoped to lead Geneva insensibly back into the arms of Rome. Father Courtelier, superior of the Franciscans of Chambery, renowned for his eloquence and wit, was invited to come and preach at Geneva during Lent. He arrived on Saturday, the 14th of February: next morning (it was the Sunday preceding Shrove Tuesday) he appeared before the Council. The premier syndic, assuming a duty that was somewhat episcopal, said to him: ‘Reverend father, you must preach nothing but the pure Gospel of God.’—‘I undertake to do so,’ replied the monk, who had been well tutored; ‘you will be satisfied.’ And then desiring to show how accommodating he was, he presented nine articles, saying: ‘This is what I desire to preach;’ adding, as if he was before the college of cardinals: ‘Strike out what you do not approve of.’ The Council, in great part Lutheran, finding themselves converted by the priest into a court of doctrine, ordered the paper to be read. _Invocation of the Virgin Mary_ was one of the articles; _Purgatory_ was another; _Prayer for the dead_; _Invocation of the Saints_.... The huguenots objected, and these four points were struck off the list; but he was allowed to make the sign of the cross in the pulpit, to repeat the salutation of the angel to Mary, which is recorded in the Gospel of St. Luke, and to celebrate mass. The priest returned to his convent with the revised articles.[482] [Sidenote: Courtelier’s Sermon.]