From the place in the garden to which he had retired, Janin saw Delay looking for something. Going up to him, the Genevese asked what he wanted. On being told, he took the book, immediately found the epistle (those laymen of Geneva knew their Bible better than the priests), and began to read the first chapter aloud, dwelling upon the words: _The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin_. He stopped, and addressing the prisoners, explained the words, and drew their attention to two doctrines which, he said, can never be made to harmonize: that of the Bible, according to which we are cleansed _by the blood of Christ_; and that of Rome, according to which we are cleansed by meritorious works. ‘You explain the passage wrongly,’ exclaimed some of his hearers: ‘we must not follow the letter, but the moral meaning.’ It is an argument we have seen revived in more recent times. ‘You cannot understand that epistle,’ said a priest, ‘since you are obliged to read it in French.’—‘Surely I must read it in my own language,’ answered Janin, ‘for I do not understand Latin. God commanded his apostles to preach the Gospel to all creatures, and therefore in all languages.’—‘That is true,’ answered the priests: ‘_prædicate Evangelium omni creaturæ_; but it is also true that all good Christians draw near our mother, the Holy Church, to hear Scripture explained by the mouths of priests and doctors who, in this world, hold the place of the apostles.’ Janin, who, though honoring the special ministry of the Word, firmly believed in the universal priesthood taught by St. Peter,[556] exclaimed boldly: ‘I am just as much a priest as any man, and can give absolution. God has made us all priests. I can pronounce the sacramental words, like the other priests.’ And, if we are to believe his accusers, he added: ‘You may even utter them in the house, in the kitchen.’ He then began to repeat aloud: _Hoc est corpus meum_.[557] Janin was one of those daring spirits who imagine that the more they startle their hearers, the more good they do. Still, the ministers, Farel and Viret, had no warmer friend. The prisoners who listened to him, wishing, perhaps, to prolong a discussion that amused them, started the huguenot again. ‘The Virgin Mary,’ began one. Janin, interrupting him, said: ‘The Virgin Mary was the noblest woman that ever existed in the world, inasmuch as she bore in her bosom Him who has washed us from our sins. But we must not pray to her or to the saints in paradise.’—‘And prayers for the dead,’ suggested another.—‘There is no need of them,’ said the armorer, ‘for as soon as we are dead, we are saved or condemned for everlasting, and there is no purgatory.’[558] [Sidenote: Rogation Festival.]