But the priests did not think so. Master Jean, the vicar of St. Gervais, a zealous man and noisy talker, having heard of Bernard’s marriage, exclaimed from the pulpit: ‘Where is the discipline prescribed by the church, where are the commandments of the pope? Oh, horror! priests marry after they have taken the vow of chastity!’ The question of marriage and celibacy was discussed before the Council; the priest and Viret, who had given the nuptial benediction, were summoned to the Hôtel-de-ville. The reformer maintained that marriage is honorable to all men. St. Paul, when directing that the minister of the Lord should not have several wives, shows that we must not constrain him to have none at all, and if the apostle insists that he must be a good father, it follows evidently that he should be married. ‘Those who issue from the dens of the solitary and idle life called monkery or celibacy,’ said one of the reformers, ‘are like savages; while the government of a household is an apprenticeship for the government of the Church of God.’ The vicar supported his opinion by bad arguments,’ says the ‘Register,’ ‘and wandered far from the truth.’ ‘Do not corrupt the Gospel, or else we shall take proceedings against you,’ said the premier-syndic. The poor dumbfoundered vicar stammered out a few excuses and retired, promising to teach in future in conformity with their lordships’ instructions.[593] But they had no sooner shut his mouth on the question of marriage, than he opened it on that of baptism. ‘Do these heretics imagine,’ he exclaimed, ‘that the Holy Ghost can descend into the heart by other channels than the priests?... They baptize in rooms, in gardens, without blowing upon the child to drive away the wicked one.... They are _ipso facto_ excommunicate.’ The independence of Church and State was not understood in the sixteenth century. Farel complained to the Council, and the priest was about to yield, when some laymen, irritated by the defeat of Rome, came to his assistance. ‘Are these heretics already giving us the law in Geneva?’ they said to the council. ‘Only the other day they were satisfied to speak, and now they want to hinder us from doing so. We demand that it be as permissible for Master Jean to preach as it is for Master Farel.’ The syndic replied frankly:—‘We have not forbidden the vicar to preach: on the contrary we order him to preach the Gospel.’[594] It was not then understood that to command a man to preach what he did not believe was more tyrannical than to silence him.