The people drew from the disputation another consequence. The most ardent even of the reformers had, while the debates lasted, tolerated the images in the cathedral. Viret had shown that God prohibited them, and that they turn men away from the true service of God. ‘The priests,’ he had said, ‘for their convenience set in their own place preachers of wood and of stone, the images, arraying them in rich garments at the cost of the poor. And as for themselves, they sleep, they make good cheer, and are free from care. These images are their vicars, they do their work, and they cost nothing to feed. And the poor people are stupefied and kiss the wood and the stone.’[417] No one had answered Viret. It was in vain that the defenders of images had been invited to come forward; not one appeared. For the reformed it seemed therefore a legitimate course to remove them from the cathedral. A sinister rumor of this project alarmed the canons, and they resolved to do their utmost to resist the impious proceeding. They took the keys of the cathedral and, running to the sacred edifice, closed the doors that no one might be able to carry off the objects of their veneration. In spite of all their precautions one of the images was removed. The fact was immediately noised over the town. The most grievous blow had just fallen on our great Lady of Lausanne! The reformed honored the mother of the Saviour as a blessed woman, but they refused to make a goddess of her. The clamor and threats of the priests recalled to mind the cries of the worshippers of Diana at Ephesus, spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles, who said, ‘The temple of the great goddess Diana is in danger of being despised and her magnificence of being destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.’[418] The canons not feeling themselves strong enough for the occasion, betook themselves to the council, gave up to them the keys of the cathedral, and implored them to protect the building and what it contained.[419] But the reformed, who earnestly longed to see worship given to God alone, turned their back on those figures of wood and stone: Dès maintenant, trompeuse idole, D’un culte honteux et frivole, Nous n’entourons plus tes autels. [Sidenote: BERNESE ORDINANCES.]