‘Everybody persecutes me,’ he exclaimed; ‘it is not on the part of men that I am sent!’ And he loaded his colleagues with insults, threats, and innumerable calumnies. ‘Truly,’ said Farel, ‘the man speaks like a Mars or a Bacchus.’[432] ‘It is not I,’ Farel said to him, ‘that made you a preacher; I always suspected you too much.’ ‘No,’ replied Denis, ‘I was sent by the Bernese, and we shall see whether you dare resist them.’ Calvin then rose to speak, and we must notice it as the first occasion of his taking part in the government of the Church. He entreated Denis in the name of them all to resign the holy ministry, promised that he should be provided for. Denis cared nothing for this young doctor, and refused to comply with his request. Farel desired to separate him from the population to which his life was a scandal. The Bernese bailiff of Thonon thought that Denis was monk from head to foot, and that he ought to be relegated to the convent of the Augustinians of that town. Although they were influenced quite as much by political as by religious motives, and made some mistakes, as in the case of Caroli, the lords of Berne neglected no means of enlightening the Vaudois, and of leading them to accept with their heart the evangelical doctrines. They enjoined on all fathers and mothers, all pastors and bailiffs, the duty of seeing that children were well instructed according to the Gospel. Without going so far as to say, as some have alleged, that education is everything, the Bernese did believe that _if a child be trained up in the way he should go, he will not depart from it_.[433] [Sidenote: BERNESE EDICT OF REFORMATION.] To crown its work, the council of Berne made, on Christmas eve, December 24, 1536, a complete edict of reformation for its new territories; and at the beginning of 1537 it caused proclamation to be made in all the country that the ministers were to preach purely the Word of God; that they were to celebrate only two sacraments, baptism and the supper; that it was lawful to eat flesh at any time; that ecclesiastics were not forbidden to marry; that all popish ceremonies, masses, processions, lustrations, pilgrimages, and ringing of bells for the dead and for bad weather, were abolished. These were followed by many ordinances against gluttony, drunkenness, impurity, adultery, blasphemy, gaming, military service abroad, and dancing. Three modest dances for marriage festivals were, however, conceded.[434] Priests and monks were at liberty to remain in the country, where they received fitting allowances, or if they preferred it, to withdraw into a Catholic country. The canons of Lausanne having no wish to be witnesses of such a reform, took the latter course. They crossed the lake and settled at Evian. The sisters of Sainte-Claire of Vevey did the same.[435]