Did Calvin and Farel attend the synod or not? It seems hardly probable that they would be willing by their presence to give a kind of sanction to an assembly from which they were virtually excluded. The letter of Berne to Geneva seems, moreover, to indicate clearly that unless they humbly received the ecclesiastical decisions of the magistrates and councils of Berne, they would only have a hearing apart. A highly partial biographer[592] states that they were seen in the town and even that they ‘went outside of it for pleasure.’ There would have been no great harm in their taking walks on the surrounding hills and on the banks of the Aar, enjoying the beauties of Swiss scenery, while they waited till it should please the lords of Berne to permit them to speak. But they would have been open to blame for not attending the synod if the order of Berne had not absolutely prohibited them. History therefore has been guilty of an error in that, while she mentions their absence from the synod, she has not reported the fact which justifies it; that is to say, the strange requirement of Berne,--a grave omission, which we would fain think was unintentional.[593] [Sidenote: ABSENCE OF CALVIN AND FAREL.] The conference between Calvin and Farel and the delegates of Berne took place. The ministers of Geneva, while they objected to the use of baptisteries and unleavened bread, had no intention of causing division on account of such things. They adhered more firmly to their views respecting festivals. ‘On what ground,’ said Calvin, ‘will you honor the day of the circumcision more than that of the death of the Redeemer?’ In fact, Good Friday was not celebrated at Berne. Kunz was silent.[594] Calvin and Farel wished that questions of this kind should be settled, not by delegates of the government but by the Church in its assemblies. They demanded therefore that the decision should be referred to a synod of the whole Reformed Church of Switzerland, which was to be held without delay at Zurich. All appearance of compulsion would thus be avoided; liberty and order would be equally respected, and the Church would be spared much grievous dissension. ‘There was an excellent remedy,’ Calvin wrote afterwards to the Zurichers, ‘by means of which danger might have been obviated; it was that we should be invited to your synod. But this we could not obtain.’[595]