He remonstrated with the people, as if they intended, in his opinion, to defile the holy sacrament,’[632] and he declared that, to prevent such a profanation, the holy supper would not be celebrated. These words moved the whole assembly, and roused a great part of them to indignation. Adversaries became disorderly, friends were in alarm. Imaginations were heated, anger burst forth, and outcries were heard. _In the morning a disturbance was got up against Farel in the church of St. Gervais._[633] But the preacher’s habit was to brave danger; and, above all, he knew no fear when unworthy men Voulaient du Dieu vivant braver la majesté. [Sidenote: DISTURBANCE AT ST. GERVAIS.] He therefore went on. His popular eloquence, his animated movements, his imagery so well adapted to make his ideas more lively and more obvious, his energetic gestures, his voice like thunder, the resounding of which, according to Theodore Beza, made his hearers tremble, made him the most captivating of the orators of France and Switzerland. Farel, who generally spoke extempore, could not but be struck at the spectacle which presented itself to him, for the congregation in such circumstances always reacts on the preacher. He was standing in the presence of a stormy sea, the surging waves of which appeared about to engulf him. But he felt that he stood on a rock, and he had learnt long ago to brave the tempest. He then courageously unfolded the act of accusation. He set forth those things which would profane the supper. He enumerated ‘those divisions, those bands, those blasphemies, those profligacies which were multiplying, and which made it impossible for the ministers to administer it.’[634] For a long time people could not listen to him without being charmed, but it was quite otherwise at this moment. Men’s minds were more and more agitated, hearts were rebellious, the opposition burst forth, voices changed by passion were heard, and the disturbance of which the chronicler tells filled the church of St. Gervais. Farel, however, kept the upper hand. His character and his action awed the rebels. His friends protected his departure, and he succeeded in reaching his own house unharmed. Meanwhile Calvin was preaching at St. Peter’s. What was passing there? [Sidenote: CALVIN’S MORNING SERMON.]