GREAT CONFUSION IN GENEVA.--THE COUNCIL OF BERNE MAKES A FRUITLESS INTERVENTION. (END OF APRIL, 1538.) Meanwhile, the friends of the Gospel in Geneva had received a very severe blow, which had fallen on them in an unexpected way. Many were plunged into excessive grief; some lost all hope of ever seeing the Gospel honored in that turbulent city. Some mourned silently, others spoke their grief aloud. The most pious of them undoubtedly expected from the faithfulness of God that restoration of faith, order, and prosperity for which they longed so ardently. But ‘all good men,’ says Beza, ‘saw with great pain their three pastors, in obedience to the edict of banishment,’[661] depart from that town to which they had desired to do so much good; and with regretful eyes, or with tender thoughts, they followed them as if they could not part with them. [Sidenote: GREAT CONFUSION IN GENEVA.] The vulgar and mischievous demonstrations by which the most lawless part of the population celebrated its triumph still further aggravated the grief of serious men. The discomfiture of the pastors was laughed at and turned into ridicule. Professional jesters have almost all a false and superficial wit, and in every country it rains insects of this kind.[662] They were not wanting at Geneva. We do not know whether they went on the stage, but they played in masquerades. Large bodies of these jesters were seen parading the streets, laughing, brawling, and making disturbances. One of them, and he was the principal personage, was holding a fryingpan by its long handle; and in the fryingpan were lamp-wicks, which were called in the patois of the country _farets_. Those who surrounded this standard-bearer exclaimed that they had fricasseed _Farel_ (and his colleagues with him) like chickens or turnips which are cut in pieces and then cooked in a stewpan. These poor wretches were at bottom right: the ministers had in fact been burned over a slow fire. _Bons mots_ and sarcasms gave a relish to this strange dish; and there were persons in those days who would have been glad to see the ministers who left Geneva ‘fall out of the fryingpan into the fire’--from one state of vexation into another still worse. Insults and derision were showered from all quarters. ‘Processions of this sort usually end in debauchery. The citizens took license,’ says Rozet, ‘for impurity, dancing, games, and drunkenness.’ ‘Nothing was talked of but masquerades, gallantries, and excesses in wine and good cheer.’[663] Thus did the mass of the population celebrate the departure of the pastors. ‘The wicked travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.’