The two Bernese ambassadors, accompanied by Viret and Ritter, entered Geneva alone, and were immediately received (May 23) by the council. They stated that the deputies of the cantons who met recently at Zurich had been unanimously of opinion that it was just to allow Farel, Calvin, and Courault to re-enter the town in order to explain and defend themselves from the accusations made against them; and that if their justification were accepted, their restoration to their offices could not be refused. ‘Do you not owe this mark of gratitude to them,’ they said, ‘and especially to Farel, who has undergone so much labor and suffering for the good of this people? In short is it not essential to deprive the enemies of the Reformation of an occasion for rejoicing, as they would rejoice at the banishment without hope of returning of the men who established it in Geneva?’ The council replied that it could not accede to this demand, because the ministers had been sent away by the decision of the Council of the Two Hundred and of the general council; the Little Council having only required that they should be committed to prison. In consequence of this the Council of the Two Hundred was convoked for the next day, May 24. The attendance was not at all numerous, only fourteen members being present, doubtless because the meeting appeared to be a mere formality, and because the battle had to be fought and decided in the general council. The members present, among whom were the most thoroughgoing enemies of the reformers, decreed that the resolutions previously taken must be maintained; and for the rest, they referred the deputies of Berne to the assembly of the people.[699]