An improvement, however, had just been made in the government. On February 9, 1539, the general assembly of the people having to elect the syndics of the year, not one of the citizens who had played a part in the expulsion of Calvin and his friends was chosen. The new magistrates were taken from the moderate party, and one of them, Antoine Chiccand, was attached to the reformer. The less respectable class of the people did not seem to be aware of the change, and they celebrated the accession of the new magistrates after a strange fashion. It was the time of Carnival, Easter falling that year on April 6; and although Geneva had no longer any wish for the religion of the papacy, this class of the inhabitants still kept up its festivals and its amusements. Their pastimes were numerous, burlesque, and even indecent. ‘There were mummeries, lewdness, indecent songs, dances, and blasphemies. Some went naked about the town with timbrels and pipes,’ says a contemporary.[772] Did these disorderly doings form part of the Roman Catholic reaction that was then attracting attention? We do not assert this. However it might be, the pastors complained to the council, and the latter ordered an inquiry, especially against those who went about the streets at night without their clothes. It appeared from the inquiry that ‘those who had done so were all young, and had intended nothing more than a freak of youthful folly.’ The council ‘remonstrated’ with the delinquents; and some women who had ‘danced to the songs’ were put in prison for a day, and afterwards were severely censured by the syndic. Three days later the council issued a decree which enjoined the people ‘devoutly to listen to the Word of God on Sundays, and to govern themselves according to it; not to swear nor blaspheme, nor play for gold or silver;’ and forbade them ‘to go about the town after nine o’clock without candles, to dance at any dances except at weddings, to sing any indecent songs, to disguise themselves, or to indulge in masks or mummeries.’