The bishops, proud of their victory, were eager to profit by it. Tausen was in their view the mainstay of reform; if they could but succeed in getting rid of him, the evangelical work, they thought, would come to nothing.[338] The reformer was cited to appear in the assembly hall of the magistrature of Copenhagen. The bishops were present as his accusers; the marshal of the kingdom, and some of the nobles and magistrates who were devoted to them, were to be his judges. Condemnation appeared to be inevitable. Was the blood of the reformers about to be shed in Denmark as it had been in France, in the Netherlands, in England and elsewhere? Tausen made his appearance before his judges with calmness. ‘You are accused,’ they said to him, ‘of having called the bishops tyrants and the priests idle bellies, and this in a book published by you; of having taken possession of most of the churches of Copenhagen; and of having attacked the sacrament of the altar, both by word of mouth and in writing.’ ‘I have done nothing,’ said Tausen, ‘except for the honor of God and the salvation of souls.’ Then he cleared himself of the charges brought against him; but all was useless. Tausen was condemned to death, in conformity with the canon law, and orders were given that the mass should be re-established in all the churches. The thought of Tausen being put to death, and that in the midst of the population of Copenhagen, terrified the senators, the laity, and the magistrates of the town. They conjured the bishops not to set before the people the spectacle of an execution which must inevitably excite indignation and, perhaps, occasion a revolt.[339] They succeeded ultimately in getting the capital sentence commuted into banishment, with a prohibition to preach, _to write books_, or to publish them. [Sidenote: Popular Rising At Copenhagen.]