Calvin witnessed the execution from his window, and was soon after congratulated on what he had done by the Cantons of Zurich, Schaffhausen, Basle, and Berne. The learned Melancthon wrote to him, “Your magistrates have acted in accordance with right and justice in having this blasphemer put to death.” These acts of cruelty and vengeance, nevertheless, have excited the just indignation of several Protestant historians, who deplore the loss to Geneva of her ancient liberties and franchises. “For more than eight hundred years,” says Fazy, “the harmony between the cause of the people and that of religion had placed Geneva in the van of civilisation. Its laws were mild, acts of violence were rare, confiscation was unknown, and nowhere do we find any traces of people being persecuted for their opinions.” [Illustration: Fig. 343.--Ornament from the “Historia Testamenti” of Pierre Comestor.--MS. dated 1229. Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.] BURIALS AND FUNERAL CEREMONIES. Embalming and Incineration of Bodies amongst the Ancients.--Interment brought into practice by Christianity.--The Wrapping of the Dead in Shrouds.--The Direction in which the Bodies were laid.--Absolution Crosses.--Funeral Furniture.--Coffins and Sarcophagi in the Middle Ages.--Funereal Sculpture and Architecture, from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century.--The Catacombs at Rome.--Charnel-houses in the Churches.--Public Cemeteries.--The Cemetery of the Innocents, Paris.--Lanterns for the Dead.--Funerals of the Kings and Queens of France.--The Rolls of the Dead.--Consoling Thought of the Resurrection and of Eternal Life. In the most remote epoch of the world’s history we find that the dead were treated with respect, not to say worshipped; for a natural, sentiment leads savage as well as civilised man to pay the last tribute of affection to the bodies of those for whom he once felt affection, esteem, or fear. Such is the moral principle of the various modes of burial which have been successively practised, viz., embalming, incineration, and interment. Many ancient nations, and especially the Egyptians, who sought to preserve the human body for an indefinite length of time, embalmed their dead with extreme care, or rather, we should say, with wonderful art. The Greeks generally burnt their dead and collected their ashes in urns; with the Romans the custom of burning was usual, at least amongst the rich, and lasted long after the establishment of Christianity, which dogmatically enjoined the interment of the dead, though this mode of sepulture had before been confined to slaves, suicides, and the poor.