Next day, the 17th, the Judges made a perquisition in the house of
Arnoullet, the publisher and printer, in his absence, he being away
at the time on business at Toulouse; and there also they had Geroult,
the superintendent of the printing establishment, brought before them.
After a lengthened interrogatory of the foreman, in which nothing was
elicited, they proceeded to search the house and printing office,
examining Arnoullet’s papers minutely, but without finding a word
to compromise him in any way. The workmen on the establishment were
then severally examined. They were shown the printed leaves of the
‘Christianismi Restitutio’ and asked if they knew anything of the
book of which the leaves were a part; or if they recognised the type,
or could give any information as to the books they had had a hand in
composing or printing during the last eighteen months or so. But they
all agreed in saying that the four leaves shown them had not been
printed in the office; and among all the books that had issued from
their presses during the last two years, a list of which was supplied,
there was not one in the octavo form. The search and inquiry over, the
officials had the entire staff of the printing establishment brought
into their presence, and cautioned them against saying a word of all
they had been asked about, on pain of being declared suspected or even
convicted of heresy and punished accordingly.
On the 18th, Arnoullet, having but just returned from Toulouse, was
visited and examined; but all the papers about him being found in
order and his replies in complete conformity with those of his manager
Geroult, he too was dismissed. The authorities found themselves at
fault, but by no means satisfied that the information they had had
from Geneva was groundless. An adjournment was therefore resolved
on, an informal consultation being, however, held meantime at the
archiepiscopal palace of Vienne. And it is not perhaps without
significance that it is only now that we find the archbishop of
Vienne, Pierre Paumier, named in connection with the proceedings, and
his palace spoken of as the place of assembly. It was at this moment
in fact that Paumier had the first intimation of what was going
on. At the meeting it was decided that nothing had been discovered
sufficiently positive to warrant the arrest of anyone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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