One day the populace of the capital having insulted the Huguenots as they were returning from divine service, the gentlemen of the Reform resolved to be present at the next meeting to the number of 2000 horsemen, with the intention, if the insult should be repeated, of seizing upon the adjoining churches and expelling the monks. There were frequent conflicts in the city, and in one of them, known as the riot of St. Medard, both parties were equally violent and equally guilty. It appears that, on St. John’s Day, the priests of the Church of St. Medard, in the southern suburb beyond the walls, rang the bells in their belfry to drown the voice of the Huguenot preaching in an adjoining house. The congregation remonstrated, and one of their number was fired on and killed. The Huguenots drew their swords directly. Andelot entered the Church on horseback, and in the struggle that followed fifty persons were killed and wounded. The riot was renewed the next day by the Catholics, who broke into the house where the Protestants used to worship, and burned it to the ground after smashing the pulpit and benches to pieces. The matter was taken up by the Parliament of Paris, and the next year (1562), at the close of a procession to expiate the profanation of the church, a great number of citizens suspected of heresy were hanged or drowned without trial, among them being the captain of the watch[266] and some archers whose only crime was that they had not stopped the riot. They were pelted by the children, and “if they had possessed a hundred lives all would have been taken, the people were so exasperated.” The corpses of the poor wretches were seized by some fanatics, who dragged them through the streets and then flung them into the river.[267] The nuncio Santa Croce wrote to the court of Rome: “Some Huguenots are put to death every day. Yesterday, four of those who committed such sacrilege in the Church of St. Medard were burned, and to-day they are preparing for a similar spectacle.”[268]