But after the monks came the priests. Monseigneur de Bonmont, vicar-episcopal, had, at the request of the council, assembled the canons and the secular clergy at his house. The same day (12th August) in the afternoon, a distinguished deputation of syndics and councillors, wishing to honor the church, went to the grand-vicar, instead of making him come to the hôtel-de-ville like the monks. The wise and pious Savoye, who had been elected spokesman, informed the priests that a summary of the great disputation having been drawn up, it was about to be read to them, 'that they might come to a better decision.' The latter displayed less weakness than the monks. Indignant that laymen should presume to catechise the priesthood, they replied haughtily: 'We do not want to hear your debate, and we do not care what Farel said. We wish to live as we have hitherto done, and beg you will leave us in peace.' As the priests rejected the opportunity given them of justifying their doctrines, the representatives of the state interdicted them from celebrating mass until further orders. Some days later the council ordered them 'to worship God according to the Gospel,' and forbade them to perform 'any act of popish idolatry.'[587]
A great and salutary revolution was thus carried out. The Romish priests, seeing their vast temples now silent, their rich abbeys now bare, and themselves reduced to silence, determined to quit Geneva. The fear of being detained made them have recourse to various expedients. In the evening or early in the morning they stole out of the city, or else, hiding in some corner during the day, they fled during the night. Priests, laymen, women holding their children's hands, bade adieu to the cheerful city, to the shores of the beautiful lake, and to its smiling hills. They loved Rome and Rome was sufficient for them. On the 13th of August a cry of alarm was heard in the council: 'Geneva,' it was said, 'by losing a part of its population, will lose its importance.' But it was the contrary that happened. Confessors of the Gospel compelled to quit their country in the cause of faith, and especially Frenchmen, were to fill up the void made by the adherents of the pope.
The exodus continued day and night, but not without difficulty. Jean Regis, a priest, and two of his colleagues crept one dark night to the back of St. Victor's convent, entered the stables, and took out three horses. They were preparing to mount them when they were arrested. The council assembled at two hours after midnight, and sent to prison the priests who were running away on stolen horses.[588] The council prevented the clergy from laying hands upon what did not belong to them, but not from going wherever they pleased.