Note 68 — CLXVII.—To Farel.[68]

Certain persons having obtained from the magistrate permission to act in public a Morality, entitled, The Acts of the Apostles, which had received the approbation of the ministers; one of them, named Michael Cop, less conciliatory than his colleagues, preached a very violent discourse in the church of St. Peter, and said that the women who should mount the theatre to act that farce, would be shameless creatures. These words stirred up a great tumult in the city, and Calvin required to put forth all his influence to quiet the agitation, and to preserve the life of his imprudent colleague.

The plays were celebrated in presence of Viret. "It is ordained," say the Registers of Council, "that booths be erected for our seigneurs, that they may comfortably witness the representation of the Acts of the Apostles."—1st July 1546. It does not appear, however, that these representations were frequently repeated. "Upon the remonstrances of the ministers," we read in the Registers, "resolved to delay the representations of the theatre to a less calamitous time."—July 1546. Ruchat, vol. v. p. 313. The minister inculpated was not Abel Poupin, as Ruchat relates, but Michael Cop, as the Registers attest.