Extract from the Book of Martyrs by Jean Crespin (1556)

Jean Crespin describes the case of a group of French Reformers based in Geneva and sent by the Consistoire to preach the gospel in Savoy. Arrested by a prevost of the marshals, they were brought before the parlement of Chambéry on a charge of heresy. Jean Crespin relates the procedure by reproducing with documentary precision the correspondence with their friends in Geneva.

Since the Lord in his goodness has brought his gospels to the town of Geneva, and his servants having already been there for more than twenty years, many brave champions departed, as from their own home, to take the truth to the people. And at that time, five excellent bearers of witness of the truth and of doctrine appeared before the parlement of Chambéry: of whom the three most notable were Jean Vernou, native of Poitiers, Antoine Laborie, native of Caiarc in Quercy, doctor of law, having been a royal judge in the said Caiare, and Jean Trigalet, native of Nîmes in Languedoc, doctor of law, having been chosen with the consent of the Church of Geneva, to go and preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus, willingly and with all humility accepted this task: as they had been long in the service of God, and were not stupid enough to be unable to see the clear dangers and the pyres as if already lit, nevertheless, the true zeal with which they went to serve for the glory of God, according to their most holy vocation, made them despise all the barbarous cruelties of the enemies of truth, and if a good person had said to them to them as they set out on their journey, that there was great danger and that they could be arrested on the way, all thought of fear put aside, nothing would have prevented them from carrying on with their calling.

[Later in the text Crespin reproduces an extract from a letter from Antoine Laborie to his friends:]

Afterwards we were interrogated on the Last Supper, the Mass, on Purgatory and on Confession and other sacraments. And each item was so debated between them and us, that they were left without anything to say: it would take too long to tell you everything that was discussed. It suffices that each one of us responded according to the measure of his faith, so that the enemies were completely rebuffed and confused in any case about this good God.

In the end, we asked them if we could speak a little of the Pope, making the offer that if they could prove to us through Holy Scripture that the Pope was the head of the Church of Jesus Christ, that we would obey all his ordinances, but they never wished to understand this point, nor in any way to debate it. And then we said that, as they did not wish to prove that the Pope was head of the Church, that we would offer to prove and sustain though the texts of the Holy Scripture, that the said Pope was the Antichrist, and that they should provide us with a Bible, as we had requested of them several times, and which they had never wished to do.

[another letter shows the outcome of the trial:]

You have understood little of our condition, and what hope we had in the outcome of our case, without knowing that we received a sentence of death, we would be led to sacrifice the following day, which was market day, and for this reason the faggots and chains were already in place, and that it only remained to fix the stakes and place the faggots on which we would be stood......The following day others were called on in judgement, they debated once more and it was concluded that Jesus Christ would never have been burned as a heretic and we were his followers and that to avoid scandalising the people, he, like a thief or brigand, would have been be sent to the galleys.

Source: Jean Crespin, Actes des martyrs déduits en sept livres, Genève, Jean Crespin, 1555, p. 624 ff.