The magistrates ordered the gates to be kept closed in the morning till long after the usual hour.

It was of no avail.

Bolts and bars were but small impediments to enthusiasts who had travelled so many miles on foot or horseback to listen to a sermon.

They climbed the walls, swam the moat and thronged to the place of meeting long before the doors had been opened.

When these could no longer be kept closed without a conflict, for which the magistrates were not prepared, the whole population poured out of the city with a single impulse.