The citizens had certain liberties, but were under the rule of a bishop.

As this personage was usually elected from the house of the Duke of Savoy, Geneva had become little better than a dependency of that state.

The first years of the sixteenth century had been turbulent.

The bishop, John, had at one time been forced to abdicate his authority, but later had tried to resume it.

The Archbishop of Vienne, Geneva's metropolitan, had then excommunicated the city and invited Duke Charles III of Savoy to punish it.