during monument to the zeal and sagacity
of his exertions.

[Sidenote: Meets with bitter opposition,]

[Sidenote: but obtains the support of the people.]

In his arduous undertaking, however, Calvin had to encounter no little
opposition in the very city of Geneva. It was this, even more than
bodily infirmity, that bore severely upon his spirits, and robbed him of
the rest demanded alike by his overtaxed body and mind. His advocacy of
strenuous discipline procured him relentless enemies among the Genevese
of the "Libertine" party. Those were stormy times for Calvin, when, in
derision of the student, legislator, and theologian, deafening salutes
were fired by night before his doors, and when the dogs were set upon
him in the streets.[423] But, when we read of the violent antagonism
elicited by the publication of the severe provisions of the
"Ordinances," regulating even the minor details of the life of a
Genevese citizen, it must not be forgotten that the unpopular system,
although devised by Calvin, was not imposed by him upon unwilling
subjects, but established by a free and decisive vote of the people, in
the exercise of its sovereignty, and influenced to its adoption by the
same considerations that had determined Calvin himself in devising
it.[424]

[Sidenote: An estimate of Calvin by Etienne Pasquier.]

Such a man could not fail to secure the respect of his opponents, and
the undisguised admiration of all who could regard his character and
work with some degree of impartiality. Among the most virtuous of his
contemporaries was the excellent Etienne Pasquier, who described him as
he appeared in the eyes of men of culture--men who, without forsaking
the Roman Catholic Church, were stanch friends of reform and of
progress. "He was a man," says Pasquier, "that wrote equally well in
Latin and in French, and to whom our French tongue is greatly indebted
for having enriched it with an infinite number of fine touches. It were
my wish that it had been for a better subject. He was a man, moreover,
marvellously versed and nurtured in the books of the Holy Scriptures,
and such that, had he directed his mind in the right way, he might have
ranked with the most illustrious doctors of the church. And, in the
midst of his books and his studies, he was possessed of the most active
zeal for the progress of his sect. We sometimes saw our prisons
overflowing with poor, misled people, whom he unceasingly exhorted,
consoled, and com