it brought forth a strong and
good race. The noblest examples are not the theologians, Calvin and
Knox, not only drunk with God but drugged with him, much less
politicians like Henry of Navarre and William of Orange, but the rank
and file of the Huguenots of France, the Puritans of England, "the
choice and sifted seed wherewith God sowed the wilderness" of America.
These men bore themselves with I know not what of lofty seriousness,
and with a matchless disdain of all mortal peril and all earthly
grandeur. Believing themselves chosen vessels and elect instruments of
grace, they could neither {168} be seduced by carnal pleasure nor awed
by human might. Taught that they were kings by the election of God and
priests by the imposition of his hands, they despised the puny and
vicious monarchs of this earth. They remained, in fact, what they
always felt themselves to be, an elite, "the chosen few."

Having finished his great work, Calvin set out on his wanderings again.
For a time he was at the court of the sympathetic Renee de France,
Duchess of Ferrara. When persecution broke out here, he again fled
northward, and came, by chance, to Geneva. [Sidenote: Geneva] Here
Farel was waging an unequal fight with the old church. Needing
Calvin's help he went to him and begged his assistance, calling on God
to curse him should he not stay. "Struck with terror," as Calvin
himself confessed, he consented to do so.

Beautifully situated on the blue waters of Lake Leman in full view of
Mont Blanc, Geneva was at this time a town of 16,000 inhabitants, a
center of trade, pleasure, and piety. 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. The citizens rose under Bonivard, renounced the authority of the
pope, expelled the bishop and broke up the religious houses. To guard
against the vengeance of the duke, a league was made with Berne and
Freiburg.

On October 2, 1532, William Farel arrived from Berne. At Geneva as
elsewhere tumult followed his {169} preaching, bu