From Rise of Protestantism in France to Publication of the Institutes - James Aitken Wylie

Paris. And, although they had known it, they could
as little have conjectured that when that young
scholar had bowed to the force of the truth, a
mightier power would have taken its place at the
side of the Gospel than if Francis and all his court
had become its patrons and champions. Light
cannot be spread by edict of king, or by sword of
soldier. It is the Bible, preached by the evangelist,
and testified to by the martyr, that is to bid the
Gospel, like the day, shine forth and bless the
earth.
From the hour of Calvin's conversion he
became the center of the Reformation in France,
and by-and-by the center of the Reformation in
Christendom: consequently in tracing the several
stages of his career we are chronicling the
successive developments of the great movement of
Protestantism. His eyes were opened, and he saw
the Church of Rome disenchanted of that illusive
splendor -- that pseudo-Divine authority -- which
had aforetime dazzled and subdued him. Where
formerly there stood a spiritual building, the House
of God, the abode of truth, as he believed, there
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