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

prouder victories to be won over greater opponents.
The future Chancellor of the Kingdom of France --
for no inferior position had Gerard Chauvin elected
for his son to fill -- had taken his first step on the
road which would most surely conduct him to this
high dignity. Step after step -- to his genius how
easy! -- would bring him to it; and there having
passed life in honorable labor, he would leave his
name inscribed among those of the legislators and
philosophers of France, while his bust would adorn
the Louvre, or the Hall of Justice, and his bones,
inurned in marble, would sleep in some cathedral
aisle of Paris. Such was the prospect that opened
out before the eye of his father, and, it is possible,
before his own also at this period of his life. Very
grand it was, but not nearly so grand as that which
ended in a simple grave by the Rhone, marked only
by a pine-tree, with a name like the brightness of
the firmament, that needed no chiselled bust and no
marble cenotaph to keep it in remembrance. Calvin
next went to Bourges. He was attracted to this city
by the fame of Alciati of Milan, who was lecturing
on law in its university. The Italian loved a good
table, and a well-filled purse, but he had the gift of
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