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

The day has broken. This utterance of Lefevre
assures us of that. It is but a single ray, it is true;
but it comes from Heaven, it is light Divine, and
will yet scatter the darkness that broods over
France. It has already banished the gloom of
monkery from the soul of Lefevre; it will do the
same for his pupils -- for his countrymen, and he
knows that he has not received the light to put it
under a bushel. Of all places, the Sorbonne was the
most dangerous in which to proclaim the new
doctrine. For centuries no one but the schoolmen
had spoken there, and now to proclaim in the
citadel and sanctuary of scholasticism a doctrine
that would explode what had received the
reverence, as it had been the labor, of ages, and
promised, as was thought, eternal fame to its
authors, was enough to make the very stones cry
out from the venerable walls, and was sure to draw
down a tempest of scholastic ire on the head of the
adventurous innovator. Lefevre had attained an age
which is proverbially wary, if not timid; he knew
well the risks to which he was exposing himself,
nevertheless he went on to teach the doctrine of
14