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

salvation by grace. There rose a great commotion
round the chair whence proceeded these unwonted
sounds. With very different feelings did the pupils
of the venerable man listen to the new teaching.
The faces of some testified to the delight which his
doctrine gave them. They looked like men to
whose eyes some glorious vista had been suddenly
opened, or who had unexpectedly lighted upon
what they had long but vainly sought.
Astonishment or doubt was plainly written on the
faces of others, while the knitted brows and
flashing eyes of some as plainly bespoke the anger
that inflamed them against the man who was
razing, as they thought, the very foundations of
morality.
The agitation in the class-room of Lefevre
quickly communicated itself to the whole
university. The doctors were in a flutter.
Reasonings and objections were heard on every
side, frivolous in some cases, in others the fruit of
blind prejudice, or dislike of the doctrine. But some
few were honest, and these Lefever made it his
business to answer, being desirous to show that his
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