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

Chapter 10
Calvin at Paris, and Francis
Negotiating With Germany
and England
BERQUIN, the peer of France, and, greater
still, the humble Christian and zealous evangelist,
was no more. Many thought they saw in him that
assemblage of intellectual gifts and evangelical
virtues which fitted him for being the Reformer of
his native land. However, it was not so to be. His
light had shone brightly but, alas! briefly; it was
now extinguished. Of Berquin there remained only
a heap of ashes, over which the friends of
Protestantism mourned, while its enemies exulted.
But it was the ashes of Berquin merely, not of his
cause, that lay around the stake. When the martyr
went up in the chariot which, unseen by the crowd,
waited to carry him to the sky, his mantle fell on
one who was standing near, and who may be said
to have seen him as he ascended. From the burning
pile in the Place de Greve, the young evangelist of
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