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

was pursuing in the towns of Germany and amid
the hills of the Swiss. But God, he tells us,
"comforted him by his Word."
Calvin had quitted Noyon a mere lad; he
returns to it on the verge of manhood (1529),
bringing back to it the same pale face and burning
eye which had marked him as a boy. Within, what
a mighty change! but that change his townsmen
saw not, nor did even he himself suspect its extent;
for as yet he had not a thought of leaving the
communion of Rome. He would cleanse and
rebuttress the old fabric, by proclaiming the truth
within it. But an experiment which he made on a
small scale at Noyon helped doubtless to show him
that the tottering structure would but fall in pieces
in his hands should he attempt restoration merely.
The fame of the young scholar had reached
even these northern parts of France, and the friends
and companions of his youth wanted to hear him
preach. If a half-suspicion of heresy had reached
their ears along with the rumor of his great
attainments, it only whetted their eagerness to hear
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