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

stage – Calvin and Catherine de Medici. The one
was taken from an obscure town in the north of
France; the other came from a city already glorified
by the renown of its men of letters, and the state
and power of its princes. The former was the
grandson of a cooper; the latter was of the lineage
of the princely House of Tuscany. Catherine was
placed in the Louvre, with the resources of a
kingdom at her command; Calvin was removed
outside of France altogether, where, in a small
town hidden among the hills of the Swiss, he might
stand and fight his great battle. But as yet
Catherine had not reached the throne, nor was
Calvin at Geneva. Death had to open the way that
the first might ascend to power, and years of
wandering and peril had yet to be gone through
before the latter should enter the friendly gates of
the capital of the Genevese.
We return for a moment to Marseilles.
Catheline de Medici had placed her cold hand in
that of Henry of Valois, and by the act a new link
had been forged which was to bind together, more
firmly than ever, the two countries of Italy and
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