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

We left Calvin setting out from Poictiers in the
end of April, 1534, attended by the young Canon
Du Tillet, whose soul cleaved to the Reformer, and
who did not discover till two years afterwards,
when he began to come in sight of the stake, that
something stronger than even the most devoted
love to Calvin was necessary to enable him to
cleave to the Gospel which Calvin preached.
Calvin would be twenty-five on the 10th of July.
This is the age at which, according to the canons,
one who has passed his novitiate in the Church
must take the first orders of priesthood. Calvin had
not yet done so, he had not formally broken with
Rome, but now he must take up his position
decidedly within or decidedly without the Church.
At an early age the initiatory mark of servitude to
the Pope had been impressed upon his person. His
head had been shorn. The custom, which is a very
ancient one, is borrowed from the temples of
paganism. The priests of Isis and Serapis, Jerome
informs us, officiated in their sanctuaries with
shorn crowns, as do the priests of Rome at this day.
Calvin must now renew his vow and consummate
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