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

that refused to unveil themselves to him, reverently
to bow down and adore.[1]
We judged it essential to give this brief account
of the theology of the Institutes. The book was the
chest that contained the vital forces of the
Reformation. It may be likened to the living spirits
that animated the wheels in the prophet's vision.
The leagues, battles, and majestic movements of
that age all proceeded from this center of power --
these arcana of celestial forces. It is emphatically
the Reformation. The book, we have said, as it first
saw the light in Basle in 1536 was small (pp. 514);
it consisted of but six chapters, and was a sketch in
outline of the fundamental principles of the
Christian faith. The work grew into unity and
strength, grandeur and completeness, by the patient
and persevering touches of the author, and when
completed it consisted of four books and eightyfour
chapters. But as in the acorn is wrapped up all
that is afterwards evolved in the full-grown oak, so
in the first small edition of the Institutes were
contained all the great principles which we now
possess, fully developed and demonstrated, in the
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