Rise and Establishment of Protestantism at Geneva - James Aitken Wylie

path which Blessed feet had trodden before him.
With a sublime grandeur of soul, which laudation
could not enhance, and which the basest contumely
could not degrade, he purged off these foul
accretions, maintained the lofty mood of his mind,
and went on in the performance of his mighty task.
It was not possible, one would think, that the
sky could grow darker above Calvin; and yet
darker it did become. He whom we see already so
sorely stricken is to be yet more deeply wounded.
All these years Idelette de Bure had been by his
side. Tender of heart, magnanimous of soul, loving,
confiding, constant, she soothed her husband in his
trials, watched by his sick-bed, exercised
hospitality to his friends and numerous visitors, or
in her closet prayed, while Calvin was being
assailed by the ribald insults and outrages of the
street. The love and entire devotion of his wife was
among his chief joys. But, alas! her frail and
delicate health gave way under the pressure of a
protracted illness, and .early in 1549, Idelette de
Bure died. "Oh, glorious resurrection!" were her
last words. "God of Abraham and of all our fathers,
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