Rise and Establishment of Protestantism at Geneva - James Aitken Wylie

Restitutio.
From this moment Calvin quits the scene. The
course of the affair was precisely what it would
have been although he had not been in Geneva at
all. His influence with the Council was then at
zero. We think we can see the end served thereby,
though Calvin could not. To him it was only
mortifying as betokening impending overthrow to
the Reformation in Geneva. Writing to Bullinger at
Zurich, on the 7th of September, he says: "Were I
to declare that it is day at high-noon, they [the
Council] would immediately begin to doubt it."
That is all which he could put on paper, but, adds
he, "our brother Walther [the son-in-law of
Bullinger] will tell you more." This shows that the
idea entertained by some that the Reformer was at
that time all-powerful with the Council, and that he
dictated the sentence it was to pronounce, is an
entire misapprehension.
Footnotes:
1. Ruchat, tom. 6, p. 39.
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