Rise and Establishment of Protestantism at Geneva - James Aitken Wylie

almost unbearable." We hear him pouring out his
deep sighs, and expressing, like Melancthon, his
wish to die. This was much from the strong man.
The days had come, foreseen by him, and foretold
in his own expressive language to Farel, when he
should have to "offer his bleeding heart as a
sacrifice to God." But, though his heart bled, his
spirit, ever undaunted, maintained the conflict with
a patience and fortitude not to be overcome.
The Reformer returned to Geneva from his
banishment on the express promise of the Council
that the Consistory should be supreme in all
ecclesiastical causes. Without this provision Calvin
would never again have entered the gates of that
city. Not that he wished power for himself. "I
would rather die a hundred times," said he, "than
appropriate that authority which is the common
property of the Church."[4] But unless the
sentences of the spiritual court were final, how
could order and moral rule be upheld? and without
the supremacy of moral law, of what use would his
presence in Geneva be to Protestantism? But this
essential point was all the more the object of attack
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