Rise and Establishment of Protestantism at Geneva - James Aitken Wylie

of the Protestant faith. A few weeks, however, put
all right, by giving a majority of votes in Meiry to
the Reformation. Thus did the Gospel cast down
the strongholds of error, and its preacher, in the
midst of weakness, was triumphant. The spring and
summer sufficed to establish the Reformed faith in
great part of this region.
The Protestant hero Farel was now advancing
to complete his conquest of Neuchatel. During his
absence the Reformation had been fermenting. He
entered the city at the right moment. Despite the
opposition of the princess, of George de Rive, her
deputy, and the priests, who sounded the tocsin to
rouse the people, the magistrates, after deliberation,
passed a decree opening the cathedral to the
Reformed worship; and the citizens, forming round
Farel, and climbing the hill on which the cathedral
stood, placed him in the pulpit, notwithstanding the
resistance of the canons. The solemnity of the crisis
hushed the vast congregation into stillness. Farel's
sermon was one of the most powerful he had ever
delivered, and when he closed, lo a mighty wind,
felt though it could not be seen, passed over the
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