Rise and Establishment of Protestantism at Geneva - James Aitken Wylie

silently, but with a deeper power, and a higher
moral glow.
The leading stages of Luther's history repeat
themselves in that of Calvin, but after a different
fashion. In the career of each there is a marked
point of commencement, and a marked point of
culmination. The nailing of the ninety-five Theses
to the church door at Wittenberg has its analogue,
or corresponding act, in the publication of the
Institutes at Basle. The one manifesto struck and
stirred Christendom even as did the other. Each
notified the entrance of its author upon a high
career. They were two mighty voices telling the
world that great instructors had been sent to it, and
bidding it hear them. Again, the appearance of
Luther before the Diet at Worms has its
corresponding act in the victory of Calvin over the
Libertines of Geneva, when at the risk of life he
barred their way to the Communion-table. The first
was the more dramatic, the second was the more
evangelically grand. Both were needed fully to
define the office and place of the Reformation. The
first demonstrated the Gospel's power to withstand
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