Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

troubles of the civil war. Leaving Poictiers, he
journeyed on foot to Geneva, his Hebrew Bible
slung at his belt,[3] and in a few days after his
arrival he was elected to fill the chair of Humanity,
then vacant, in the famous academy which Calvin
had founded ten years before, and which, as
regards the fame of its masters and the number of
its scholars, now rivaled the ancient universities of
Europe.[4] His appointment brought him into daily
intercourse with the scholars, ministers, and
senators of Geneva, and if the Scotsman delighted
in their urbanity and learning, they no less admired
his candor, vivacity, and manifold acquirements.
The Massacre of St. Bartholomew took place
during Melville's residence in Geneva, and that
terrible event, by crowding Geneva with refugees,
vastly enlarged his acquaintance with the
Protestants of the Continent. There were at one
time as many as 120 French ministers in that
hospitable city, and among other learned strangers
was Joseph Scaliger, the greatest scholar of his age,
with whom Melville renewed an acquaintance
which had been begun two years before. The
horrors of this massacre, of which he had had so
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