Page 24 - 12 The French Reformation
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thoughtful, quiet youth, already giving
evidence of a powerful and penetrating mind,
and no less marked for the blamelessness of
his life than for intellectual ardor and
religious devotion. His genius and application
soon made him the pride of the college, and it
was confidently anticipated that John Calvin
would become one of the ablest and most
honored defenders of the church. But a ray of
divine light penetrated even within the walls
of scholasticism and superstition by which
Calvin was enclosed. He heard of the new
doctrines with a shudder, nothing doubting
that the heretics deserved the fire to which
they were given. Yet all unwittingly he was
brought face to face with the heresy and
forced to test the power of Romish theology
to combat the Protestant teaching.
