Pierre de l'Etoile's youthful hearers received from these words those deep impressions which, being made while the character is forming, are calculated to last through life. The mind of man required time to throw off these legal prejudices, which had been the universal law of the understanding for more than a thousand years.[11] Could it be expected that a young disciple, rising up against the most venerable teachers, should draw a distinction between the temporal and the spiritual sphere, between the old and the new economy, and insist that, inasmuch as grace had been proclaimed by virtue of the great sacrifice offered to eternal justice, it was repugnant to the Gospel of Christ for man to avenge the law of God by severe punishments? No: during the sixteenth, and even the seventeenth century, almost all enlightened minds remained, in this respect, sunk in lamentable error. Calvin, bashful and timid at first, gradually came round; his society was courted, and he conversed readily with all. He was received into the Picard nation. 'I swear,' he said, 'to guard the honour of the university and of my nation.'[12] Yet he did not suffer himself to be bound by the university spirit: he had a larger mind than his fellow-students, and we find him in relation with men of all nations, towards whom he was drawn by a community of affection and study. Etoile gave his lessons in the monastery of Bonne Nouvelle. Calvin listened silently to the master's words, but between the lessons he talked with his companions, went in and out, or paced up and down the hall like the rest. One day, going up to one of the pillars, he took out his knife and carved a C, then an A, and at last there stood the word CALVIN, as the historian of the university informs us. It was _Cauvin_ perhaps, his father's name, or else _Calvinus_, for the students were fond of latinising their names. It was not until some time after, when the Latin word had been retranslated into French, that the Reformer bore the more familiar name. This _Calvin_ long remained on the pillar where the hand of the young Picard had cut it—a name of quarrels and discussions, insulted by the devout, but respected by many. 'This precious autograph has disappeared,' says the historian, 'with the last vestiges of the building.'[13] [Sidenote: CALVIN HEAD OF THE PICARD NATION.]