The Queen of Navarre summoned Calvin to the court, Beza informs us.[495]... The news circulated immediately among the evangelical christians, who entertained great hopes from it. 'The Queen of Navarre,' they said, 'the king's only sister, is favourable to true religion. Perhaps the Lord, by the intervention of that admirable woman, will disperse the impending storm.'[496] Calvin accordingly went to court. The ladies-in-waiting having introduced him into the queen's apartment, she rose to meet him, and made him sit down by her side, 'receiving him with great honour,' says Beza, 'and hearing him with much pleasure.'[497] The two finest geniuses which France then possessed were thus brought face to face—the man of the people and the queen, so different in outward appearance and even as to the point of view from which they regarded the Reform, but yet both animated with an ardent desire to see the triumph of the Gospel. They communicated their thoughts to each other. Calvin, notwithstanding the persecution, was full of courage. He knew that the Church of Christ is exposed to changes and error, like all human things, and the state of christendom, in his opinion, showed this full clearly; but he believed that it possessed an incorruptible power of life, and that, at the very moment when it seemed entirely fallen and ruined, it had by the Holy Spirit the ability to rise again and be renewed. The hour of this renewal had arrived, and it was as impossible for men to retard it as to prevent the spring-time from budding and covering the earth with leaves, blossoms, and fruit. Yet Calvin was under no delusion as to the dangers which threatened evangelical christianity. 'When the peril is imminent,' he said, 'it is not the time to indulge ourselves like silly, careless people; the fear of danger, serving as an incentive, should lead us to ask for God's help, and to put on our armour without trembling.' The queen promised to use all her influence to calm the storm. Calvin was conducted out of the palace with the same attentions that had been paid him when he entered it. He afterwards spoke about this interview to Theodore Beza, who has handed it down to us.[498]