This future was not reserved for the Reform. While the mild and prudent voices of Melanchthon and Bucer were soothing it to sleep, innocently enough no doubt, bolder and freer voices, those of a Farel and a Calvin, were preparing to arouse it. While the papers of the conciliating theologians were lying on the velvet cover of the royal table, another paper, whose lines of fire seemed penned by the thunderbolt, was about to circulate through the kingdom, and be posted even at the door of the king's chamber by a too daring hand, which was to arouse in that prince one of the most terrible bursts of passion ever recorded in history. A loud peal of thunder would be heard, and the heavy atmosphere which stifled men's minds would be followed by a pure and reviving air. There would be furious tempests; but the christians of the scriptural, practical, and radical Reformation rejoiced at witnessing the failure of this specious but impossible project, which aimed at reforming the Church even while preserving Roman-catholicism. The system of the Queen of Navarre will have to be abandoned; that of Calvin will prevail. To uphold truth, the evangelicals were about to sacrifice unity. No doubt furious persecutions would be the consequence, but they said to each other that it was better to live in the midst of hurricanes that awaken, than in mephitic vapours which lull men into the sleep of death. We shall describe hereafter the event which had so notable an influence on the destinies of the Reformation in France. They were Frenchmen who caused it; it was a Frenchman who was the principal author; but it was from Switzerland, as we shall see, that this formidable blow was to come, and to that country we must now return. [Footnote 655: 'Dadurch Ich in gute Hoffnung kommen die Sachen sollten auf gute Wege gerichtet werden.' This German translation of the king's letter is given in the _Corp. Ref._ ii. pp. 828-835.] [Footnote 656: 'Rex suus cognoscit nunc errorem suum in religione.'— Lanz, _Correspondance de l'Empereur Charles-Quint_, ii. p. 144.] [Footnote 657: 'Quod isti Germani Lutherum sequentes de Christo et de fide illius recte sentiant.'—Ibid.] [Footnote 658: 'Fuerunt illi (Melanchthonis articuli) a _quamplurimis_ in Gallia excerpti, sed non integri verum mutilati.'—Gerdesius, _Hist. Evang. renov._ iv. p. 124.] [Footnote 659: This memoir is printed in the _Corpus Reformatorum_, ii. pp. 765-775; and while Melanchthon's is entitled _Consilium Gallis Scriptum_, this is headed _Idem Scriptum a Gallis editum_.] [Footnote 660: 'Qua de re Melanchthon ipse conqueritur.'—Gerdesius, iv. p. 124.] [Footnote 661: 'Eosdem articulos Romam misisse dicitur, quo pontificis ipsius quoque impetraret vel emendationem vel consensum.'—Gerdesius, _Hist. Evang. renov._ iv. p. 124.] [Footnote 662: D'Argentré, _De novis Erroribus_, i. p. 3553. Gerdesius, iv. App. xiii.]