One circumstance, which has some interest, seems to show that Calvin was not at Orleans during the latter part of this year. On the 5th of December, 1528,[67] eight months after his sudden departure, a boy eight or nine years old arrived at Melchior Wolmar's house in that city. He had a sickly look, but was a well-made child, playful and well-bred, with a keen glance and lively wit. This boy, who was one day to be Calvin's best friend, belonged to a Burgundian family. His father, Pierre de Beza, was bailli of Vezelay, a very old town, where the child was born on the 24th of June, 1519,[68] and received the name of Theodore. One of his uncles, named Nicholas, seignior of Cette and of Chalonne, and councillor of parliament, having paid the bailli a visit a few months after the child's birth, adopted him, being an unmarried man, and took him to Paris, although he had not been weaned.[69] Nine years later (1528), at the recommendation of an Orleanese, who was connected with the Bezas and a member of the royal council, the uncle sent his nephew to Wolmar, who was described to him as very learned in Greek and of great experience in education. Nothing in Calvin's biography written by Beza indicates that the latter met Calvin at that time at Orleans. When Margaret of Valois, who was Duchess of Berry, endeavoured about this time to gather together a number of pious and learned men in her university of Bourges, she invited Wolmar there;[70] and it was here that young Beza saw Calvin for the first time. [Sidenote: CALVIN GOES TO BOURGES.] The scholar, set at liberty by the apparent restoration of his father's health, had once more turned his thoughts towards his studies. He desired to take advantage of the instruction of a doctor whose reputation surpassed even that of Pierre de l'Etoile. All the learned world was at that time talking of Alciati of Milan, whom the king had invited to Bourges, and to attend whose brilliant lessons the academic youth flocked from every quarter. Calvin had other motives besides this for going to that city. Under Margaret's influence, Berry had become a centre of evangelisation. Returning, therefore, to Orleans, he made known his intention of going to Bourges, and the professors of the university where he had studied, and even taught with credit, unanimously offered him the degree of doctor. It would appear that his modesty did not permit him to accept it.[71]