[Footnote 116: Crespin and Theodore Beza speak of the month of November; the Bourgeois de Paris mentions the 17th of April, but most of the authorities give the 22nd.] [Footnote 117: 'Des chausses d'or.'—_Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris_, p. 384.] [Footnote 118: 'Dixisses illum in templo de rebus cœlestibus cogitare.'— Erasmi _Epp._ p. 1277.] [Footnote 119: 'Prædicant eo nihil fuisse integrius.'—Erasmi _Epp._ p. 1313.] [Footnote 120: 'Libertas, bonæ conscientiæ comes, perdidit virum.'—Ibid. p. 113.] [Footnote 121: 'Christo, nonnisi sub cruce, in Gallis triumphaturo.'— Bezæ _Icones_.] [Footnote 122: Luke xviii. 7.] [Footnote 123: 'Reveille-toi, Seigneur Dieu, Fais ton effort, Et viens venger en tout lieu Des tiens la mort.' _Les Marguerites de la Marguerite_, i. p. 508.] CHAPTER XVII. FIRST LABOURS OF CALVIN AT PARIS. (1529.) [Sidenote: CALVIN REVISITS NOYON.] Calvin, having bid farewell to the towns and châteaux of Berry, had arrived in the midst of those hills and plains, those green pastures and noble forests, which stretch along both sides of the Oise. He approached that little city of Noyon, which had been one time the capital of the empire of Charlemagne, and where Hugues Capet, the head of the third race, had been elected king. But his thoughts were not on these things: he was thinking of his father. As soon as he caught a glimpse of that beautiful Gothic cathedral, beneath whose shadow he had been brought up, he said to himself that its pavement would never more be trodden by his father's feet. He had never before returned to Noyon in such deep emotion. The death of Berquin, the death of his father, the future of the Church and of himself—all oppressed him. He found consolation in the affection of his family, and especially in the devoted attachment of his brother Anthony and of his sister Mary, who were one day to share his exile. Bowed down by so many afflictions, he would have sunk under the burden, 'like a man half dead, if God had not revived his courage while comforting him by his Word.'[124] His father—that old man with mind so positive, with hand so firm, and whose authority he had venerated—was not there to guide him: he was free. Gerard had decided that his son should devote himself to the law, by which he might rise to a high position in the world. Calvin aspired, indeed, to another future, but from obedience he had renounced his most ardent desires; and now, finding himself at liberty, he turned towards that christian career in which he was to be, along with Luther, the greatest champion of modern times. 'Earthly fathers,' he said on one occasion, 'must not prevent the supreme and only Father of all from enjoying his rights.'[125]