But what did he go in search of!... Whilst he was climbing the Alps and contemplating for the first time their immense glaciers and eternal snows, what thoughts filled his mind? There was some talk then of a council; had that event, which seemed near at hand, anything to do with his journey? As Vergeria had gone from Italy to Germany, in order to support the dominion of the pope, did Calvin wish to go from Switzerland to Italy, in order to assail it? Or attracted by the almost evangelical reputation of Contarini, Sadolet, and other prelates, did he long to converse with them? Did he feel the necessity of seeing closely that papacy, with which he was to deal all his life, and did he propose to study, like Luther, its scandals and abuses? Did he wish to carry back the gospel to that very country to which Paul had taken it? Or was he only attracted by classical recollections, by the learning and civilisation of that illustrious peninsula? There was a little of all these inducements, probably, in Calvin's wish. He desired to visit the land of heroes, martyrs and scholars, of Renée of Ferrara, and ... of the popes. _Italia salutanda._ But his chief thought, we cannot doubt, was to teach the principles of the Reformation, to proclaim to Italy that Christ had come to destroy sin, and had opened a way to the heavenly Father for all who seek him. A catholic historian says that the young reformer 'had conceived the design of withdrawing from their obedience to the pope the people nearest to his throne.'[369] There is some exaggeration in this statement, but the substance is true. Calvin crosses the torrents, ascends the sloping valleys of the Alps, climbs yonder high mountains which rise like impassable walls, and moves courageously towards those Italian lands, where the men of the Reformation are soon to be drowned in their blood, where persecution certainly attends him, and perhaps ... death. It matters not: onward he goes. We might say, after an historian, that like Mithridates, he desires to conquer Rome in Rome. Let us leave him for a moment and turn towards those countries whither he will come again, once more crossing the Alps, on his escape from the prisons of Italy. After wandering over the adjacent regions, let us direct our steps towards that city which is struggling so manfully with bishops and princes, where courageous forerunners are about to prepare the way for him, and which is to become, through the torch that will be lighted there some day by the hand of Calvin, the most powerful focus of the European Reformation. [359] Dedication of the _Institutes_. [360] Crespin, _Martyrol._ fol. 116. [361] Drion, _Hist. Chron._ i. p. 25. [362] Jeremiah, ii. 13. [363] See the Dedicatory Epistle at the beginning of all the editions of the _Institutes_. [364] _Vie de Thomas Plater, écrite par lui-même_, p. 110. [365] Autobiography of Felix Plater, son of Thomas.