In 1511 William Viret, a burgess of Orbe, 'cloth-dresser and tailor,' had a son born to him whom he named Peter. The boy had grown up in the midst of the wool-combers, and had watched his father's workmen as they pressed, or glossed, or fulled the cloths as they came from the hands of the weavers. But he took no delight in this, for he was not born a tradesman. It was the inner man that was to be developed in him: he felt within himself a necessity for seeking God, which impelled him towards heaven. He sought the society of the best-informed burgesses, and even had some relations with the nobles;[398] but the first object of his wishes was God. If he took a walk alone, or with one of his brothers Anthony and John, along the picturesque banks of the Orbe, through the charming country bathed by its waters, and even to the foot of the Jura,[399] he looked around him with delight, but afterwards lifted his eyes to heaven. 'I was naturally given to religion,' he said, 'of which however I was then ignorant.... I was preparing myself for heaven, seeing that it was the way of salvation.'[400] He resolved to devote himself to the service of the altar, which his father did not oppose, townspeople and peasantry alike regarding it as an honour to count a priest among their children. Peter, who had a good understanding and memory, soon learnt all that was taught in the school at Orbe, and turned his eyes towards the University of Paris, that great light which twelve years before had attracted Farel's footsteps. His father, whose trade had placed him in easy circumstances, consented to send him to Paris, whither the boy proceeded in 1523, being then a little over twelve years of age. The same year and about the same time John Calvin of Noyon, who was two years older than Viret, arrived in the same city and entered the college of La Marche. Did these two boys, who were one day to be so closely united, meet then, and did their friendship begin with their childhood? We have not been able to satisfy ourselves on the point. [Sidenote: VIRET GOES TO PARIS.]