The church was forming. At first there were a few souls awakened separately here and there in Geneva; now with the element of individuality, which is the first, was combined the element of communion, which is not less necessary, for Christianity is a leaven that _leaveneth the whole lump_. Those who had begun to believe assembled to advance together in faith. Doubtless it was not yet a church in its complete state, with all its institutions. Believers, even without forming a church, may act upon one another, pray in common, and celebrate the Lord's Supper together; things ordinarily begin in this way. This state of transition, the lawfulness of which must be acknowledged, proves that the ecclesiastical organisation, with its ministers, elders, deacons, presbyteries, and synods, has not the first place in Christianity, and that the pre-eminence belongs to faith and christian sanctification. This imperfect mode of existence is insufficient: it has many deficiencies, and is exposed to many dangers. The church should be formed. Somewhat later, under Calvin, it attained indeed its complete form in Geneva. It would be foolish to deny man the right of being at first a child; but it would be no less so to refuse him the right and duty of becoming a man. Just at this time the evangelicals received an unexpected help. A Franciscan coming from abroad began to preach the Advent sermons in the Rive church, and this monk, Christopher Bocquet by name, happened to have some inclination for the Gospel. Being invited to preach in a city where two parties were at war, he abstained from both superstitions and abuse—frequent themes with many catholic preachers—but at the same time he abstained from certain distinctive doctrines of the Reformation which he did not quite understand, and keeping to a certain common ground of Christianity, he delivered 'moderate' sermons.[594] Dressed in his brown frock, and with the cord round his waist, and humbly bending his head, he entered the Cordeliers' church, went up into the pulpit, and contemplating the mixed crowd before him, proclaimed to all a Saviour who had come not in magnificent array, but in gracious love, and called upon every heart to rejoice at his sight. The evangelicals were edified, and the number of persons frequenting the church increased every day. But Friar Christopher 'had hardly finished his sermon,' when the huguenots hurried away to Froment's meeting-place, where _the trumpet gave no uncertain sound_. They were not the only persons who went thither. Many catholics having heard the reformers say that the monk and the schoolmaster preached fundamentally the same things, followed the crowd going to the Croix d'Or, and some of them took a liking for what they heard.