But Calvin was eager to reach Noyon, where a severe disappointment awaited him: his brother Charles, the chaplain, was no more.[838] The circumstances of his death filled Calvin with sorrow and with joy. 'Charles openly confessed Jesus Christ on his dying bed,' his surviving brother, Anthony, and his sister Mary told John, 'and desired no other absolution than that obtained from God by faith. Accordingly, the exasperated priests had him buried by night, between the four pillars of the gallows.' Calvin invited Anthony and Mary to leave a country in which believers were covered with infamy. His stay at Noyon was very short. It was not possible for him to go direct to Basle or Strasburg, because of the war between Charles V. and Francis I., which prevented his crossing Champagne and Lorraine; but he learnt that he could, without encountering any difficulty, pass through Bresse, then ascend the Rhone, traverse Geneva, and so reach Basle by way of Lausanne and Berne. He took this road. 'In all this,' says Beza, 'God was his guide.'[839] Thus drew near to Geneva the great theologian who discerned more clearly than any other man of that day what, in doctrine and in life, was in conformity with or opposed to God's truth and will. Whereas his predecessors had left some few traditions existing by the side of Scripture, he laid bare the rock of the Word. Truth had become the sole passion of that ardent and inflexible soul, and he was resolved to dedicate his whole life to it. At that time, however, he had no idea of performing a work like Luther's; and if he had been shown the career that was opening before him, he would have shrunk from it with terror. 'I will try to earn my living in a private station,' he said.[840] The ambition of Francis I. changed everything. That prince, unwittingly, accomplished the designs of God, who desired to place the reformer in the centre of Europe, between Italy, Germany, and France. [809] _Défense de Calvin_, par Drelincourt, p. 337. [810] _Œuvres de Cl. Marot_, ii. p. 337. [811] 'Vengo assicurato da chi ha veduto gli atti dell' Inquisizion di Ferrara.'—Muratori, _Annali d'Italia_, xiv. p. 305. [812] 'Che si pestifero mobile fu fatto prigione.'—_Ibid._ [813] Calvin on _Acts_ xii. 6. [814] 'Mentre che era condotto da Ferrara a Bologna.'—Muratori, _Annali d'Italia_, xix. p. 305. [815] 'Gente armata.'—_Ibid._ [816] 'Fu messo in libertà.'—_Ibid._ [817] 'Onde fosse venuto il colpo.'—Muratori, _Annali d'Italia_, xiv. p. 305. [818] Bayle's Dictionary, _sub voce_ Castelvetro.—J. Bonnet: _Calvin_. The discovery happened in 1823. [819] Tiraboschi, _Hist. de la Litt. ital._ vii. p. 169. [820] Bonnet, _Calvin au Val d'Aoste_, pp. 13, 14. [821] Dépêches d'Ami Porral au Conseil de Genève.