When a brilliant victory is won, we usually find, both in the world and in the Church, that a number of men gather around the victor who have indeed something in common with him, but who have at the same time characters and propensities opposed to his own. All who muster and fight under the same flag, however, have not always the same thoughts and the same affections as the brave warrior who hoists the flag. The Genevese, who were designated by the name of Huguenots, had declared for the Reformation because it attacked the abuses and the superstitions of popery, and because, in bidding them prove all things, it restored to them those privileges of free men of which Rome had robbed them; many had also been attracted by the love of novelty, others by the prospect of a new career opened to their ambition. There were doubtless a certain number of citizens who sincerely agreed with the Reformation, with the faith which it professed, and with the morals which it prescribed; but they did not form the most numerous class. In any expedition of great daring, and which exposes to many toils and privations, we know that many of the soldiers quit the standard under which they first ranked themselves; so it was inevitable that a large number of the Genevese would abandon the flag around which they had rallied, and would place themselves in opposition to the leaders whom at first they had followed. Calvin was not long in observing this. ‘The abomination of papistry,’ said he, ‘is now cut down by the power of the Word.[444] The senate has decreed that its superstitions, with all their _paraphernalia_, shall be suppressed, and that religion shall be regulated in the city according to the purity of the Gospel. However, the form of the Church does not appear to us to be such as the legitimate exercise of our office requires. Whatever others may think, we for our part cannot imagine that our ministry ought to be anything so slight as that when once we have preached our sermon, we have nothing to do but to fold our arms, like people that have done their task.’