There was still one Church which arrogated to itself the sole possession of truth, the Church of Geneva.

Those who admitted the possibility of other forms and creeds were either Atheists or, what was deemed worse than Atheists, Papists, because Papists were assumed to be traitors also, and desirous of selling the country to Spain.

An undevout man in that land and at that epoch was an almost unknown phenomenon.

Religion was as much a recognized necessity of existence as food or drink.

It were as easy to find people about without clothes as without religious convictions.
The Advocate, who had always adhered to the humble spirit of his ancestral device, "Nil scire tutissima fedes," and almost alone among his fellow citizens (save those immediate apostles and pupils of his who became involved in his fate) in favour of religious toleration, began to be suspected of treason and Papacy because, had he been able to give the law, it was thought he would have permitted such horrors as the public exercise of the Roman Catholic religion.
The hissings and screamings of the vulgar against him as he moved forward on his stedfast course he heeded less than those of geese on a common.
But there was coming a time when this proud and scornful statesman, conscious of the superiority conferred by great talents and unparalleled experience, would find it less easy to treat the voice of slanderers, whether idiots or powerful and intellectual enemies, with contempt..