AbstractIn 1541 Calvin did not return to Geneva to reform a city but to reform a nation: Geneva was to be the staging area, France the target. By no means the lonely decision-maker of later scholarship, from the very beginning Calvin together with Fare] and Viret formed the "Holy Triumvirate" (Bucer), cooperating closely and forging the powerful alliance between Geneva, Neuchitel, and Lausanne. In August-September 1558 their common front collapsed when Calvin sacrificed the bonds of friendship with his former comrades-in-arms, outmaneuvering the radical wing in an effort to respond to the unexpected opportunities for a legitimation of the Reformation in his native country.