FORBID MY SUNRISE ON A FOREIGN SKY
I stand on this other side of justice
A refugee; a piper; a homeless boy, a castaway
A Wagner fixing wishes on Arabia grounds
Disgruntled breeze usurps the arena
Depraved laws strutting with tenacity of prayers
Forbid my sunrise on a foreign sky
I court the nights with a feverish feat
Marching with the resolution of a chivalric knight
Denouncing my ordeals with a Protestant's
Quizzical zeal
I am a victim here
Reformation Wall -- Paul Landowski et Henri Bouchard
The Protestant Reformation began in central Europe in the 16th century. One of the most important centers of the movement was the Swiss city of Genève. The 100-meter "Reformation Wall" (actually, the International Monument to the Reformation), overlooking the Parc des Bastions, was built into the city's old walls, on the grounds of the Université de Genève in 1909, to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the school and the 400th of the birth of Jean Calvin, its founder. The project's architects were Charles Dubois, Alphonse Laverrière, Eugène Monod, and Jean Taillens, and the sculptures were created by Paul Landowski and Henri Bouchard. At the center of the monument are 5-meter statues of the main proponents of Calvinism: Guilhelm Farel (who founded the Reformed Church in Neuchâtel, Berne, Genève, and Vaud, and worked with Calvin to train missionaries across Europe; Calvin himself, whose 1536 "Institutio Christianae Religionis" (Institutes of the Christian Religion) and later editions provided the theological framework for Reformed theology and the doctrine of the related Presbyterian church; Theodore Beza, Calvin's successor in Genève and an important figure in spreading the doctrine in France; and John Knox, who fled England and studied under Calvin in Genève before founding the Presbyterian church in Scotland. To the left of the main figures are 3-meter statues of elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg, who created the Brandenburg Tolerance Edict that gave equal rights to the 2 main groups of Protestants (Lutherans and Calvinists) and the 1685 Potsdam Edict which granted safe passage to the Huguenots (French Calvinists) who fled France after Louis XIV revoked the 1598 Edict of Nantes which had granted them limited religious freedom; Willem van Oranje, the Calvinist leader of the Dutch war of independence against Spain; and Gaspard de Coligny, the leader of the Huguenots. On the other side are 3-meter statues of Roger Williams, a Puritan (an English Calvinist) who, expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in North America, founded the neighboring Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations as a refuge for what he called "liberty of conscience;" Oliver Cromwell, the victorious leader of the Puritans in the English Civil War and the dictatorial Lord Protector of the British after the monarchy was abolished; and Bocskai István, the Calvinist prince of Transylvania and Hungary who forced Holy Roman emperor Matthias to recognize the Protestants' religious rights. To the left of the wall is a stone with the name of Martin Luther, who began the protestant Revolution, and to the right a stone with the name of Huldrych Zwingli, the non-Calvinist leader of the Protestants in Zürich.
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