But to return to Calvin: in France his moderation and liberality were carried very far. He aimed at establishing the reformed churches on the presbyterian basis, but he expressly warned their members never to take the initiative in appeals to force or insurrection. His correspondence with the principal French reformers was a constant exhortation to prudence, patience, submission to the civil powers and religious independence. He desired to see neither aggression nor vengeance on the part of the Protestants. He strongly condemned the conspiracy of Amboise, [Footnote 130] and the sanguinary reprisals of the Baron des Adrets. [Footnote 131] [Footnote 130: The conspiracy of Amboise was planned among the French Reformers in 1559 and 1560, and carried on by a gentleman of Perigord, named Godefroi de la Renaudie, in the name of the principal Protestant leaders, especially that of the Prince de Condé. Its object was to take all power from the hands of the Guises, to 'have them punished by law,' and to secure for the reformers, not only religious liberty, but the chief power over Francis II. in the government of France. It was discovered in March 1560, and repressed and punished with great severity.] [Footnote 131: The Baron des Adrets (Fraçois de Beaumont) was a Protestant gentleman of Dauphiné, who lived from 1513 to 1586, and who was notorious at that period for his cruel reprisals upon the Catholics in the religious wars of France.] {341} No doubt the precepts and practice of St. Paul were always present to his mind, and that he both preached and practised obedience to the powers that be, in things that did not interfere with faith in Christ and the will of God. In all that concerned religion no innovator was ever bolder than Calvin, and at the same time less revolutionary. None was ever more scrupulously indifferent to all other aims than the propagation of the Gospel, the organization of the evangelical Church, and the reformation of man's moral nature. I do not know how far his logical forethought was able to penetrate the future, or if, whilst he was prosecuting his work of religious emancipation, he foresaw that what he was doing would bring forth, as a natural consequence, such immense political and social changes. I am inclined to believe that he did not concern himself about it in any way, that his essentially judicious and practical mind was 'exclusively occupied by his mission and by the immediate present, and that he did not seek to penetrate the darkness of future centuries, and the far-off designs of God. {342}