Arnault came to the succour of his friend in a book upon the _Renversement de la Morale de Jesus Christ par les Erreurs des Calvinistes_. It astonished every one that a doctor who agreed with Calvin upon the dogma of predestination, had constructed all the scaffolding of his polemics upon this consequence, that _grace cannot be lost_; and this was judiciously objected to him, not only by Bruguier, pastor of Nismes, but by theologians of his own communion. Bossuet’s _Exposition_ also provoked numerous replies. La Bastide, a member of the consistory of Charenton, and David Noguier, a pastor of Languedoc, proved that this work was wanting in truth, and that the author has constructed an ideal Catholicism totally unlike the real. Pierre Jurieu proved it better than any one in his _Preservatif contre le Changement de Religion_, and resumed the same question in his _Politique du Clergé de France_. “Here is a man,” he says, “who transports us into another country. There is no worship of images, no invocation of saints in this new religion; they are only implored just as we beg the faithful on earth to pray to God for us. Until now, I had thought that the devotions to the Virgin and to the other saints was an important thing; I see that the majority of devotees think them of great consequence; and these people say they are nothing, they may be dispensed with, and that it is sufficient to invoke God and Jesus Christ!” Claude had a celebrated conference with Bossuet in 1678, upon the invitation of Mademoiselle de Duras. The two adversaries have published the report of their debate. Bossuet had pledged himself to make Claude avow that it may happen that a simple individual, however ignorant he may be, understands the Scriptures better than all the councils and all the rest of the Church together—a proposition which he styled as absurd. Claude answered that the question was not so simple, and that before asking if an artisan may be right in spite of all the councils and the Church, it should be shown that there is a single article, upon which the Church and all the councils have constantly agreed. Ten years afterwards, the bishop of Meaux (Bossuet) re-entered the arena with his _Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protestantes_. His attacks were made upon the absentees and the proscribed, whose books of refutation were not permitted to pass from Holland into France. To speak alone was a privilege a man like Bossuet ought to have repudiated. XIV.