Olivétan, who was then in all the fervour of proselytism, felt great interest in his catholic cousin, while the latter would have wished at any cost to bring back his friend into the bosom of the Church. The two youthful Picardins had many long and animated conversations together, in which each strove to convert the other.[567] ‘There are many false religions,’ said Olivétan, ‘and only one true.’ Calvin assented. ‘The false are those which men have invented, according to which we are saved by our own works; the true is that which comes from God, according to which salvation is given freely from on high.... Choose the true.’[568] Calvin made a sign of dissent. ‘True religion,’ continued Olivétan, ‘is not that infinite mass of ceremonies and observances which the Church imposes upon its followers, and which separate souls from Christ. O my dear friend! leave off shouting out with the papists: “The fathers! the doctors! the Church!” and listen instead to the prophets and apostles. Study the Scriptures.’[569] ‘I will have none of your doctrines,’ answered Calvin; ‘their novelty offends me. I cannot listen to you. Do you imagine that I have been trained all my life in error?... No! I will strenuously resist your attacks.’[570] In after years Calvin said: ‘My heart, hardened by superstition, remained insensible to all these appeals.’ The two cousins parted, little satisfied with each other. Calvin, terrified at his friend’s innovations, fell on his knees in the chapels, and prayed the saints to intercede for this misguided soul.[571] Olivétan shut himself up in his chamber and prayed to Christ. Yet Calvin, whose mind was essentially one of observation, could not be present in the midst of the great movement going on in the world without reflecting on truth, on error, and on himself. Oftentimes when alone, and when the voices of men had ceased to be heard, a more powerful voice spoke to his soul, and his chamber became the theatre of struggles as fierce as those in the cell at Erfurth. Through the same tempests both these great reformers reached the same haven. Calvin arrived at faith by the same practical way which had led Farel and Augustine, Luther and St. Paul.