The student of Montaigu, uneasy and troubled after his controversies with his young relative, shut himself up in his little room and examined himself; he asked himself what he was, and where he was going.... ‘O Lord,’ he said, ‘thou knowest that I profess the christian faith such as I learnt it in my youth.[572] ... And yet there is something wanting.... I have been taught to worship thee as my only God; but I am ignorant of the true worship I ought to give.[573] ... I have been taught that thy Son has ransomed me by his death; ... but I have never felt in my heart the virtue of this redemption.[574] I have been taught that some day there will be a resurrection; but I dread it, as the most terrible of days.[575] ... Where shall I find the light that I need?... Alas! thy Word, which should enlighten thy people like a lamp, has been taken from us.[576] ... Men talk in its place of a hidden knowledge, and of a small number of initiates whose oracles we must receive.... O God, illumine me with thy light!’ The superiors of Montaigu College began to feel some uneasiness about their student. The Spanish professor, inclined, like his countrymen, to the spirit of intolerance, saw with horror the young man, whose devotion had charmed him at first, discontented with the traditional religion, and ready perhaps to forsake it. Could the best of their pupils fall into heresy?... The tutors entered into conversation with Calvin, and, as yet full of affection for the young man, sought to strengthen him in the Roman faith. ‘The highest wisdom of christians,’ they said, ‘is to submit blindly to the Church,[577] and their highest dignity is the righteousness of their works.’[578]--‘Alas!’ replied Calvin, who was conscious of the guilt within him, ‘I am a miserable sinner!’--‘That is true,’ answered the professors, ‘but there is a means of obtaining mercy: it is by satisfying the justice of God.[579] ... Confess your sins to a priest, and ask humbly for absolution.... Blot out the memory of your offences by your good works, and, if anything should still be wanting, supply it by the addition of solemn sacrifices and purifications.’