When he heard these words, Calvin reflected that he who listens to a priest listens to Christ himself. Being subdued, he went to church, entered the confessional, fell on his knees, and confessed his sins to God’s minister, asking for absolution and humbly accepting every penance imposed upon him. And immediately, with all the energy of his character, he endeavoured to acquire the merits demanded by his confessor. ‘O God!’ he said, ‘I desire by my good works to blot out the remembrance of my trespasses.[580] He performed the ‘satisfactions’ prescribed by the priest; he even went beyond the task imposed upon him, and hoped that after so much labour he would be saved.... But, alas! his peace was not of long duration. A few days, a few hours perhaps, had not passed, when, having given way to a movement of impatience or anger, his heart was again troubled: he thought he saw God’s eye piercing to the depths of his soul and discovering its impurities. ‘O God!’ he exclaimed in alarm, ‘thy glance freezes me with terror.’[581] ... He hurried again to the confessional.--‘God is a strict judge,’ the priest told him, ‘who severely punishes iniquity. Address your prayers to the saints first.’[582] And Calvin, who, in after years, branded as blasphemers those who invented ‘false intercessors,’ invoked the saints and prayed them by their intercession to appease a God who appeared to him so inexorable. Having thus found a few moments of relief, he applied again to his studies; he was absorbed in his books; he grew pale over Scotus and Thomas Aquinas; but in the midst of his labours a sudden trouble took possession of his mind, and pushing away from him the volumes that lay before him, he exclaimed: ‘Alas! my conscience is still very far from true tranquillity.’[583] His heart was troubled, his imagination excited, he saw nothing but abysses on every side, and with a cry of alarm he said: ‘Every time that I descend into the depths of my heart; every time, O God, that I lift up my soul to thy throne, extreme terror comes over me.[584] ... I see that no purification, no satisfaction can heal my disease.[585] My conscience is pierced with sharp stings.’[586] Thus step by step did Calvin descend to the lowest depths of despair; and quite heartbroken, and looking like one dead, he resolved to take no further pains about his salvation. He lived more with his fellow-pupils, he even shared in their amusements; he visited his friends in the city, sought such conversation as would divert his thoughts, and desired, with the Athenians of old, either to tell or to hear some new thing. Will the work of God, begun in his heart, remain unperfected? This year an event took place which could not fail to stir the depths of Calvin’s soul. CHAPTER VIII. CALVIN’S CONVERSION AND CHANGE OF CALLING. (1527.)