'It is your business, Sire,' said Calvin to the king, 'not to avert either your ears or your heart from so just a defence. A great matter is at stake. We have to learn how God's glory shall be maintained on earth, how his truth shall retain its honour, and how Christ's kingdom shall remain in its integrity.... A matter truly worthy of your ears, worthy of your government and of your royal throne!... The idea which makes a true king, is that the king knows himself to be a true minister of God in the management of his kingdom. A reign which has not God's glory for its aim, is not a reign but a mere brigandage.' Calvin had hardly spoken thus when he seemed to see Francis refusing to turn aside from his brilliant fêtes to lend his ears to the meanest of his subjects. The king listens to Montmorency, to Tournon ... he hastens to meet the Duchess d'Etampes; he even welcomes artists and men of letters; but these miserable religionists ... never! 'Sire,' said Calvin, 'do not turn away in disdain of our meanness. Verily, we confess that we are poor despicable folks,—miserable sinners before God, reviled and rejected before men.... Nay, if you like it, we are the scum of the earth or anything more worthless still, that can be named. Yes, we have nothing left in which we can glory before God, except his only mercy ... and nothing before men, except our weakness!' But the apologist immediately lifts up his head with holy pride: 'Nevertheless,' he says, 'our doctrine must remain exalted, invincible, and far above all the power and glory of the world. For it is not ours, but that of the living God and his Christ, whom God has made King to rule from sea to sea, and from the rivers unto the ends of the earth, ... and whose magnificence the prophets have foretold, saying that he shall overthrow kingdoms strong as iron and brass, and shining like silver and gold.' Here the advocate of his brethren hears an objection from their enemies. He sees them clustering round Francis, and incessantly repeating to him that _these folks_, even while putting forward the Word of God, are only its _perverse corruptors_.... 'Sire,' he continues, 'you can judge for yourself, by reading our confession (the _Institutes_) to what an extent the reproach is nothing but wicked calumny and brazen impudence. What is more conformable with the christian faith, than to acknowledge ourselves stripped of all virtue to be clothed with God? empty of all good to be filled with Him? the slaves of sin to be freed by Him? blind, to have our sight restored by Him? lame, that He may make us walk? weak, to be supported by Him? in a word, to put off from us all manner of glory, that He alone may be glorified?... Ah! we do not read of men being blamed for drinking too deeply at the fountain of living waters; on the contrary, the prophet bitterly reproves those who have hewed out broken cisterns that can hold no water.'[362]