Calvin began the contest. It was not with philosophy, or speculation, or apologetics, that he fought these pretended spiritualists. 'God,' said he, 'enlightens us sufficiently in Scripture; it is our want of knowing them thoroughly that is the cause and source of all errors.'[166] He attacked Quintin and pressed him hard. He quoted the commandments of God against theft and murder: 'You call God impure,' he said, 'a thief and a robber,[167] and you add that there is no harm in it.[168] Who, I pray, has condemned impurity, theft, murder, if God has not?'... Quintin, who was generally very liberal with passages from Scripture, answered with a smile: 'We are not subject to the letter which killeth, but to the Spirit which giveth life.... The Bible contains allegories, myths which the Holy Spirit explains to us.'[169] 'You make your Scripture a nose of wax,' said Calvin, 'and play with it, as if it were a ball.'[170]—'You find fault with my language because you do not understand it,' said Quintin.—'I understand it a little better than you do yourself,' retorted Calvin; 'and I see pretty plainly that you desire to mislead (_embabouiner_) the world by absurd and dangerous trifling.' The 'spirituals' were by turns protestant or catholic as suited them. Their manner of seeing accorded very well with their pantheism, and they would have been quite as much at their ease among the Hindoos and the Turks. This broadness, which misled the moderate party, offended Calvin. One day, when Quintin said with unction: 'I am just come from a solemn mass, celebrated by a cardinal.... I have seen the glory of God,'[171]—'I understand you,' said Calvin, rather coarsely; 'in your opinion, a canon ought to continue in his luxury, and a monk in his convent, like a pig in a sty.'[172] The pantheists made proselytes. 'By dint of intrigue and flattery, they attracted the simple ignorant poor, whom they made as lazy as themselves.' They tried to make way with the learned and the great, and even to creep into the hearts of princes. Their high pretensions to spirituality staggered weak minds, and the convenient principle by which every man ought to remain in the Church to which he belonged, even were it sunk in error, made timid and irresolute characters lean to their side. A priest, who had become Quintin's head champion, succeeded in deceiving the excellent Bucer by means of the false appearance he put on; and ten years later, an elect soul, Margaret, was dazzled and deceived by their hypocritical spirituality. About 4,000 were led astray in France.