Many friends of the Gospel looked to Calvin, who enjoyed their entire confidence, and begged him to go immediately to Lausanne. This he did. Farel would have liked to accompany him; but the Bernese requested him to look after his own church and not after theirs. Delegates from Berne were sent to Lausanne, and a kind of consistory was thus formed, in which Calvin, it appears, stated the case. But the proud Caroli, who thought it beneath his dignity to make any defence, refused in the haughtiest manner to give the least explanation of his conduct. He was greatly annoyed to find himself accused by Calvin, whose superiority was so troublesome to him. He immediately formed his plan. He resolved to turn against the reformer the sword with which the latter had threatened him, and to plunge it into him up to the hilt. ‘If the minister of Geneva,’ he exclaimed, ‘has shown so much zeal in bringing this business before your assembly, it is a shameful conspiracy, the only object of which is to ruin me completely.’ Viret then spoke, and so clearly set forth the subterfuges and calumnies of Caroli, that the assembly condemned him to make a retractation, regardless of his _amour propre_. Astounded by a sentence so severe, this man, who so easily passed from one extreme to another, humbled himself, and with lamentings and tears asked for pardon. Calvin was touched by this demeanor, and in the abundance of his moderation prayed the assembly to spare Caroli the act which wounded his pride. Viret did the same. Their request was granted. The doctor of the Sorbonne had then nothing better to do than to retire quietly to his own house, with a grateful feeling towards his two noble adversaries. But their well-meant interposition had not really softened him; his humility was a mere feint. He was determined at all cost to reach his end and become the foremost man in the Church. Jealous of the influence exercised by Calvin, Farel, and Viret in Switzerland, he said to himself that in order to get firmly seated in the saddle, the man already riding must first be dismounted. The ruin of these three doctors was the task which he had to undertake. He felt sure of the secret support, at least at Geneva, of some of the leading men; and he flattered himself that he should be able to involve Calvin in hopeless embarrassment.[499] He resolved therefore to assume the character of accuser, and to reduce his enemies to play the part of the guilty and the accused.