The reformer was struck with astonishment. ‘It had never entered into my imagination,’ he wrote, ‘that we had to fear being accused on this point.’[502] Calvin perceived the scope of the attack which Caroli had just made. If he were to remain under this charge, his ministry would be compromised, his zeal suspected, his labors fruitless. Discord would be thrown into the evangelical camp, and Rome exult to see the most devoted champions of the Reformation accused of denying the divinity of the Saviour. The reformer immediately rose; and without any exhibition of violence, with which his enemies are always ready to reproach him, he pointed out with much spirit the inconsistency of his opponent. ‘Only a few days ago,’ he said, ‘Caroli invited me to his table. I was at that time a _very dear brother_. He bade me present his compliments to Farel; he treated as Christians all those whom he looks on to-day as heretics, and protested that he wished to maintain for ever a brotherly union with us. Where, at that time, was the glory of God, where the purity of the faith and the unity of the Church?’ Then, turning towards the doctor of the Sorbonne--‘How could you,’ he said, ‘conscientiously celebrate the holy supper on two occasions with an Arian associate? From what source have you learnt that I am tainted with that heresy? Tell me, for I will clear myself of that infamy.’ As Caroli brought forward no evidence, the reformer appealed to the catechism which he had recently published. ‘This is the faith,’ said he, ‘which I have but lately professed. We confess that we believe in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit; and when we name the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, we do not imagine to ourselves three gods. But we believe that Scripture and the experience of piety show us the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in simplest divine unity.’[503]