This declaration baffled Caroli; and now, after having very strongly asserted that Calvin was not orthodox enough, he began to cry out that he was too much so. ‘What,’ said he, ‘you attribute to Jesus Christ the name and the nature of Jehovah; you say that he has of himself the divine essence!’ Calvin replied, ‘If we attentively consider the difference between the Father and the Word, we must acknowledge that the Word proceeds from the Father. But if we concern ourselves with the essence itself of the Word, so far as the Word is God with the Father, all that is said of the one must likewise be said of the other.’[519] Caroli, giving up the matter, took refuge in the words. ‘In your confession,’ said he, ‘there is not the word _Trinity_, there is not the word _person_.’ Then, wishing to compel Calvin and the other ministers to adopt the confessions made by men,--‘I demand,’ said he, ‘that you sign the three ancient creeds.’ Calvin and the ministers who were with him would have given their signature under other circumstances, but they now refused it for very wise reasons. ‘Caroli,’ they said, ‘by compelling us to sign, wishes to throw suspicion on our faith. We do not consider it fitting to show him so much deference. Moreover, we will not, by our example, promote the introduction into the Church of a _tyranny_ which would brand every man as a heretic who will not express himself in terms dictated by another.’[520] Herein Calvin gave proof at the same time of a magnanimity and a fidelity which do him honor. Every Church, in his opinion, ought to confess its doctrine, but he would rather that the confession should be the product of the life and the faith of those who make it; and not a mere return to ten or twelve centuries back, in order to seek the truth in the antiquated phrases of another age. He professed with all his heart the doctrine enunciated in the early creeds, the Nicene and the so-called Athanasian, which set forth, perhaps with superfluity of words, but nevertheless with much force, a faith which is dear to Christian men. But he felt that these writings were wanting in evangelical simplicity. The phrases ‘God of God, Light of Light’ (Θεὸς ἐκ Θεοῦ, Φῶς ἐκ Φωτὸς), used in the Nicene creed, appeared to him less apostolic than Oriental in their character. It shocked him that the _Quicunque_, better known under the name of the Athanasian creed, just at the time when it is going to make subtle distinctions, such as the faith of a simple Christian man cannot comprehend, should begin by asserting--‘Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith (that of the creed). Which faith, except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.’ Caroli’s ignorance as to this profession of faith was so great that he believed it was drawn up at Nicæa in A.D. 325, and by Athanasius. This was startling to Calvin. The creed appears, in