All these things greatly afflicted Calvin, and he had at the same time other sorrows to bear. A man of mild disposition, with a spirit given to contemplation, on which the incessantly renewed struggles to which the reformer was called made a most painful impression, was at that time living in intimate friendship with him. Louis du Tillet, canon and archdeacon of Angoulême, had been first won to the Gospel by the lively piety of Calvin, whom he had followed to Switzerland, to Italy, and to Geneva. But by slow degrees a perceptible difference grew up between the master and the disciple. In Du Tillet’s view the doctrine of the Church was the essential matter, and the re-establishment of the apostolic Church ought to be the aim of the Reformation. ‘Let us protest,’ said he, ‘against the abuses of the Roman Church, but let us re-establish the Catholicism of the first centuries. It is there that lies hidden the Christian germ; let us beware of arresting its developments. The Reformation, unless it is to disappoint the fair hopes which it has excited, must re-establish in the world the one holy, universal Church. The only way open to us for accomplishing the work which the state of Christendom claims at our hands, is to go back to the beginning, and to re-establish the Church of the first ages. Alas! fatal discords are already threatening to make division in the new Church. May the hand of God recall her from this error, and establish her on the foundation of the apostles and the fathers. The Reformation must not, while highly exalting Jesus Christ, too much abase the Church. Let us take care that the torrent which we turn into the stables to cleanse them do not carry away the walls and the foundation. The reform of the Church must not become its annihilation. Assuredly the Catholic Church is the pillar of the truth, and the consent of this Church is the infallible support and the full assurance of the truth.’[565] [Sidenote: LOUIS DE TILLET.]