Calvin was at no loss for an answer to his friend, the Old Catholic. He pointed out to him that where falsehood reigns there can be no Church; that the state of the papacy, although it might still hold some remains of truth, was such that those who abandoned it did not create a schism. He added, that we could not wait until the papacy reformed itself; that the councils assembled in the fifteenth century, and even earlier, for the purpose of working out that the reform, had all failed. He insisted that it was not to Catholicism of the first five or six centuries that we must return, but to the Gospel--to the sacred writings of the apostles--in which the truth was taught in its purity. Calvin maintained his thesis with energy, nay, as he said, with rudeness.[566] Driven from point to point, hesitating between the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and that of the councils and the fathers, melancholy and pining, Du Tillet secretly quitted Geneva, adopted the resolution of re-entering the Catholic Church, and told Calvin so. The reformer wrote to him, January 31, 1538, with moderation and humility, but at the same time firmly. ‘What afflicts me most of all,’ he said to him, ‘is the fear of having hurt your mind by my imprudence, for I confess that I have not exhibited in my intercourse with you the modesty which I owed to you. I cannot, however, conceal from you that I was greatly astonished on learning your intention and the reason which you assign in your letters to me. This change, so suddenly made, seemed very strange, considering the constancy and the decision which you displayed. It is separation from the Church to join ourselves to that which is contrary to it.’[567] This did not prevent Du Tillet from again becoming and remaining a Roman Catholic. [Sidenote: THE TWO PARTIES.]