The above articles, fourteen in number, were in Calvin’s handwriting, but they were read to the synod by Bucer.[674] Calvin and Farel were probably unwilling to put themselves too forward, and preferred to have the question settled on its merits, independently of their personal leaning; and they selected the most moderate of the theologians of the period to be its exponent. Calvin was not a man to exalt himself in the feeling of his own righteousness; he knew by experience that ‘in many ways we offend all.’ ‘We know,’ he said afterwards to Farel, when speaking to him of what had just taken place, ‘we know that our adversaries cannot calumniate us to any further extent than God permits, and we know the end which He has in view in permitting it at all. Let us therefore humble ourselves; unless we choose to contend with God because He humbles us;[675] but let us not cease to wait on Him. “The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under foot,” said the prophet (Isaiah xxviii. 3). Let us acknowledge before God, and before his people, that it is to some extent owing to our incompetency, indolence, carelessness, and mistakes that the Church committed to our care has fallen into so lamentable a condition. But let us also maintain, as it is our duty to do, our own innocence and purity against those who by their fraud, malignity and wickedness have certainly caused this ruin.’[676] Calvin, in charging himself with indolence, assuredly went too far. But it was not to his colleague only that he spoke in this way; he did not hesitate to express the same views before the synod. While depicting the dangers of Geneva, ‘the destruction which seemed to threaten’ the edifice reared by Farel and himself, ‘We openly acknowledge,’ he said to the deputies of the Swiss Churches assembled at Zurich, ‘that in some things we have perhaps been too severe, and on those points we are ready to listen to reason.’[677] The synod did not censure the reformers. It advised them, indeed, to use ‘moderation and Christian gentleness, necessary with that uncultivated people;’[678] but it acknowledged that, far from displaying obstinacy in unimportant matters, the reformers in their fourteen articles demanded only what is just, legitimate and important. It is true that a Christian ought not to be appointed minister by the mere decree of a council of state, but, after examination, by the laying-on of hands of the elders or pastors. It is true that a more frequent celebration of the Lord’s Supper was according to the Word of God. The subject of greatest delicacy was excommunication. But could not the Genevese commit the management of it _to upright and discreet laymen_, elected by the councils, themselves an elected body? The good sense of the Swiss told them that men entirely destitute of Christian character ought not to form part of a Christian society. [Sidenote: THE JUSTICE OF THEIR CAUSE.]