At Basel Calvin found a valued friend, Grynæus. Already during the stay of the two reformers at Berne he had written to them--‘I hope that by your Christian meekness and your humility you will overcome all your adversaries, and take away from the enemies of the Gospel every occasion of calumniating you. Oh, that the eyes now sparkling with the fire of Satan may be cast down, and that the passion with which men are inflamed against your ministry may be quenched![718] Work on, work on, my well-beloved brethren, hearts most noble and most holy (_optima ac sanctissima pectora_); be ready for the conflict, arrayed in the whole armor of Christian warfare, ready and willing, especially at this time, when iniquity prevails, to lead us on with heroic fidelity. Let us apply ourselves to the work of the Lord with unconquerable hearts. The hatred of those who in this proceeding show themselves so worthy of hatred will not win the day. For our part, we are of those who can pray for our enemies, much more support and embrace them. Let not the senseless judgment of the people, let not the foolish and futile dread of popular opinion, disturb you in the least. Rule and protect this Church, which threatens to fall, by your courage and your persistency. How glorious is the function you will discharge! How solid and real the praise which you will deserve if, completely forgetting yourselves in this cause, you think of Jesus Christ alone!’ [Sidenote: THEIR RECEPTION.] We can imagine how affectionately Grynæus and his friends received the two brethren banished on account of the noble fidelity which they had displayed. Grynæus had already invited the reformer, while he was still at Geneva, to go to his house rather than bend under the yoke which his enemies wished to put on him. ‘We welcome thee joyfully,’ he said to Calvin afterwards, ‘as our brother in the Lord, and we embrace thee as a distinguished ornament of our Church.’[719] Calvin therefore abode with Grynæus at Basel, where the most brotherly hospitality was shown him. Farel took up his abode in the house of the famous printer, Oporin.