Calvin and Farel bore their great trial with much patience and meekness, forgiving their enemies and praying for them, and endeavoring to avoid everything which might become an occasion of grief to their brethren. Viret was very anxious to see them and to share their tribulations. ‘Thou knowest well,’ replied Calvin to him, ‘that no greater happiness could befall us at this moment than to talk with thee for a short time. But the danger to which the journey would expose thee checks our desire: thou wouldst reap more hatred from it than we should joy.’ Thus did Calvin think of his friends before thinking of himself. It appears, however, that Viret did see him at Basel.[720] This was doubtless at a later period. Calvin was anxious to avoid everything which might lead to any useless dispute. ‘I beg of thee, my dear brother,’ he said to Farel, ‘take pains in these evil times to preserve whatever can be tolerated. Our brethren must not so obstinately dispute about mere ceremonies. Let us be free; but let us be the slaves of concord and of peace.’[721] ‘What I have above all at heart,’ he said further to him, ‘is that we may not cause new quarrels, nor be the occasion of any strife.’ At the same time, nevertheless, one of the first things which the reformers had done after their arrival at Basel was to give an account of what had befallen them to their brethren of Zurich and Strasburg. Their enemies did not cease, indeed, to pursue them with their accusations; and those who had forced them to leave Geneva cried out that they were schismatics, forgetting that they themselves had compelled the two reformers to separate from their Church. Such is party logic. Calvin, Farel, and their friends, therefore, thought it advisable to hold a meeting at which delegates from the towns of Zurich, Berne, Basel, Strasburg, and one of that place (_un dudit lieu_) (probably Geneva), should attend, and at which it should be ‘declared that they had duly and faithfully administered their office.’[722] They did not, however, eagerly press for this. They knew that their judge was in heaven. ‘I can do nothing,’ said Calvin, ‘but commend the issue to the great physician, who alone can provide for it and give it shape.’[723] [Sidenote: CALLS AND HESITATIONS.]