If Calvin committed himself to God as to his past, he did the same as to his future. ‘I withdraw to Basel,’ he says, in the same letter, ‘awaiting what the Lord will do with me.’ Calls were not wanting. They wished to retain him at Basel. Toussaint desired that he should settle at Lausanne, or in the canton of Berne, that he might there be an example of decision and devotion. Others thought it their duty to recommend him to the Duke of Würtemburg.[724] But Strasburg appeared to be the place to choose. Already in November, 1536, Bucer, delighted with the _Institution_, which had just appeared, had asked for an interview with Calvin. ‘We will go wherever you wish for the purpose of conferring with you on the whole doctrine of Christ.’[725] They saw each other subsequently at Berne and at Zurich. Bucer and Capito, now that they knew he was at liberty and staying at Basel, did not fail to press him to come to them. At the beginning of July he went to Strasburg. ‘I have been so earnestly entreated to come by the two chief ministers of this town,’ he wrote on the 10th of that month, ‘that to satisfy them I have made a journey hither.’[726] It did not at that time appear likely to him that he was to settle there. The terrible conflicts through which he had passed at Geneva made him view with alarm the proposal to accept a new ministry. He recurred to his studious projects. ‘I shrink, above all things,’ said he, ‘from reëntering on the office from which I am delivered, considering in what perplexities I was involved from the time when I was first engaged in it.’ He adds, ‘there are other reasons which I can explain only by word of mouth.’ What were these? Doubtless the too accommodating theology of the doctors of that town. Basel was his favorite city. He returned thither, saying, ‘It is not the fault of the Strasburgers that I am not their guest, but they have burden enough without me.’ He might, however, have found good reasons for accepting their invitation, for his poverty was so great that he found it necessary to sell ‘a part of his books’ for his maintenance.[727] The entreaties of the Strasburgers, nevertheless, became more urgent. They wrote to Grynæus to do all he could to induce Calvin to settle at Strasburg: only they would rather that he should come without Farel, because they were afraid that, if the two Frenchmen were together, the Germans would have too great difficulty in bending them to their views. This was also the opinion of Grynæus. To give up Farel entirely was too great a sacrifice for Calvin to make. He again declined the offer, giving as his reason the condition which was imposed on him not to take Farel with him.[728] ‘I await thy counsel,’ wrote Calvin to his friend; and impelled by the warmest affection for this man of God, he adds, ‘O that I could now fly to thee! I am only held back by the strongest motives.’