He was much displeased with most of the princes. If any occasion of pleasure presented itself, they would always say, ‘Business to-morrow.’ If Calvin anywhere went into the Lutheran churches, he was saddened by the sight of images and crosses, and by certain parts of the service. The relations of the theologians with princes and with courts appeared to him to be bonds of servility and worldliness. He could not approve even the methods of procedure adopted by his best friends, Melanchthon and Bucer. To Farel he wrote thus: ‘They have drawn up ambiguous and colored formulæ on transubstantiation,[56] to see if they could not satisfy their opponents without making any real concession to them. I do not like this. I can, nevertheless, assure you and all good men, that they are acting with the best intentions, and are aiming only at the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. They fancy that our antagonists will presently have their eyes opened on the subject of doctrine, and that it is therefore best to leave this point undecided. But they are too accommodating to the temper of the times.’ On February 23 the emperor had arrived at Ratisbon. Electors, princes, archbishops, bishops, and lords of all degrees had gathered around the chief of the empire, and all contributed by their presence to give special importance to the assembly. They wished by subtle negotiations to make an end of the Reformation. Never had there been so great danger for the Protestant opposition of being weakened and dissolved into the Romish hierarchical system. The pope had sent to Germany the amiable and pious Contarini as a capital bait for the Protestants; and these, when once caught, he would have thrown into his own fish-pond, and carefully secured them there. Melanchthon himself had desired that Calvin should attend the assembly, because he felt sure that the young doctor would do there what he himself would not have resolution enough to do. Calvin’s part at Ratisbon was not only to see what others did not see, but also to cry out to his too confiding friends—Beware! The time which he spent at this Germanic diet forms one of the most important epochs of his life; one in which he was called to act on the loftiest stage. The firmness with which he unveiled the designs of the papacy and strengthened the feeble Protestants had much to do with the breaking off of the insidious negotiations which Contarini himself at last felt bound to abandon. The Reformation of the sixteenth century was at this time menaced in Germany. It was necessary to save it. The sayings of Calvin hit hard. Some have said they were exaggerated; and yet ecclesiastical occurrences of succeeding years justified them. Learned and pious Catholics have uttered against Rome many of the same reproaches as the Reformer did. If Calvin did not recognize in the Roman Catholic Church some worthy and truly pious men, he was mistaken. But there is no evidence of such a mistake on his part. When he replies to a discourse