After Calvin's expulsion from Geneva , , the archbishop of Carpentras in southern France, near Avignon, about as far from Geneva as Strasbourg was, but in the other direction wrote to the Genevan people in an effort to persuade them to return to Roman Catholicism. Sadoleto's letter is notable in that it frankly acknowledged the abuses and corruption most frequently attacked by Protestants and other reformers. He argued that nevertheless authentic Christian faith was still best sought under the cloak of Holy Mother Church.
In spite of having expelled Calvin from the town, the Genevans nonetheless requested that Calvin respond to Sadoleto's tract, and soon afterwards the city government ordered that the response be printed and publicized.
Calvin's "Reply ," a powerful defense of the need for reform, sought to explain that Protestant reform was not simply a response to abuses in the church but to a rejection of the very heart of Catholic faith and practice. In the great abundance of learned men whom our age has produced, your excellent learning and distinguished eloquence having deservedly procured you a place among the few whom all, who would he thought studious of liberal arts, look up to and revere, it is with great reluctance I bring forward your name before the learned world, and address to you the following expostulation.
Nor, indeed, would I have done it if I had not been dragged into this arena by a strong necessity. For I am not unaware how reprehensible it would be to show any eagerness in attacking a man who has deserved so well of literature, nor how odious I should become to all the learned were they to see me stimulated by passion merely, and not impelled by any just cause, turning my pen against one whom, for his admirable endowments, they, not without good reason, deem worthy of love and honor.
I trust, however, that after explaining the nature of my undertaking, I shall not only be exempted from all blame, but there will not be an individual who will not admit that the cause which I have undertaken I could not on any account have abandoned without basely deserting my duty.
