Movements in Switzerland--Source of the
Reformation--Democratic Character--Foreign
Service--Morality--The Tockenburg--An Alpine Hut--A Pastoral
Family.
At the moment when the decree of the Diet of Worms appeared, a
continually increasing movement was beginning to shake the quiet
valleys of Switzerland. The voice which was heard in the plains of
Upper and Lower Saxony was answered from the bosom of the Helvetic
mountains by the energetic voices of its priests, its shepherds, and
the citizens of its warlike cities. The partisans of Rome, seized with
terror, exclaimed that a vast and dreadful conspiracy was every where
formed against the Church. The friends of the gospel filled with joy,
said, that as in spring a living breath is felt from the streams which
run into the sea up to the mountain tops, so, throughout all
Christendom, the Spirit of God was now melting the ices of a long
winter, and covering with verdure and flowers the lowest plains as
well as the steepest and most barren rocks.
Germany did not communicate the truth to Switzerland, nor Switzerland
to France, nor France to England. All these countries received it from
God, just as one part of the world does not transmit the light to
another part, but the same shining globe communicates it directly to
all the earth. Christ, _the day-spring from on high_, infinitely
exalted above all mankind, was, at the period of the Reformation as at
that of the establishment of Christianity, the divine fire which gave
life to the world. In the sixteenth century one and the same doctrine
was at once established in the homes and churches of the most distant
and diversified nations. The reason is, that the same Spirit was every
where at work producing the same faith.
[Sidenote: MOVEMENTS IN SWITZERLAND.]
The reformation of Germany and that of Switzerland demonstrate this
truth. Zuinglius had no intercourse with Luther. There was, no doubt,
a link between these two men; but we must search for it above the
earth. He who from heaven gave the truth to Luther, gave it to
Zuinglius. God was the medium of communication between them. "I began
to preach the gospel," says Zuinglius, "in the year of grace, 1516, in
other words, at a time when the name of Luther had never been heard of
in our country. I did not learn the doctrine of Christ from Luther,
but from the word of God. If Luther preaches Christ, he does what I
do; that is all."[599]
[599] ...1516, eo scilicet tempore, quum Lutheri nomen in nostris
regionibus inauditum adhuc erat...doctrinam Christi non a Luthero, sed
ex verbo Dei didici. (Zwinglii Opera, curant. Schulero et Schulthesio,
Turici, 1829, vol. i, p. 273, 276.)
But if the different reformations, which all proceeded from the same
Spirit, thereby acquired great unity, they also received certain
peculiar features, corresponding to the different characters of the
people among whom they took place.
We have already given a sketch of the state of Switzerland at the
period of the Reformation,[600] and will only add a few words to what
we have already said. In Germany, the ruling principle was
monarchical, in Switzerland it was democratic. In Germany the
Reformation had to struggle with the will of princes; in Switzerland,
with the will of the people. A multitude are more easily led away than
an individual, and are also more prompt in their decisions. The
victory over the papacy on the other side of the Rhine was the work of
years, but on this side of it required only months or days.
[600] First Volume.
[Sidenote: FOREIGN SERVICE.]
In Germany, Luther's person stands forth imposingly from the midst of
his Saxon countrymen. He seems to struggle alone in his attack on the
Roman Colossus, and wherever the battle is fought, we see his lofty
stature on the field of battle. Luther is, as it were, the monarch of
the revolution which is being accomplished. In Switzerland, several
cantons are at once engaged in the contest. We see a confederacy of
Reformers, and are astonished at their numbers. No doubt there is one
head which stands elevated above the rest, but no one has the command.
It is a republican magistracy, where each presents his peculiar
physiognomy, and exercises his separate influence. We have Wittemberg,
Zuinglius, Capito, Haller, Œcolampadius. Again, we have Oswald
Myconius, Leo Juda, Farel, and Calvin, and the Reformation takes place
at Glaris, Bâle, Zurich, Berne, Neufchatel, Geneva, Lucerne,
Schafausen, Appenzel, St. Gall, and in the Grisons. In the
Reformation of Germany, one scene only is seen, and that one level
like the country around; but in Switzerland, the Reformation is
divided, as Switzerland itself is divided by its thousand mountains.
So to speak, each valley has its awakening, and each Alpine height its
gleams of light.
A lamentable period had commenced in the history of the Swiss after
their exploits against the dukes of Burgundy. Europe, which had
learned to know the strength of their arm, had brought them forth from
their mountains, and robbed them of their independence, by employing
them to decide the destiny of states on battle-fields. Swiss
brandished the sword against Swiss on the plains of Italy and France;
and the intrigues of strangers filled these high valleys of the Alps,
so long the abode of simplicity and peace, with envy and discord. Led
away by the attraction of gold, sons, labourers, and servants, stole
away from the chalets of alpine pastures towards the banks of the
Rhine or the Po. Helvetic unity was crushed under the slow step of
mules loaded with gold. The object of the Reformation in
Switzerland--for there too it had a political aspect--was to
re-establish the unity and ancient virtues of the cantons. Its first
cry was that the Swiss should tear asunder the perfidious nets of
strangers, and embrace each other in strict union at the foot of the
cross. But the generous call was not listened to. Rome, accustomed to
purchase in these valleys the blood which she shed in order to
increase her power, rose up in wrath. She set Swiss against Swiss, and
new passions arose which rent the body of the nation in pieces.
Switzerland stood in need of a reformation. It is true there was among
the Helvetians a simplicity and good-nature, which the polished
Italians thought ridiculous, but, at the same time, it was admitted
that by no people were the laws of chastity more habitually
transgressed. Astrologers ascribed this to the constellations;[601]
philosophers, to the ardent temperament of this indomitable
population; and moralists, to the principles of the Swiss, who
regarded trick, dishonesty, and slander as much greater sins than
uncleanness.[602] The priests were prohibited from marrying, but it
would have been difficult to find one of them who lived in true
celibacy. The thing required of them was, to conduct themselves not
chastely, but prudently. This was one of the first disorders against
which the Reformation was directed. It is time to trace the beginnings
of this new day in the valleys of the Alps.
[601] Wirz, Helvetische Kirchen Geschichte, iii, p. 201.
[602] Sodomitis melius erit in die judicii, quam rerum vel honoris
ablatoribus. (Hemmerlin, de anno jubilæo.)
[Sidenote: AN ALPINE COTTAGE.]
Towards the middle of the eleventh century, two hermits set out from
Saint Gall, and proceeding towards the mountains at the south of this
ancient monastery, arrived in a deserted valley about ten leagues
long.[603] Towards the north, the high mountains of Sentis, the
Sommerigkopf, and the Old-Man, separate this valley from the canton of
Appenzel. On the south, the Kuhfirsten, with its seven heads, rises
between it and the Wallenses, Sargans, and the Grisons, while the
eastern side of the valley opens to the rays of the rising sun, and
discovers the magnificent prospect of the Tyrolese Alps. The two
solitaries having arrived near the source of a small river, (the
Thur,) built two cells. The valley gradually became inhabited. On the
highest portion of it, 2010 feet above the Lake of Zurich, there was
formed, around a church, a village named Wildhaus, or the Wild House,
with which two hamlets are now connected, _viz._, Lisighaus, or the
House of Elizabeth, and Schœnenboden. The fruits of the earth are
unable to grow upon these heights. A green carpet of Alpine freshness
covers the whole valley, and rises upon the sides of the mountains,
above which masses of enormous rocks lift their wild grandeur towards
heaven.
[603] The Tokenburg.
At a quarter of a league from the church near Lisighaus, on the side
of a path which leads into the pastures beyond the river, a solitary
house is still standing. The tradition is, that the wood used in
building it was cut upon the very spot.[604] Everything indicates that
it must have been erected at a very remote period. The walls are thin.
The windows have little round panes, and the roof is formed of slabs,
on which stones are laid to prevent the wind from carrying them away.
In front of the house there is a limpid gushing spring.
[604] Schuler's Zwinglis Bildungs Gesch. p. 290.
[Sidenote: A PASTORAL FAMILY.]
In this house, towards the end of the fifteenth century, lived a man
named Zuinglius, amman or bailiff of the district. The family of the
Zwingles, or Zwingli, was ancient, and in high esteem among the
inhabitants of these mountains.[605] Bartholomew, brother of the
bailiff, at first curate of the parish, and, after 1487, dean of
Wesen, was a person of some celebrity in the district.[606] Margaret
Meili, the wife of the amman of Wildhaus, and whose brother John was
afterwards abbot of the convent of Fischingen in Thurgovia, had
already given birth to two sons, Heini and Klaus, when, on the first
day of the year 1484, seven weeks after the birth of Luther, a third
son, Ulric, was born in this solitary hut.[607] Five other sons,
John, Wolfgang, Bartholomew, James, Andrew, and a daughter, Anna,
were afterwards added to this Alpine family. No person in the country
was more venerated than amman Zuinglius.[608] His character, his
office, his numerous children, made him the patriarch of these
mountains. He and all his sons were shepherds. No sooner did the first
days of May open upon these mountains than the father and the children
departed with their flocks for the pastures, rising gradually from
station to station, and so, towards the end of July, reaching the
highest summits of the Alps. Then they began gradually to redescend
towards the valley, and in autumn the whole population of Wildhaus
returned to their humble huts. Sometimes, during the summer, the young
people who had been obliged to remain at home, eager for the mountain
breezes, set out in bands for the chalets, uniting their voices to the
melody of their rustic instruments. On their arrival on the Alps, the
shepherds from a distance saluted them with their horns and their
songs, and regaled them with a feast of milk. Afterwards the joyous
band, by turnings and windings, descended again into the valley,
moving to the sound of their pipes. Ulric in his youth doubtless
joined occasionally in this amusement. He grew up at the foot of those
rocks which seem eternal, and whose tops reach the heavens. "I have
often thought," says one of his friends, "that, being brought near to
heaven on these sublime heights, he there contracted something
celestial and divine."[609]
[605] Diss Geschlächt der Zwinglinen, wass in guter Achtung diesser
Landen, als ein gut alt ehrlich Geschlächt. (H. Bullinger's Histor.
Beschreibung der Eidg. Geschichten.) This valuable work existed only
in manuscript in 1837, and was communicated to me by the kindness of
M. J. G. Hess. In the quotations I preserve the orthography of the
period and of the manuscript. The friends of history have since caused
it to be printed.
[606] Ein verrumbter Mann. (Ibid.)
[607] Quadragesimum octavum agimus, writes Zuinglius to Vadian, 17th
September, 1531.
[608] Clarus fuit pater ob spectatam vitæ sanctimoniam. (Oswald
Myconius, Vita Zwingli.)
[609] Divinitatis nonnihil cœlo propriorem contraxisse. (Ibid.)
There were long winter evenings in the cottages of Wildhaus, and then
young Ulric, seated at the paternal hearth, listened to the
conversation of the bailiff and the old men of the district. He heard
them tell how the inhabitants of the valley had formerly groaned under
a heavy yoke. With the old men his heart beat high at the thought of
the independence which the Tockenburg had acquired, and which the
alliance with the Swiss had secured. A patriotic feeling was kindled
in his breast. Switzerland became dear to him; and if any one uttered
an unfavourable expression against the confederates, the child
instantly stood up and warmly defended their cause.[610] During these
long evenings he was often seen quietly seated at the feet of his
pious grandmother, with his eyes rivetted upon her, listening to her
Bible stories, and devout lessons, as he eagerly received them into
his heart.
[610] Schulers Zw. Bildung, p. 291.