Produced by Charles Bowen
Transcriber's Notes:
1. Source: Web Archive at
"http://www.archive.org/stream/lifetimesofulric00hott/lifetimesofulric00
hott_djvu.txt"
2. The diphthongs oe and OE are represented as [oe] and [OE].
[Illustration: Switzerland]
THE
LIFE AND TIMES
OF
ULRIC ZWINGLI
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN
OF
J. J. HOTTINGER.
BY
THE REV. PROF. T. C. PORTER,
OF FRANKLIN AND MARSHALL COLLEGE, LANCASTER, PA.
* * * * * *
HARRISBURG:
PUBLISHED BY THEO. F. SCHEFFER.
1856.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * *
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by THEO. F.
SCHEFFER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United
States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * *
Author's Preface.
"Biographers should not busy themselves so much with deeds, as their
moving causes; with what motives, by what means, for what ends and
under what circumstances they were performed. If we limit ourselves to
a simple detail of facts, our judgment is determined by success; and
upright men are condemned as evil or imprudent, because of the
unfavorable issue of their endeavors. To set forth the views of Zwingli
and the high mark to which he strove to carry everything, were
dangerous--would open a wide door to envy and calumniation, and would
not be permitted by the government of Zurich; since it would be a
violation of the _Landfriede_, various resolutions of the cities and
the Hereditary Union with Austria. Without this, however, the history
of his life would be dry, and posterity would neither admire nor love
Zwingli, but regard him as a thoughtless, foolish man. The unhappy
catastrophe has placed everything in a false light."
The foregoing remarks of Bullinger show with what caution our
forefathers were obliged to speak of Zwingli's political acts. Indeed,
after the battle of Cappel they were looked upon with little favor,
even in the Reformed portion of the Confederacy. Bullinger himself,
Zwingli's successor, was for the moment filled with despondency. He
wrote to his friend, Myconius: "We will never come together again. No
one trusts his neighbor any longer. Surely, surely, we live in the last
times. It is all over with the Confederacy." The passage above-cited
was written perhaps at this juncture. But he soon recovered his
courage. His confidence in God returned with renewed strength, and he
then began that career, which was so active, so noble and so full of
blessing. He continued the work of his illustrious predecessor, and
described it also with a powerful pen and a reverent heart, leaving
behind, for thoughtful readers at least, intimations of what he durst
not wholly reveal to his contemporaries. Three centuries have since
gone by, and unrestricted access to archives and multiplied
investigations have brought to light reports and documents hitherto
unknown. From these materials, the author endeavored, fifteen years
ago, to delineate the life and times of Zwingli. That volume was
designed for those, who study history as a science: the aim of this one
is to present the same results in a popular form. And as our people,
now a-days, pay so much attention to what is written and spoken, let
them hear once more the voice of one of the noblest statesmen of former
ages; let them consider his acts, and ponder over his sad fate. If we
regard him merely as a reformer of the Church, he may perhaps appear to
us surrounded by a brighter glory; but history demands a full
representation, and such a representation exhibits him as a man
"possessed of like passions with ourselves." Yet, just in the
acknowledgement of his own infirmities by Zwingli, and in his
submission with humble faith to a Higher Power, do the unmistakable
features of true religion shine victoriously above that worship of self
which springs only from vain conceit.--May the following work produce
the same conviction in the mind of the reader!
Preface.
The volume, here translated, was published in Zurich in the year 1842,
and may be regarded as the fullest and most reliable history of Zwingli
and his times that has yet appeared; for, in addition to the numerous
works, in Latin and German, which relate to this particular period, the
author has had free access to an immense mass of important and
necessary state-papers, long buried in the archives of the Canton.
Contents.
CHAPTER FIRST. _Page._
Zwingli's youth. His labors in Glarus and Einsiedeln, 7
CHAPTER SECOND.
Zwingli in Zurich. Beginning of the Reformation. Political
and ecclesiastical affairs up to the first Religious
Conference, 53
CHAPTER THIRD.
Religious Conference in Zurich. The government takes the
place of the Bishop for the protection and superintendence
of the National Church, 106
CHAPTER FOURTH.
Danger of the Reformation and Zwingli's battle against them, 164
CHAPTER FIFTH.
Defence of the Old Order. Rise of the New, 203
CHAPTER SIXTH.
Organization of the parties. Breach of the general peace, 258
CHAPTER SEVENTH.
First Campaign. Zwingli and Luther, 283
CHAPTER EIGHTH.
Internal condition of Switzerland after the first campaign.
The Abbot of St. Gall. Political results of the Marburg
Conference, 322
CHAPTER NINTH.
Vain attempts at reconciliation. Exportation of corn
prohibited. Outbreak of War. Battle of Cappel. Zwingli's
death, 370
CHAPTER FIRST
ZWINGLI'S YOUTH. HIS LABORS IN GLARUS AND EINSIEDELN.
Near the source of the river Thur, in Wildhaus, a mountain-village of
the Toggenburg, lived the bailiff Ulric Zwingli, with his wife
Margaretta Meili, in moderate circumstances and universal esteem. Eight
sons and two daughters were the fruit of their marriage. The third of
these sons, born on the first of January 1484, seven weeks after
Luther's birth-day, received the name of his father. A brother of the
bailiff, Bartholomew Zwingli, was chosen by the burghers of Wildhaus,
who a short time before had separated from the mother-church of Glarus,
as the first pastor of the new congregation. The mother also had a
brother of the clerical order, John Meili, abbot of Fischingen. A pious
and friendly man, he loved the children of his sister, as if they were
his own. In the bosom of an honest family, breathing the pure cool air
of a green Alpine region, amid the simple pleasures of a shepherd's
life, the little Ulric grew up vigorously, quick-witted, looking out
into the world with clear eyes, and though somewhat rude like his
countrymen, yet gifted with senses fully alive to the beauties of
nature and the harmonies of voice and instrument.
The early signs of promise, which he gave, were the means of opening
for him the path to scientific culture. His uncle, being made deacon at
Wesen, left Wildhaus in 1487, and took the boy with him. By his help
and that of the teacher at Wesen, he was prepared in his tenth year to
enter the Theodore School at Little Basel, whither he now went, again
supported and recommended, as is probable, by his uncle.
It may not be amiss to introduce some notice of the educational system
of that age.
Lowest in rank appear the German schools. Here and there teachers were
provided for them by the parish-officers, but in other places the
supply was left to accident. Older students, under the name of
_lehrmeister_, traveled around, oftentimes with wives, practising their
vocation and hiring themselves out for longer or shorter periods. Two
well-painted placards of these strolling masters are preserved in the
library at Basel. They exhibit the interior of a school-room. On one
the children are sitting and kneeling on the floor with their books,
whilst the master, rod in hand is teaching a boy at his desk and his
wife a girl in the opposite corner; the other represents a chamber in
which older scholars are receiving instruction. The following
advertisement is written beneath both:
"Whoever wishes to learn to write and read German in the very quickest
way ever found out, though he does not know a single letter of the
alphabet, can in a short time get enough here to cast up his own
accounts and read; and if any one be too stupid to learn, as I have
taught him nothing so will I charge him nothing, be he who he may,
burgher or apprentice, woman or girl; whoever comes in, he will be
faithfully taught for a small sum, but the young boys and girls after
the Ember weeks, as the custom is. 1516."
To all, who were unable to obtain the necessary elementary instruction
at home, or even perhaps in the monasteries, these schools were open.
Children and adults frequently sat on the same bench. Of course, there
was nothing like thorough knowledge among the masters, nothing like a
division into classes, or a comprehensive plan of instruction. Just as
the natural talent of the teacher was greater or less, were the results
better or worse. And yet such was the only education of a large
majority of the burghers. Indeed thousands were destitute even of this.
Boys, designed for a higher training, sons of the wealthy, or of the
poor, who were so fortunate as to meet with encouragement to a noble
effort, passed over into the Latin schools, into one of which we now
see Zwingli enter.
In these schools, found in most of the larger and sometimes also in the
smaller towns, the teachers were usually clergymen, who received
annually a moderate salary and a coat from the public treasury, or
oftener still from the revenues of pious foundations. For their better
maintenance, where the foundation could not give them a full support,
they were permitted to accept school-money and even provisions. The
poor scholars earned this money by singing in companies before houses
on new-year and other holidays.
The course of instruction embraced three branches: Latin Grammar,
Music, (especially the art of singing,) and Logic. The study of the
latter, which ought to teach how to give clear expression to thought,
was for the most part time wasted amid useless subtleties and verbiage.
The reputation of the school depended altogether on the character of
the teacher. As soon as he had made himself master of the prescribed
course, he either added to it new branches, or at least understood how
to render it profitable. But his main endeavor was to stimulate the
youthful mind by his own mental activity. To such a teacher hundreds of
scholars flocked from all quarters.
The following regulations, taken from one at Bruck, will give us some
insight into the state of discipline among schools of this kind.
"The schoolmaster shall take in school at five o'clock in the morning,
in summer, and at six in the winter,[1] give lessons to each one
according to his rank, age and capacity, and explain them well and
mannerly, hearing them at the proper time, and pointing out to the boys
their mistakes and failures, so that by this means they may acquire
skill and honor. After lunch, he shall come to school at eleven
o'clock, except on festival days, and then at twelve, to give lessons
and instruction till four, if that be the usual hour of leaving off
work for the day. In the evenings he shall teach them Latin and
penmanship faithfully and modestly, and keep them as busy as possible,
so that they may get a good and gentle training and be preserved from
idle talk, quarrels, and brawls. He shall charge them to talk little
and use few words, and when in and out of school to speak with each
other in Latin; but with their parents and the people at home they may
talk German. He shall teach them the cantum in verse, antiphonies
(alternate chanting in choirs), intonations (singing along with the
priest), hymns and requiems in various ways, suited to the time and
occasion. He shall earnestly exhort them to behave with decorum in the
church, the choir, the church-yard and the belfry, to abstain from
disputing, shouting, huzzaing and bell-ringing, either in, upon or
around the church, and also not to touch the bells, at peril of being
stripped and flogged soundly from top to toe. When school is out they
shall go together before the charnel-house and each one shall repeat
with devotion a pater noster, an ave maria or the psalm _de profundis_
and then return home quietly. Striking each other with satchels,
pinching, spitting, fighting and stone-throwing, shall be punished by
the rod. The schoolmaster shall beat them with rods, and not with his
fist or staff, and particularly not on the head, lest, on account of
their youth, he might thereby do great damage to the organ of memory."
Thus the rod was formerly the chief means of school-discipline. And
even far into the era of the Reformation a yearly holiday was observed
under the name of "The Procession of the Rods," in which all the pupils
of the schools went out in the summer to the woods, and came back
heavily laden with birch-twigs, cracking jokes by the way and singing:
Ye fathers and ye mothers good,
See us with the birchen wood
Loaded, coming home again;
For our profit it shall serve,
Not for injury or pain.
Your will and the command of God
Have prompted us to bear the rod
On our own bodies thus to-day,
Not in angry, sullen mood,
But with a spirit glad and gay
The greater part of the male students were animated by a wild and
reckless spirit, the result of a fickle roving from town to town. The
pretext for this course was the necessity of hunting up skilful
teachers; but with many it was only love for a career of frolic and
idleness. The oldest and strongest scholars, young men of twenty and
upwards, each of whom had a different plea to urge, set the example. By
the promise of a living free of cost and instruction in the rudiments
they attracted to themselves younger boys, who, as soon as they had
crossed the boundaries of their father-land, were converted into
servants and compelled to beg or steal money and provisions for the
common treasury. Thomas Platter, a native of Valais, when a child, nine
years of age, followed such a wandering student and traveled with him
through Germany as far as the borders of Poland without ever learning
to read, until in his eighteenth year, he received for the first time
better instruction in Schlettstadt and afterwards in Zurich. He has
left us a picture of his student-life in an autobiography, extracts
from which are found in a number of works. It can easily be imagined
how several thousand scholars of this roving cast, who all subsisted on
alms, should frequently meet together in one town. The younger ones,
called _archers_, spent the night in the schoolhouses, and the older
(bacchanalians) in little chambers specially reserved for their
accommodation. In summer they all lay together in the church-yards with
the grass for a bed. Wo to the chickens, the geese and the fruit-trees,
where such a troop passed by! Here one man hissed his dogs on them,
while there another gave them a friendly welcome, and in return for as
much beer as they could drink, obtained information about foreign
countries and stories of their travels. The roughest class of teachers
often joined them in their revels and often others at the head of their
trusty followers sallied out to drive the truants into school, who,
when assailed, retreated to the roofs of the houses, sending down
showers of stones, till the citizens or the watchmen broke in among
them and quelled the riot.
It was Zwingli's good fortune to be saved from such a life of
adventure. George Binzli, his teacher in Basel, was, in the words of an
old writer, an excellent, not unlearned man, of a very amiable
disposition. He took a great liking to Zwingli, who soon stood in the
foremost rank among his school-fellows, a master in debate and the
possessor of an extraordinary talent for music. At the end of three
years he finished his course in the Theodore School, and departed,
cherishing an esteem and gratitude, not lost in after life, toward
Binzli, by whose advice also he now went to Bern, and entered a higher
class under the care of Henry W[oe]lfli.
At an earlier day Latin was taught chiefly for the purposes of divine
worship, which consisted, for the most part, of chanting and the saying
of masses in this language, to the common people an unknown tongue. A
knowledge of it was derived from stupid manuals, that only furnished
the scholars with a stock of words, which, though not well understood
even by themselves, were stuffed into their sermons, in order to gain
credit for learning with the ignorant multitude.
But after the invention of the art of printing, the most important
works of the ancient Romans, extant only in a few very costly
manuscripts, were given to the world by the press. These, teachers of
ability first took up and studied, and then explained to their
scholars. What a wide contrast between such education and that of a
former period! Here, instead of corrupt monk's Latin, the young men
became acquainted with a highly cultivated, clear, powerful language,
and, at the same time also, with the history of the most celebrated
republic of antiquity, which, to the Swiss, themselves the citizens of
a free country, was full of interest. W[oe]lfli, we know, followed this
path in his teaching. "From him," says Myconius, the biographer and
friend of Zwingli, "he obtained his first knowledge of the classic
authors (so well preserved through so many centuries), acquired a
flowing, harmonious style, and learned how to distinguish facts and
exercise his judgment upon them." W[oe]lfli had visited Jerusalem as a
zealous pilgrim, and would often speak of the journey to his scholars,
who also saw that he was busied with the history of his native land and
that every story of the olden time was sacred in his eyes. But to
Zwingli the most pleasant hours were those spent in the practice of
music. With astonishing rapidity he learned to play on all the kinds of
instruments then known. This attracted the attention of the heads of
the Dominicans at Bern. Envious at the greater concourse of people,
that crowded to the Franciscans, these monks sought to raise against
the fallen reputation of their monastery. To secure for themselves
talent, so promising as that of Zwingli, was a thing much to be
desired; but happily for himself and for his father-land, the young man
rejected their offers. A short time after, four of these cursed
hypocrites had to atone by death at the stake for a diversion, just as
cruel as it was horrible, the performing of bloody miracles for the
deception of pious simplicity.
Zwingli had now lived three years in Bern, and was already fully ripe
for the university. With loving remembrances he bade farewell to his
faithful teacher, who was yet to become his pupil and in old age
dedicate a few sad verses to the hero, who fell at Cappel.
At that time the young Swiss chiefly resorted to the universities of
Basel, Paris, Vienna, Cracow and Pavia. That of Vienna was selected for
Zwingli, which he entered in the same year (1490), that saw his country
triumph over the dangers of the Swabian war. He there united himself in
close intimacy with two other gifted fellow-countrymen, Joachim of Waat
(Vadianus) from St. Gall, and Henry Loriti (Glareanus) from Glarus.
Meanwhile he appears to have devoted more attention to general culture
than to such branches of knowledge as might aid him in the exercise of
a particular calling. Above all, philosophy had to be studied; a truly
noble science, if by it be understood the acquisition of truth, as far
as it can be reached by the deductions of human reason. But such was
not the character of philosophy then in vogue. Under the tyranny of a
degenerate church, the powers of the mind, not permitted to unfold in
an element of freedom, were wasted amid trifling and often silly
examinations and questions, conducted with a ludicrous show of
importance. A certain kind of sagacity often displayed itself in their
ingenious replies, and he who could produce the most singular was
regarded by many as the most learned.
It does fall within the scope of this description to hold up to
ridicule opinions, which others esteem holy. Examples, familiar to
those versed in books, are therefore omitted. The dangerous side of
this so-called philosophy did not lie so much in isolated expressions
as in its whole tendency to cripple the spirit and harden the heart, so
that victory might be rendered more sure and easy to the cunning
talker, who strove, not for the cause of truth, but for his own private
advantage. In the school of the clear-seeing, free-speaking Romans
Zwingli soon learned how to sift the scandalous game, carried on under
the banners of wisdom, to distinguish fallacy from truth, and to
despise from the bottom of his soul this false philosophy, the art of
passing off black for white, and of leading both parties by the nose
with the same blinding torrent of words, in brief, the whole brood of
lies and everything belonging to it.
Although it could only have been through the medium of translations or
abridgments, he already seems to have made some acquaintance with the
works of the Greeks. In profound speculation and in matters of art and
taste they were the teachers of the Romans, who, in spite of national
pride, were willing to acknowledge them as such. Even to this day,
their sages, Plato and Aristotle, must be studied by all, who are not
content with a mere superficial knowledge of philosophy. Their
historians entered fully into the character of the persons and of the
times, which they portrayed, and in their poets a loftier inspiration
ruled. One of these, Pindar, is thus described by Zwingli at a later
period: "He is the prince of poets. He has a true, holy, incorruptible
mind. Every expression, that he uses, be it ever so common, he makes
noble. No one can either give to him or take from him without injury.
In him is found a worthy, powerful representation of antiquity. It
lives again before our eyes. His poetry flows like a clear stream; all
is noble, charming, perfect. In a lofty style he discourses of the
gods, and it can be easily seen that he meant thereby the one, divine,
heavenly power. No Grecian author serves so well for the interpretation
of Holy Scripture, especially of the Psalms and Job, which rival him in
sublimity."
The young men turned their attention also to the mysteries of nature,
the discoveries in geography and the illimitable kingdom of worlds,
revealed to us by a glance at the darkened heavens. In after life
Glareanus won for himself considerable fame by his researches in the
department of ancient geography, and Vadianus, when quite an old man,
gathered around him a troop of burghers from St. Gall, full of wonder
and a desire to learn, as they lay encamped, one starry night, on the
summit of the Freudenberg, and spoke to them of the motion of the
heavenly bodies and the laws, that govern them, and strengthened their
hopes of an eternal existence in the immeasurable realms of space.
The three friends, thus closely joined in noble endeavor, lived in
daily, social, intercourse with others, whom hereafter, when the more
earnest days of manly activity have arrived, we shall find arrayed, as
in the cases of Eck and Faber, among the most bitter opponents of
Zwingli.
The morals of that period, as every one knows, were loose and corrupt,
and only too much opportunity was afforded for indulging in pleasures
of every kind, especially in a large city. For young men, left to their
own guidance in the heyday of life, it was difficult to keep within
proper bounds on all sides. But his love of music, that very thing so
severely blamed in after times by hypocritical pietists, was the means
of preserving Zwingli from every thing low and mean. His early
conviction of the value of time taught him to be very sparing of it,
and the lofty ideal, which floated before him and his friends, their
youthful plans of future greatness, kept them unsoiled amid the swamps
of temptation, till at a later period their place was more effectually
supplied by the purer influence of religion.
After a residence of two years abroad the young Switzer came back again
to his native mountains, full of vigor, sound in mind and body, and
amply prepared to enter upon any professional pursuit. He appears to
have remained only a short time at home. The country village was little
suited to the prosecution of his further designs. A situation as
teacher of languages was offered him in the school of St. Martin at
Basel, and he there began his public career in the year 1502. No
intelligence has reached us concerning the nature of his labors. He had
probably only elementary branches to teach; for the university, as
formerly constituted, exerted on the teachers of the foundation-schools
under its control, an influence rather paralyzing than encouraging.
Nevertheless he conscientiously applied himself to his studies and
associated for this purpose with Leo Judæ, who, born two years earlier
than Zwingli at Rappersweier in Alsace, stood faithfully at his side in
all his later course and will yet receive frequent mention in this
history. He also shared with him his love of music.
But now the period had arrived, when in the study of religious
doctrine, the end and meaning of their future life began to dawn upon
the minds of Zwingli and his friend. At the same time a teacher came to
Basel, who was well fitted to waken their love for this science and
give a right direction to their active zeal. That man was Thomas
Wittenbach of Biel, hitherto professor at Tubingen.
The world had then grown weary of the corruption of the clergy, of
their stupid arrogance, of the intolerance, which would restrict the
divine favor to the limits of their narrow earthly horizon, and of the
search after miracles, which was counted faith, although a denial of
true faith, because it would grasp with the hand that which is
spiritual and not to be apprehended, except when a beam of divine grace
is glowing on the altar of a pure heart. Yet only so much the more did
a longing after the communication of clearer light prevail.
It is true indeed that here and there were found pious men, who in
humility and childlike simplicity wrought works of love and edified
their neighbors, by a redeeming activity and a spotless life. But
characters of this kind were suited only to peaceful, not stormy times,
which called for bolder leaders. Enemies must be met on their own
field, the weapons of the understanding used, and the arguments of
science advanced, not in such a way however as to injure simple-minded
faith. This was the manner in which Christ opposed the scepticism of
the Sadducees and the sophistry of the Pharisees, and this is what is
meant by that saying of his, concerning the wisdom of the serpent and
the harmlessness of the dove. High hung this garland; but it was worthy
of the sweat of the noblest.
Wittenbach knew well how to encourage his pupils to enter the lists and
strive after its attainment. Leo Judæ has given authentic testimony to
this effect in a letter to the council of Biel. "From your city,"
writes he, "came forth this man, regarded by the most learned men of
that age as a the ph[oe]nix on account of his manifold acquirements.
Zwingli and I enjoyed his instructions at Basel in the year 1505. Under
his guidance, from polite literature, in which he was equally at home,
we passed over to the more earnest study of the Holy Scriptures. His
sagacity discerned clearly beforehand the events of coming years, the
overthrow of the papal doctrine of indulgences and other groundless
dogmas, by which, for many centuries, Rome had held unthinking mankind
in bondage. Whatever of thorough knowledge we possess, we owe it to him
and must remain his debtors as long as we live."
While yet in Basel Zwingli had received the title of _Magister_ (Master
of the Liberal Arts,) but he never made any use of it himself. One is
our master, he was accustomed to say, Christ.
But now, in the twenty-second year of his age, he must leave Basel
also, and enter on the proper business of his life. John Stucki, pastor
at Glarus, died in the year 1506. Recommended probably by his uncle,
perhaps by his friend Glareanus, the young man was chosen for the
important post. The Bishop of Constance consecrated him to the
priesthood and ratified the choice.
Through Rappersweil, where he preached his first sermon; through
Wildhaus, where he read his first mass, he passed on towards the close
of the year, to his new home. Glarus, the chief town of the canton, was
inhabited by an active, intelligent population, full of energy and
independence. The new teacher, who does not intend to act the part of
an unprincipled hireling, must count on finding watchful enemies as
well as friends. There is only one means, by which to maintain an erect
position, under such circumstances, in a firm adherence to duty and
principle, and that is an unfailing support,--trust in a higher power,
which never deserts an honest endeavor. With this resolve, under this
shield, Zwingli began the practice of his calling, not at all anxious
about the judgments of men, nor troubled at the remarks of the
multitude. In him ruled the ardent spirit of vigorous youth, averse to
every thing that smacked of devotional hypocrisy, full of life and
mirth, sometimes verging even on wantonness, and yet so earnest, where
the affairs of science, so profound, where those of faith, and so
conscientious, where those of the congregation entrusted to his care,
were concerned, or those of his country, in whose welfare and honor his
heart was bound up. If on this account he was called a friend of sport;
if Glareanus wrote to him gaily in monk's Latin: "I am coming to you
shortly, and then we will be of good cheer and play on the jews' harp;"
and if Dingnauer, who promised him, that neither envy, nor jealousy,
nor the moroseness of old age, nor gold, nor iron should cripple his
friendship, believed that he must add the warning: "Watch over your
heart, conceal your glowing wishes, lest joy be turned into bitter
vexation;" we yet read, on the other hand, what he himself wrote to
Vadianus at Vienna: "I am now resolved to devote myself to the Greek
language and to be drawn away from it no more. This is not done out of
vanity, for how little does pretension become me! but from the
necessity of a thorough understanding of the Holy Scriptures." We find
also that he wrote off the original Greek text of the Epistles of Paul
in the form of a small book, in order to have it continually with him,
and added in the margin the observations of the most approved
commentators. In the year 1522, we hear him thus speak of the manner,
in which he tried at that time to penetrate into the spirit of these
records: "In my youth I made as much advance in human learning as any
one of my age, and when, six or seven years ago, I devoted my whole
strength to the study of the Holy Scriptures, the philosophy and
theology of the controversialists threw continual difficulties in my
way. At last I came to this conclusion. I thought: Thou must lay aside
all these and get the meaning of God fresh from his own, simple word.
Then I began to implore God for his light, and the Scripture became
much clearer to me, although I read it merely, as I would have read
many commentaries and interpreters." The letters written by him and to
him at this time show us plainly, that those who were committed to his
training, especially young men of promise, crowded around him, full of
love and reverence, and that he never was weary of giving them counsel,
support and recommendation in foreign countries, of watching over their
progress and morals, whilst there, and of rejoicing in every evidence
of talent and noble purpose and helping to turn them to practical
account. Glareanus thanked him for permission to continue his studies
abroad, though obliged to give up a benefice in Mollis, where, "like a
goat-herd," he had to receive a new election every year. The same
friend wrote to him on another occasion: "You are always helping those,
who deserve it." Argobast Strub of Vienna was about to dedicate a
commendatory poem to him, when death surprised the ingenious youth and
the sorrowful Vadianus sent his literary remains to his former teacher
as a pledge of love from the departed one. Peter Tschudi wrote to him
from Paris, "You are like a tutelar god to us;" and his brother
Aegidius in Basel begged him, "Help, that I may be called back to you
again, for with no one have I wished rather to live than with you."
Valentine Tschudi, the cousin of the two first named, was yet more
strongly attached to their beloved master. "Never will I cease," he
expresses himself, "to be thankful for your kindnesses, especially when
a quartan fever troubled me of late, after my return from abroad and
because, on another occasion, when I had left my books behind in Basel,
you, although I would not out of modesty venture to be troublesome,
called me to you, encouraged me, and offered me your books, your
assistance and your influence. And thus your good will toward all
students was extended to me also and that not in a general way, for,
with special regard to my wants, your extensive and varied stores of
knowledge lay at my service." This Valentine Tschudi and Ludwig Rosch,
"a yet unbearded youth of the best kind," Zwingli had formerly
recommended to Vadianus in Vienna for the study of polite literature.
He did a similar favor for his brother Jacob, who "was possessed of
extraordinary gifts," and he charged his friend "to clip, to plane and
to polish the country youth as long as it was necessary, and should he
ever kick at it," he concluded, "you may throw him into prison, until
the fit is over."
Thus did this spirited man endeavor to stir up all around him to
improvement, and exerted the same influence over the older generation
as he did over the young. With the venerable Aebli, who on the first
march to Cappel prevented the shedding of fraternal blood, he formed a
close friendship. Of his own accord he traveled to Basel to become
personally acquainted with the celebrated Erasmus and gained his
undivided esteem, for, at a later period, he wrote to him, "Hail to the
Swiss people, whose character particularly pleases me, whose studies
and morals you and those like you will improve!" And the judge, Falk
of Freiburg, who was, it is true, a violent partisan of that period,
but at the same time a patron of science, offered him, in case he
desired to prosecute his studies for a season in quiet, a beautiful
country-seat, which he possessed in the neighborhood of Pavia, with the
gratuitous enjoyment of its revenues for two years. Nevertheless, it is
possible that he was actuated by the concealed design of winning over a
powerful champion to his own purposes.
With all the activity of his spirit, Zwingli appears, during his
stay in Glarus, to have kept within the limits of the established
church-doctrine in his public discourses. In the exposition of his
closing speech he himself places the first beginning of his attempt at
the reformation of the church in the year 1516, the same, in which he
had already received a call to Einsiedeln. He must first stand firm on
his own feet, before he can begin the attack. Hitherto, the Holy
Scriptures had been his daily and nightly study, and he knew the
greater part of them literally by heart. Before this, he had made his
debut as a political reformer, but of his doings in this sphere, we
will only be able to judge rightly, when we have taken a view of the
relations of the confederates to their neighbors in Upper Italy.
Long before the original articles of the confederacy, the alliance of
the three Forest Cantons of Dec. 9, 1315, were concluded, the highways
over Mt. Gotthard had become the channels of an active commerce between
Germany and Italy. When they were opened for this purpose cannot be
clearly shown, but they were certainly so used in the twelfth century.
The inhabitants of Uri, and partly also those of Schwytz and
Unterwalden supplied the Italian markets with their cattle, and the
mountain-valley of Urseren flourished particularly by means of this
trade. But they had dangerous neighbors in the turbulent Lavinians on
the south side of Gotthard. Here the Swiss and Italians met each other
in hostile attitude at an early period; for the first time, as far as
we know, in the year 1331. The Lavinians had plundered some merchants
on their way to Switzerland, as well as harrassed the people of Urseren
who drove their cattle to Bellinzona. They were supported in this
course by their landlords, the Visconti, Dukes of Milan. Uri called on
Schwytz and Unterwalden for help, and on Zurich also, although it was
not then included in the confederacy. The allies marched out and
pressed on to Faido, spreading universal terror. The General Vicar of
Como mediated a peace; but from that time forth we find the
confederates continually entangled in the affairs of Upper Italy.
Campaigns of a greater or less extent are undertaken, and treaties
struck, broken, and again renewed. The chief business seems to have
been the settlement of boundaries.
Perhaps it would have been better, if all that lay on the further side
of Gotthard and the Bundtner Alps had remained without any direct
communication with Switzerland. There is too wide a difference between
the Italian and the German character. But the struggle to secure for
their chief products an advantageous market had greater weight with the
three shepherd cantons. Sustained by their confederation they soon
endeavored, sword in hand, to extend their boundaries southward, and in
1476 Livinen came under the acknowledged sovereignty of Uri, and in
1500 Bellinzona with the adjoining country under that of the Three
Cantons. In 1503 these changes were confirmed by France, which then had
the upper hand in Lombardy.
This and not as yet a corrupt liking for mercenary service was the
original occasion of the campaigns of the confederates in Italy. The
battles of Arbedo and Gierniko were fought in support of brethren whom
they were bound by oath to help. But by long-continued habit the view,
that what was passing on the other side of Gotthard could not be
indifferent to their own land, took firm root in the minds of the Swiss
statesmen, and therefore it was, that the scandalous game of intrigue
and bribery, begun by Louis XI, by which France aimed at the
destruction of the Swiss national character, had a good opportunity of
unfolding itself on Italian ground, where France under Charles VIII and
Louis XII, contrived to increase her own power, by arraying Switzers
against Switzers. Nevertheless, there were yet, even in the beginning
of the sixteenth century, some among the Swiss soldiers, engaged in the
Italian campaigns, who were animated by motives nobler than a thirst
for gold or plunder. The duty of upholding sworn treaties, and the hope
of working out a lasting peace for a frontier so exposed to invasion
might have prompted the more distinguished, but very often the common
soldiers were only stimulated by a love for weapons streaming with
blood.
The betrayal of Ludovico Sforza, surnamed Il Moro, at Novara, in 1501,
had indeed greatly shaken the confidence, hitherto nearly universal, in
the fidelity and honor of the Swiss; but even at home indignation was
awakened by it, a severe examination instituted, and the chief actor
executed at Altorf. Indeed it seems generally to have roused the better
feelings of the nation. An oath was demanded against the acceptance of
pensions and mercenary service under foreign lords; and a levy was not
only refused to the French ambassadors, who had come into the country
with new bribes, but their safe-conduct even was recalled. Although
such things were enacted by their diet, yet corrupt leaders again
practised their lures, and a crowd of reckless youth again gave ear to
them. But when France, now strongly established in her domination over
Italy by the repeated aid of these deserters, began by degrees to treat
them more coldly, and in the end with contempt even, they appear to
have become more wise. Instead of remaining quiet within their own
borders, they gave free rein to a growing national hatred, which the
Emperor and then the Pope, Julius II, well understood how to turn to
their own profit.
Indulgences, blessings, consecrated gifts from the Papal Chair were
held up before their eyes by their countryman, the cunning, eloquent,
indefatigable Cardinal Schinner, whilst the knightly Emperor reminded
them that it would be nobler to aid a plundered prince to regain what
he had lost than to stand by the haughty robber; and the young Duke of
Milan, son of that Ludovico Sforza, since dead, who was taken prisoner
at Novara and afterwards escaped to Austria, promised them, in return
for their help, the most profitable alliance and the possession of
Lugano and Locarno. And here for once, both private advantage and
public honor seemed to ran together, and hence resulted an expedition,
more numerous and better organized than any former one, not under
foreign banners, but under their own, and led by able and experienced
commanders, the so-called March, to Pavia. This was the first campaign
in which Zwingli was personally present.
In the ardent years of youth the national love of battle glowed even in
his bosom. From the most eminent authors of Greece and Rome he had
learned much of war and the history of war. He himself tells us with
what eagerness he pored over the campaigns of Alexander, narrated by
Curtius, and those of Cæsar, written by his own hand. But he did not
rest content with deeds of arms merely. The nature of the countries and
the character of the people were full of interest to him. He inquired
into the causes of wars, and considered their operations and results.
In a letter to a friend he thus advises, "Read Sallust's description of
the wars of Jugurtha and Cataline's conspiracy. See in the former the
insolence, the artifices and the lust of power of a single aristocrat
and how far the love of money can lead; in the latter, what gifts can
do, and how they can embolden those who are bribed by them. Let Appian
of Alexandria then picture to you the distraction of citizens and civil
war, with banishment and its consequences. He understands well how to
relate briefly every thing that is noteworthy. Whoever begins, can not
lay his book down, until he has finished it."
We are by no means to regard Zwingli as an advocate of war. It appeared
to him a calamity; but as a calamity, which cannot always be avoided,
for which one must be prepared, and that the times of its coming are
determined in the plans of superhuman wisdom.
Holding such views and persuaded that the expedition was lawful--in the
line of right and duty, he now, in 1512, followed the banner of the
Canton Glarus into Italy. According to ancient custom, this was the
duty of the pastor of the chief congregation, for where the banner
waved, there was the highest power of the country. To every one in the
warlike assembly gathered around it, his voice was boldly lifted up. In
order to counsel and to guide, it was necessary, that the most
intelligent should not be wanting there.
In a Latin letter to his friend Vadianus in Vienna, Zwingli himself has
thus narrated the events of this campaign:
"Since an evil report about the Confederates has been spread far and
wide, and since even that, which the result proves to have been just
and innocent, is abused and misrepresented, I have undertaken to give
you a picture, short indeed, but true, of the actual condition of our
affairs. Passing over the terms of a treaty of alliance, concluded
between the Most Holy Vicegerent of Christ, Julius II, and the
Confederates, I would only state, that the King of the French (to whom,
even while attacking the Church of Christ, some one gave the flattering
title, 'Most Christian') wearied out the Venetians by protracted war,
conquered in several hard-fought battles, and captured or laid waste
their towns; and also that he took up arms against the anointed Head of
the Church; set up, under the guidance of a wicked demon, an antipope,
as he is styled, and robbed the Holy See of many large cities, among
which was Bologna, mother of the sciences and nurse of the common law.
When, at the close of the Easter festival, the august King of Spain
beheld the ship of Peter tossing in danger on the threatening waves,
the condition of the Church filled him with sorrow. As quick as
possible he gathered an army and sent it to the aid of the Papal
troops, who since winter had lingered in Middle Italy. Full of valor
and skilled in military science, they approached Ravenna by forced
marches. But the French tyrant also sent out a strong force to meet the
Spaniards and their allies, the Venetians."