nor dogmatism alone are able to sustain the Protestant churches.
Mysticism and pietism yield to more consistent Catholicism; dogmatism,
without symbolical books, which lose their authority where the press is
free, succumbs to philosophy. The simple _eternal_ dogma of Christ
stands: _By its fruit shall ye know the tree._ The time will yet come,
when all who practically reverence this dogma, will form the one,
universal church, and all others, be they marked with the cross or
protests against it, the no-church. For this no revolution is needed,
not even much change in forms. _It will come from within._
Footnote 13: Why? will be seen hereafter.
Footnote 14: In the "Advice concerning Images and the Mass."
Footnote 15: The contradictions in the character and behavior of this
man, who was rather eccentric than morally corrupt, are well depicted
in _Kirchofer's_ Continuation of _Wirz's_ Church History, Part II. p.
222.
Footnote 16: It was publicly read.
Footnote 17: She was the widow of Hans Meier of Knonau, who died in
1520, and had a son by him, named Gerold, whom Zwingli loved like a
father and to whom he dedicated a work on the education of youth.
Little is known of her during her marriage with Zwingli. But a single
short letter is extant, written by her husband from Bern, in which he
asks her to send a cap-pattern to one of her relations there. Solomon
Hess in his Biography thinks that Zwingli read his writings aloud to
her. The author begs leave to doubt this, indeed rather to believe,
that he would have heartily laughed, if the learned stuff was tedious
to her. Mind and heart she certainly had, and he talked with her not
merely about kitchen and cellar; but she probably studied him more in
his actions, than in his works.
CHAPTER FOURTH.
DANGERS OF THE REFORMATION AND ZWINGLI'S BATTLE AGAINST THEM.
In our times we hear such frequent use of the word _radicalism_. What
is its true meaning, according to its derivation? Action, that
penetrates to the roots. We can imagine a _good_ radicalism, which
would tear out by the roots all the evil growth of life, and also a
_bad_, which would uproot all that is good. The first strives to unite,
the second to divide. Experience teaches that neither the one, nor the
other, is continually prosperous. Why? Because new tares and wheat
spring up anew; and again why? Christ has given us the reason: Because
the Lord of the harvest has put off the time of separation. Should
this make us indifferent, and negligent in the cultivation of the
garden?--We would soon feel the merited results in its dreary
desolation. No, it ought to teach us that to every individual his daily
labor is appointed, and to every generation of men its conflict; that
none can so finish its task, or will so finish it, that the succeeding
durst sit down at ease; but that one is the most fortunate which has
foresight enough to separate the good and the worthless plants in their
earliest stages, the better to cherish the former and as much as
possible to keep down the latter. What then is the great, the most
important want of political and social life? It is--education. But mere
instruction is not education. For in that case the best men would come
from the institutions, which are most richly endowed, and yet
experience so often teaches us directly the contrary. Indeed, the most
important part of education, more influential yet than instruction,
without which the latter would be eternally defective, is example. And
here again we are referred to the Word of Christ, which summons us to
look for fruit. This is the doctrine of religion; to call fruit into
life, is the task of the church. Let her see to providing example, and
the school instruction, and let both strive honestly to unite knowledge
with example. Then only can, then only will their influence be
harmonious.
He who pens these remarks is not concerned about the objection, which
may be made: What will example, what will all our endeavor to call into
existence nobler examples avail, if a one-sided training of the
understanding to mock at example and laugh to scorn everything noble in
life, teaches that the highest good is to be sought in base, private
advantage? if all our means of correction, all authority to interfere
be given up? The element of the church is faith--faith in the inward
power of truth and goodness, which does not suffer itself to be
disheartened by results that appear insignificant, or even by the
momentary preponderance of evil. He who has it not, let him not devote
himself to her service. They who have it, let them secure a circle of
operation as free as possible; and this is the course of wisdom for
rulers.
Let us now return to Zwingli, a man in whom such faith and knowledge
were joined, and learn to know him also in his battle with the dangers,
into which his bold undertaking led him.
The public religious conferences had wakened in the city of Zurich a
spirit of inquiry, not, it is true, of that unrestricted kind which
seeks a philosophical basis for the dogmas of faith, according to the
deductions of human reason, but of that higher order, which looks to
their agreement with Holy Scripture. When this was settled,
investigation was at an end; but in the settlement there were peculiar
difficulties. Who would warrant the accuracy of the translation, when
disputes arose? Who would decide whether the obscurer passages should
be understood according to the bare sound of the words, or if a more
spiritual meaning were applicable?--Synods? Church Councils? They were
necessary, indispensable for the maintenance of order in the church.
They could work very beneficially for the improvement and
spiritualization of systems of doctrine. But to surrender to them the
deciding power in matters of faith--that would have been a return to
the abandoned principle of Catholicism. To this prelacy and intolerance
would have been joined inevitably. Or should every individual be left
to decide according to his own caprice? How then could divisions, sects
and endless controversies be avoided?
Here again faith lent her aid, faith in the inward truth of the Divine
Word. It ought to vindicate, it will vindicate itself, the more it is
preached by an educated ministry, which believes in its teachings. In
this conviction Zwingli and his friends found their support and did not
heed the dangers and the temporary confusion, produced by the overthrow
of existing ecclesiastical forms in Zurich.
Just in proportion as the Holy Scriptures became known through the
press and the pulpit, interpreters arose on all sides. Here it was
simplicity, there presumption, and in the majority passion or selfish
projects, which prompted them. By this means the people, a short time
before so sensible and quiet, were evidently disturbed and excited.
Most pernicious dogmas like these--that learning was superfluous, that
Christians ought to own no property, that a nation of brothers needed
no government--they attempted to support by the language of Scripture,
which was distorted, falsely translated, or torn out of its connection.
The general ignorance was too great not to favor the growth of
imposture; and the ambition, avarice and debauchery of numbers afforded
too many opportunities of temptation to cunning seducers, who spared no
amount of travel, writing and dissimulation in order to win adherents
and increase the army of dupes. Now let us consider the most important
facts.
From their eager violation of existing church usages with unholy
parade, and their notorious behavior at the Second Religious Conference
we have become acquainted with several leaders of this disorderly
party, Conrad Grebel, William R[oe]ubli and Simon Stumpf. Two others,
Felix Manz and John Br[oe]dlein, were added; the first of whom by his
scientific culture, and the second by his strength of character, as
well as by his stubbornness and pride, which did not indeed allow of
entire harmony of feeling, soon drew attention, as among the most
dangerous.
Manz, like many others in that dissolute age, the intelligent son of a
clergyman, had acquired a considerable knowledge of the Hebrew
language, little known at that time, and when the want of instruction
in it began to be generally felt, he thought himself specially called
to become a teacher of it. And had a place been immediately created for
him and richly endowed out of the revenues of the newly organized
Chapter of Canons, it is highly probable, at least if Bullinger's
representation of the man be true, that he would have chosen the nobler
path of pure scientific activity. But this was not done, and with
Grebel he appeared at the head of the insurgents. In the house of his
mother at Zurich, in the New Town, he instituted a nightly meeting,
where at first a slight dissatisfaction with the course, which the work
of reform had taken, was expressed only in general terms; but by
degrees more decided projects were matured--to possess themselves, if
possible, with the direction of affairs, and, as they styled it, to
found a new church. To this plan they next sought to win over Zwingli.
Stumpf and Manz, as he himself tells us, had repeated conversations
with him on this subject. They begged him to bring no doctrines into
the pulpit, except such as they would agree upon among themselves
beforehand. "No one"--said Manz still further--"is to be received into
our church, who has not the assurance in himself that he is without
sin."--"And will _you_ belong to it?" asked Zwingli with a stern look.
Manz was silent; but from that time forth, he and his associates began
to calumniate the Reformer everywhere and throw obstacles into his
path.
But the actual outbreak of disturbances was occasioned by Br[oe]dlein.
A year before, whilst pastor at Quarten, in the bailiwick of Sargan, he
had made himself conspicuous. With R[oe]ubli he was among the first of
the clergy, who violated the rules of fasting and the vow of celibacy.
He had done both in the assurance of evangelical right and Christian
liberty; and when the _landvogt_ spoke to him about it, he made answer
not in the most courtly terms: The _landvogt_ ought to punish the lewd
and adulterous persons who swarm in his neighborhood, instead of him
and his virtuous wife. He was bound rather to protect him, and compel
the other clergy to marry. The special sanctity of the priesthood was
at an end. If one steals, then you should hang him, even though he
would anoint his whole body with oil. The tale-bearers had lied about
him like rogues. "Still"--he concluded in a tone somewhat more
moderate--"I build my hopes not on men of this world. That much you
ought to know of me. God has numbered all the hairs of my head, and not
a sparrow falls to the ground without His will, so neither can any one
injure me or my wife, if it be not His will, and therefore, dear
_landvogt_, you need send neither thirty nor a hundred men to fetch
her. If she has sinned against God, then send the smallest child, and
she must come. But if you wish to take, or cause her to be taken from
me by force, then know, that you act against God, divine righteousness
and the Gospel. Yet I will not repel force by force. I once indeed
thought it necessary to do this; but God has commanded me otherwise,
and hence I may not teach it to my brethren."
In fact, the _landvogt_, at the requisition of the ruling cantons,
threw him into prison. How he escaped is not known. After the Religious
Conferences in Zurich we find him as assistant at Zollikon, and here he
seems to have been the first to introduce into Switzerland the
doctrines of the Anabaptists, which elsewhere had caused so much
dissension. Of all, who sought by means of these doctrines to create
discord, to make a show or found a party, we can say, that, without
exception, they were men of narrow minds, or, in worse cases,
hypocrites with dishonorable private aims. Though it cannot be denied,
that in later times respectable men have lived in our country under the
name of Anabaptists, and are even yet to be found, still their moral
worth springs not from their otherwise innocent mode of baptism, but
from their religious exercises, their simple way of living, and the
good examples, which they have before their eyes. Yet here also we
durst not forget, that it is not the part of history to examine
articles of faith, but to keep to events and the external phenomena of
life.
In May, 1424, when the decree of the government was issued for the
abolition of images and the mass, it was told in Zurich, that the
inhabitants of Zollikon, roused by the preaching of Br[oe]dlein, had
broken down the images and altars in the church and even carried away
the baptismal font; that the doctrine had spread among them, that it
was unchristian to baptise children, because no examples of it were
found in the Gospel, although frequent mention was made of the baptism
of adults; that in fact a deluded multitude had desired to be baptised
again; that it had been granted to them by several, who set themselves
up for apostles; that some ran about in the houses preaching,
explaining the Scriptures and administering the Supper; that others,
and those often the most simple, pretended to prophesy; and that in
general an improper and blasphemous game was carried on in religious
matters. They were informed also that Manz and Grebel had appeared
there, and the foolish movement was beginning to spread over the
surrounding country.
Whilst a portion of the people fell in with such follies, disturbances
arose at the same time in the opposite quarter. The majority of the
inhabitants of Meilen would no longer suffer their two priests, who had
married, to enter the church. They broke into their houses, wasted
their wine and provisions, and it was only with difficulty that the
government succeeded in bringing about a sort of compromise between the
shepherds and their flock.
A month later followed the so-called "Storming of Ittingen." The
_landvogt_ in the Thurgau had taken the reformer [OE]chsli prisoner,
and was conveying him by night to the tower at Stein. He cried out for
help; the watchful citizens of Stein, on the strength of documents,
which gave the right to do this only to them, hurried after, to set him
at liberty. Their neighbors of Stammheim, in the canton of Zurich,
joined them, and the whole country was soon in motion; but the captors
had a considerable start, and the Thur, swollen to the full, prevented
the passage of the excited multitude. In a rage they then fell upon
Ittigen, the hated monastery of the Carthusians. It was plundered, and
set on fire by some one, who was never found out; which act, as is easy
to imagine, awakened the earnest interference of the Confederates.
They who were most deserving of punishment fled. Zurich herself cast
into prison some others, who were suspected, on account of their
prominent place among the insurgents, and not powerful enough to make
resistance. These were Hans Wirth, _sub-vogt_ at Stammheim, with his
two sons, both priests, and Burkhart Ruetiman, _sub-vogt_ at Nusbaumen.
But the Confederates demanded the delivery of the prisoners at Baden
before the court of the ruling cantons, since the criminal act was
committed in the Thurgau, and not in the canton of Zurich. The Council
of Zurich had to comply. But in Baden the prisoners were tried for
other things than the transactions in the Thurgau, put to the rack, and
with the exception of one of Wirth's sons, actually executed. The
sentence was unjust. Not even the most remote personal participation in
the plundering and burning of Ittingen could be proved against them.
For the part they took in the removal of the images at Stammheim, which
chiefly kindled the hatred of the Confederates, they were not
responsible to them. That the government had delivered up these men, so
beloved in the circle of their home, to such a fate, produced a very
unfavorable impression on the inhabitants of the northern part of the
canton, the more so, because the condemned had met death in a brave and
Christian manner, and aided not a little to increase the disorders,
which afterwards prevailed there.
At this juncture the flame broke out in the German provinces lying
beyond the Rhine. Thomas Muenzer, at a later period leader of the Saxon
Anabaptists, had come to Basel in Frickthal, and Waldshut in Cleggau.
In Waldshut he made the acquaintance of the preacher at that place,
Balthasar Huebmeier, who, though a man possessed of an honest will, a
tolerable knowledge of Scripture and great courage, was yet apt to lend
a willing ear to everything new and striking. When preaching at
Regensburg he had raised a riot against the Jews, then founded a chapel
for pilgrims, then turned to the doctrines of Luther, and was just now
as ready to embrace those of the Anabaptists.
Through him Waldshut became for a short time the chief seat of this
disorder, from which, in church and state, such hazardous consequences
were to be feared. First led by Muenzer, and after he had gone to the
Hartz Mountains, by Simon R[oe]ubli, who had been expelled from the
territory of Zurich, Huebmeier set himself up as the apostle of
Anabaptism, and, according to his own confession, rebaptized the
greater part of the inhabitants of Waldshut. The warnings of the
Austrian government, at first mild and then earnest, had no effect upon
them, and the demand for the dismission of the obnoxious preachers was
also in vain. On the contrary, similar fanatics and adventurers of
every sort streamed thither from all sides, and when Austria armed
herself for severe measures, formal resistance was determined on.
Volunteers for this purpose were obtained chiefly from the territories
of Zurich. At the first news of the outbreak the government sent a
courier to demand their return; but after hearing an address from
Rudolph Collin, who, formerly a canon at the Minster, was obliged to
leave the territory of Luzern on account of his adherence to the
Reformation, and had now joined them with upright feelings and an
honest purpose, they declared they would rather die than return home.
And their answer won for them immediately a party in the Council. "We
are attracted"--so they wrote--"to the Christian brethren at Waldshut,
who sigh under oppressive tyranny, not by money, nor for our own
private ends--only for the defence of God's Word and from a regard to
the honor of Zurich. The Spirit of the Lord has called them to arms;
there is no seditious person among them; their captain is Jesus
Christ."
Meanwhile, affairs in Waldshut took a turn, which might have been
foreseen by the prudent. The noise of war drowned the devotions of
piety. It was a matter of indifference, whether psalms or frivolous
songs were sung in the camp. Nay, it fared worse with the former.
Huebmeier himself, at his trial, tells of a supper in the house of a
merchant, where he sat at the side of the captain amid music and
hurrahs. And what the further aims of these pious warriors were is
shown by a letter still extant, written by one of them to the "dear
brother and image in God, Heiny Aberly in Zurich," which contains the
following: "See, that you send us yet forty or fifty well-armed,
Christian fellows; for if there were more of us here, we would then be
a council of affairs against the enemy and _my lords_ (the government
of Zurich); and if we would again be warned home and _then go_, it
would serve to the damage and hindrance of the kingdom of God."
This unholy proceeding was soon detected by Collin and other men of
honor. They returned home, obedient to the renewed summons of the
government. Those who staid behind no longer concealed their plan of
open resistance; and this spreading over the surrounding country
entered also the boundaries of Zurich.
The first news of it was received by the government from the _landvogt_
of Eglisau. The payment of taxes and villanage were refused. A deputy
of the Council was pelted with stones. The rebellion extended more and
more into the mountain regions. A swarm of insurgents fell upon the
monastery of Rueti--the abbot having escaped with the money, jewels and
archives--and rioted and caroused there. In many parishes the alarm was
sounded; the house of the Knights of St. John at Bubikon was surprised
and met a fate similar to that of Rueti. The government with great
difficulty succeeded in producing a momentary calm, by a decree
inviting the excited country people to hand in their demands and wishes
in writing. This was done by the districts of Grueningen, Kyburg,
Greifensee, Eglisau and Andelfingen, and thus it soon came to light in
what close connection these disturbances in Zurich stood with those,
which then, under the name of the Peasant's War, set a great part of
Germany in a blaze. Streams of blood and executions by thousands
suppressed it there. In Switzerland such dreadful scenes could be
prevented.
Still, the complaints, handed in by the districts of Zurich just named,
were closely copied after the twelve articles, which the rebellious
peasants of Germany everywhere demanded of their lords. But if reasons
for rebellion are to be sought in the tyranny of many nobles, as well
as in the confused ideas of the people, then, instead of finding abuses
in Switzerland, in the canton of Zurich, there was less cause for
complaint against the oppression of the people by the government at no
period of her history.
The Council therefore, conscious of an upright purpose and strengthened
by the increase of the city-guilds, took the points of complaint, which
were presented, into consideration. To yield as far as was fair and
just, to hold firmly to all that was sustained by sealed treaties and
documents, was the general leading principle. It is true, another might
have been embraced, that which has been wrought into our existing
political life and immoveably planted there, the principle of entire
equality, and the rather because the feeling that it was not altogether
foreign to the Gospel, was expressed in the memorials of the people.
But the contest for and against this principle could not be carried on
by one government; duty and prudence enjoined a rigid maintenance of
rights guaranteed by documents as long as possible. Upon another field,
that of science, and where the Gospel would be appealed to, theological
science, it must be decided beforehand. On this field Luther and
Zwingli actually carried on the battle and both showed the impropriety
of using passages of Scripture, and of wresting them from their true
meaning, in the affairs of state.
The government of Zurich on her side kept simply to the letter of the
articles received from the different districts. These, agreeing in the
main points, still varied as to special privileges, customs and the
annoyance of some parts of the canton by others.[1] All were examined
and its own answer sent to each district. The reply to the first point,
which was the same to all, ran thus: "Since you have declared, that you
will have no lords for protectors, save God and the city of Zurich, it
needs no answer and is clear of itself, that we will have _one_ God,
and My Lords are only your natural lords and superiors in temporal
affairs, for they have not obtained dominion over you by any kind of
tyranny or warlike power, but bought it freely and with ready money.
Let them then retain it; for we all should give to God what is due to
Him, and to worldly authority what is due to it; and My Lords hope,
that you, their subjects, will also find it so."
Although considerable relief was promised in regard to some of the
points complained of, still the envoys of the Council, who were
appointed to convey the answer into the different districts, nowhere
met with a favorable reception. The universal cry was that nothing
further could be done without an assembly of the people, and on
Whitmonday, June 5th, an announcement was made to this effect, with a
call to the oldest man of every household to appear on the field near
T[oe]ss.