accordance with his character, these sycophants will cry out that we
are in collusion."[580] We shall see that Erasmus was soon relieved of
this apprehension.

  [580] Ille si hic multum sui dissimilis fuerit, clamabunt sycophantæ
  colludere nos. Erasm. Epp. p. 819.

The doctrine of God's election as the sole cause of man's salvation
had always been dear to the reformer; but hitherto he had considered
it in a practical light only. In his reply to Erasmus, he investigated
it particularly in a speculative point of view, and endeavoured to
establish by such arguments as appeared to him most conclusive, that
God works everything in man's conversion, and that our hearts are so
alienated from the love of God that they cannot have a sincere desire
for righteousness, except by the regenerating influence of the Holy
Spirit.

"To call our will a free will," said he, "is to imitate those princes
who accumulate long titles, styling themselves lords of sundry
kingdoms, principalities, and distant islands (of Rhodes, Cyprus, and
Jerusalem, &c.), while they have not the least power over them." Here,
however, Luther makes an important distinction, clearly showing that
he by no means participated in the third opinion that Erasmus had
pointed out and imputed to him. "Man's will may be called a free will,
not in relation to that which is above him, that is to say, to God;
but with respect to that which is below, that is, to the things of
the earth.[581] As regards my property, my fields, my house, my farm,
I can act, do, and manage freely. But in the things of salvation, man
is a captive; he is subjected to the will of God, or rather of the
devil.[582] Show me but one of all these advocates of free will (he
exclaims) that has found in himself sufficient strength to endure a
trifling injury, a fit of anger, or merely a look from his enemy, and
bear it with joy; then--without even asking him to be ready to give up
his body, his life, his wealth, his honour, and all things--I
acknowledge you have gained your cause."[583]

  [581] Der Wille des Menschen mag......L. Opp. xix. 29.

  [582] Ibid. 33.

  [583] Ibid.

[Sidenote: POWER OF MAN AND OF GOD.]

Luther's glance was too penetrating not to discover the contradictions
into which his opponent had fallen. And accordingly, in his reply he
endeavours to fasten the philosopher in the net in which he had
entangled himself. "If the passages you quote," said he, "establish
that it is easy for us to do good, why do we dispute? What need have
we of Christ and of the Holy Ghost? Christ would then have acted
foolishly in shedding his blood to acquire for us a power that we
already possessed by nature." In truth, the passages cited by Erasmus
must be taken in quite a different sense. This much debated question
is clearer than it appears to be at first sight. When the Bible says
to man, Choose, it presupposes the assistance of God's grace, by which
alone he can do what it commands. God, in giving the commandment, also
gives the strength to fulfil it. If Christ said to Lazarus, Come
forth, it was not that Lazarus had power to restore himself; but that
Christ, by commanding him to leave the sepulchre, gave him also the
strength to do so, and accompanied His words with His creative power.
He spoke, and it was done. Moreover, it is very true that the man to
whom God speaks must will; it is he who wills, and not another; he can
receive this will but from God alone; but it is in him that this will
must be, and the very commandment that God addresses to him, and
which, according to Erasmus, establishes the ability of man, is so
reconcilable with the workings of God, that it is precisely by these
means that the working is effected. It is by saying to the man "Be
converted," that God converts him.

[Sidenote: LUTHER'S SECOND AND THIRD PARTS.]

But the idea on which Luther principally dwelt in his reply is, that
the passages quoted by Erasmus are intended to teach men their duty,
and their inability to perform it, but in no way to make known to them
the pretended power ascribed to them. "How frequently it happens,"
says Luther, "a father calls his feeble child to him, and says: 'Will
you come, my son! come then, come!' in order that the child may learn
to call for his assistance, and allow himself to be carried."[584]

  [584] L. Opp. xix. 55.

After combating Erasmus's arguments in favour of free will, Luther
defends his own against the attacks of his opponent. "Dear
Dissertation," says he ironically, "mighty heroine, who pridest
thyself in having overthrown these words of our Lord in St. John:
_Without me ye can do_ NOTHING, which thou regardest nevertheless as
the prop of my argument, and callest it _Luther's Achilles_, listen to
me. Unless thou canst prove that this word _nothing_, not only may but
must signify _little_, all thy high-sounding phrases, thy splendid
examples, have no more effect than if a man were to attempt to quench
an immense fire with a handful of straw. What are such assertions as
these to us: _This may mean; that may be understood_......whilst it
was thy duty to show us that it must be so understood......Unless thou
doest so, we take this declaration in its literal meaning, and laugh
at all thy examples, thy great preparations, and thy pompous
triumphs."[585]

  [585] Ibid. 116.

Finally, in a concluding part, Luther shows, and always from
Scripture, that the grace of God does everything. "In short," says he
at the end, "since Scripture everywhere contrasts Christ with that
which has not the spirit of Christ; since it declares that all which
is not Christ and in Christ is under the power of error, darkness, the
devil, death, sin, and the wrath of God, it follows that all these
passages of the Bible that speak of Christ are opposed to free will.
Now such passages are numberless; the Holy Scriptures are full of
them."[586]

  [586] L. Opp. xix. 143.

[Sidenote: THE JANSENISTS AND THE REFORMERS.]

We perceive that the discussion which arose between Luther and Erasmus
is the same as that which a century after took place between the
Jansenists and Jesuits, between Pascal and Molina.[587] How is it
that, while the results of the Reformation were so immense, Jansenism,
though adorned by the noblest geniuses, wasted and died away? It is
because Jansenism went back to Augustine and relied on the Fathers;
while the Reformation went back to the Bible and leant upon the Word
of God. It is because Jansenism entered into a compromise with Rome,
and wished to establish a middle course between truth and error, while
the Reformation, relying upon God alone, cleared the soil, swept away
all the rubbish of past ages, and laid bare the primitive rock. To
stop half way is a useless work; in all things we should persevere to
the end. Accordingly, while Jansenism has passed away, the destinies
of the world are bound up with evangelical Christianity.

  [587] It is unnecessary to state that I do not speak of personal
  discussions between these two men, one of whom died in 1600, and the
  other was not born until 1623.

Further, after having keenly refuted error, Luther paid a brilliant
but perhaps a somewhat sarcastic homage to Erasmus himself. "I
confess," said he, "that you are a great man; where have we ever met
with more learning, intelligence, or ability, both in speaking and
writing? As for me, I possess nothing of the kind; there is only one
thing from which I can derive any glory,--I am a Christian. May God
raise you infinitely above me in the knowledge of the Gospel, so that
you may surpass me as much in this respect as you do already in every
other."[588]

  [588] L. Opp. xix. pp. 146, 147.

Erasmus was beside himself when he read Luther's reply; and would see
nothing in his encomiums but the honey of a poisoned cup, or the
embrace of a serpent at the moment he darts his envenomed sting. He
immediately wrote to the Elector of Saxony, demanding justice; and
Luther having desired to appease him, he lost his usual temper, and,
in the words of one of his most zealous apologists, began "to pour
forth invectives with a broken voice and hoary hair."[589]

  [589] M. Nisard, Erasme, p. 419.

Erasmus was vanquished. Hitherto, moderation had been his
strength,--and he had lost it. Passion was his only weapon against
Luther's energy. The wise man was wanting in wisdom. He replied
publicly in his _Hyperaspistes_, accusing the reformer of barbarism,
lying, and blasphemy. The philosopher even ventured on prophesying. "I
prophesy," said he, "that no name under the sun will be held in
greater execration than Luther's." The jubilee of 1817 has replied to
this prophecy, after a lapse of three hundred years, by the enthusiasm
and acclamations of the whole Protestant world.

[Sidenote: THE THREE DAYS.]

Thus, while Luther with the Bible was setting himself at the head of
his age, Erasmus, standing up against him, wished to occupy the same
place with philosophy. Which of these two leaders has been followed?
Both undoubtedly. Nevertheless Luther's influence on the nations of
Christendom has been infinitely greater than that of Erasmus. Even
those who did not thoroughly understand the grounds of the dispute,
seeing the conviction of one antagonist and the doubts of the other,
could not refrain from believing that the first was right and the
second wrong. It has been said that the three last centuries, the
sixteenth, the seventeenth, and the eighteenth, may be conceived as an
immense battle of three days' duration.[590] We willingly adopt this
beautiful comparison, but not the part that is assigned to each of the
days. The same struggle has been ascribed to the sixteenth and to the
eighteenth century. On the first day, as on the last, it is philosophy
that breaks the ranks. The sixteenth century philosophical!......Strange
error! No: each of these days has its marked and distinct character.
On the first day of the conflict, it was the Word of God, the Gospel
of Christ, that triumphed; and then Rome was defeated, as well as
human philosophy, in the person of Erasmus and her other
representatives. On the second day, we grant that Rome, her
authority, her discipline, her doctrine, reappeared and were about to
triumph by the intrigues of a celebrated society and the power of the
scaffold, aided by men of noble character and sublime genius. On the
third day, human philosophy arose in all its pride, and finding on the
field of battle, not the Gospel, but Rome, made short work, and soon
carried every intrenchment. The first day was the battle of God, the
second the battle of the priest, the third the battle of reason. What
will be the fourth?......In our opinion, the confused strife, the
deadly contest of all these powers together, to end in the victory of
Him to whom triumph belongs.

  [590] Port Royal, by M. Sainte Beuve, i. 20.

CHAPTER X.

     The Three Adversaries--Source of Truth--Grebel--The Fanatics
     and Zwingle--Constitution of the Church--Prison--The Prophet
     Blaurock--Fanaticism at Saint Gall--Schucker and
     Family--Discussion at Zurich--The Limits of the
     Reformation--Punishment of the Fanatics.

[Sidenote: THE THREE ADVERSARIES.]

But the battle fought by the Reformation in the great day of the
sixteenth century, under the standard of the Word of God, was not one
and single, but manifold. The Reformation had many enemies to contend
with at once; and after having first protested against the decretals
and the supremacy of the pope, and then against the cold apophthegms
of the rationalists, philosophers, or schoolmen, it had equally to
struggle with the reveries of enthusiasm and the hallucinations of
mysticism; opposing alike to these three powers the shield and the
sword of Divine revelation.

It must be admitted that there is a great similarity, a striking
unity, between these three powerful adversaries. The false systems
that in every age have been the most opposed to evangelical
Christianity, have always been distinguished by their making religious
knowledge proceed from within the man himself. Rationalism makes it
proceed from reason; mysticism from certain inner lights; and
Romanism from an illumination of the pope. These three errors look for
truth in man: evangelical Christianity looks for it wholly in God; and
while mysticism, rationalism, and Romanism, admit a permanent
inspiration in certain of our fellow-men, and thus open a door to
every extravagance and diversity, evangelical Christianity recognises
this inspiration solely in the writings of the apostles and prophets,
and alone presents that great, beautiful, and living unity which is
ever the same in all ages.

The task of the Reformation has been to re-establish the rights of the
Word of God, in opposition not only to Romanism, but also to mysticism
and rationalism.

[Sidenote: GREBEL AND THE FANATICS.]

The fanaticism, which had been extinguished in Germany by Luther's
return to Wittemberg, reappeared in full vigour in Switzerland, and
threatened the edifice that Zwingle, Haller, and Œcolampadius had
built on the Word of God. Thomas Munzer, having been forced to quit
Saxony in 1521, had reached the frontiers of Switzerland. Conrad
Grebel, whose restless and ardent disposition we have already
noticed,[591] had become connected with him, as had also Felix Manz, a
canon's son, and several other Zurichers; and Grebel had immediately
endeavoured to gain over Zwingle. In vain had the latter gone farther
than Luther; he saw a party springing up which desired to proceed
farther still. "Let us form a community of true believers," said
Grebel to him; "for to them alone the promise belongs, and let us
found a church in which there shall be no sin."[592]--"We cannot make
a heaven upon earth," replied Zwingle; "and Christ has taught us that
we must let the tares grow up along with the wheat."[593]

  [591] Vol. II. p. 348.

  [592] Vermeintend ein Kilchen ze versammlen die one Sünd wär. Zw. Opp.
  ii. 231.

  [593] Ibid. iii. 362.

[Sidenote: CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH.]

Grebel having failed with the reformer, would have desired to appeal
to the people. "The whole community of Zurich," said he, "ought to
have the final decision in matters of faith." But Zwingle feared the
influence these radical enthusiasts might exercise over a large
assembly. He thought that, except on extraordinary occasions when the
people might be called upon to express their accordance, it was better
to confide the interests of religion to a college, which might be
considered the chosen representatives of the Church. Accordingly the
Council of Two Hundred, which exercised the supreme political
authority in Zurich, was also intrusted with the ecclesiastical power,
on the express condition that they should conform in all things to the
Holy Scriptures. No doubt it would have been better to have thoroughly
organized the Church, and called on it to appoint its own
representatives, who should be intrusted solely with the religious
interests of the people; for a man may be very capable of
administering the interests of the State, and yet very unskilful in
those of the Church; just as the reverse of this is true also.
Nevertheless the inconvenience was not then so serious as it would
have been in these days, since the members of the Great Council had
frankly entered into the religious movement. But, however this may be,
Zwingle, while appealing to the Church, was careful not to make it too
prominent, and preferred the representative system to the actual
sovereignty of the people. This is what, after three centuries, the
states of Europe have been doing in the political world for the last
fifty years.

Being rejected by Zwingle, Grebel turned to another quarter. Rubli,
formerly pastor at Basle, Brödtlein, pastor at Zollikon, and Louis
Herzer, received him with eagerness. They resolved to form an
independent congregation in the midst of the great congregation, a
Church within the Church. The baptism of adult believers only, was to
be their means of assembling their congregation. "Infant baptism,"
said they, "is a horrible abomination, a flagrant impiety, invented by
the wicked spirit, and by Nicholas II., pope of Rome."[594]

  [594] Impietatem manifestissimam, a cacodæmone, a Nicolao II. esse.
  Hottinger iii. 219.

The council of Zurich was alarmed, and ordered a public discussion to
be held; and as they still refused to abjure their opinions, some of
the Zurichers among their number were thrown into prison, and several
foreigners were banished. But persecution only inflamed their zeal:
"Not by words alone," cried they, "but with our blood, we are ready to
bear testimony to the truth of our cause." Some of them, girding
themselves with cords or ozier twigs, ran through the streets,
exclaiming: "Yet a few days, and Zurich will be destroyed! Woe to
thee, Zurich! Woe! woe!" The simple-minded and pious were agitated and
alarmed. Fourteen men, among whom was Felix Mantz, and seven women,
were apprehended, in despite of Zwingle's intercession, and put on
bread and water in the heretic's tower. After being confined a
fortnight, they managed to loosen some planks in the night, and aiding
one another, effected their escape. "An angel," said they, "had opened
the prison and led them forth."[595]

  [595] Wie die Apostel von dem Engel Gottes gelediget. Bull. Chr. p.
  261.

[Sidenote: THE PROPHET BLAUROCK.]

A monk, who had escaped from his convent, George Jacob of Coire,
surnamed Blaurock, as it would seem, from the blue dress he constantly
wore, joined their sect, and from his eloquence was denominated _a
second Paul_. This daring monk travelled from place to place,
constraining many, by his imposing fervour, to receive his baptism.
One Sunday, when at Zollikon, the impetuous monk interrupted the
deacon as he was preaching, calling out in a voice of thunder: "It is
written, _My house is a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of
thieves_." Then raising the staff he carried in his hand, he struck
four violent blows.

"I am a door," exclaimed he; "whosoever entereth by me shall find
pasture. I am a good shepherd. My body I give to the prison; my life I
give to the sword, the stake, or the wheel. I am the beginning of the
baptism and of the bread of the Lord."[596]

  [596] Ich bin ein Anfänger der Taufe und des Herrn Brodes. Füssl.
  Beytr. i. 264.

While Zwingle was opposing this torrent in Zurich, Saint Gall was soon
inundated with it. Grebel arrived there, and was received by the
brethren with acclamations; and on Palm Sunday he proceeded to the
banks of the Sitter with a great number of his adherents, whom he
there baptized.

[Sidenote: ZWINGLE TO THE PEOPLE OF ST. GALL.]

The news quickly spread through the adjoining cantons, and a great
crowd flocked from Zurich, Appenzel, and several other places to the
"Little Jerusalem."

Zwingle's heart was wrung at the sight of this agitation. He saw a
storm bursting on these districts where the seed of the Gospel was
just beginning to spring up.[597] Resolving to oppose these sentiments
on baptism,[598] he wrote a treatise on that subject,[599] which the
council of St. Gall, to whom it was addressed, ordered to be read in
the church before all the people.

  [597] Mich beduret seer das ungewitter. Zw. to Council of St. Gall,
  ii. 230.

  [598] See Vol. I. p. 145 bot.

  [599] Vom Tauf, vom Widertauf, und vom Kindertauf. Zw. to Council of
  St. Gall, ii. 230.

"My dear brethren in the Lord," said Zwingle, "the water of the
torrents that issue from our rocks carries with it everything within
its reach. At first it is only small stones; but these dash violently
against larger ones, until at last the torrent becomes so strong that
it carries away all it meets, and leaves in its track wailing and vain
regrets, and fertile meadows changed into a wilderness. The spirit of
strife and self-righteousness acts in a similar manner: it excites
discord, destroys charity, and where it found beautiful and
flourishing churches, leaves behind it nothing but flocks plunged into
mourning and desolation."

Thus spoke Zwingle, the child of the Tockenburg mountains. "Give us
the Word of God," exclaimed one who was present in the church; "and
not the word of Zwingle." Immediately confused voices were heard:
"Away with the book! away with the book!" shouted the multitude. After
this they rose and quitted the church, crying out: "You may keep the
doctrine of Zwingle; as for us, we will keep the Word of God."[600]

  [600] So wollen wir Gottes Wort haben. Ibid. 237.

The fanaticism now broke forth into the most lamentable disorders.
Maintaining that the Lord had exhorted us to become like children,
these unhappy creatures began to clap their hands, and skip about in
the streets, to dance in a ring, sit on the ground, and tumble each
other about in the dust. Some burnt the New Testament, saying: "The
letter killeth, the Spirit giveth life." Others, falling into
convulsions, pretended to have revelations from the Holy Ghost.

[Sidenote: JOHN SCHUCKER AND SONS.]

In a solitary house on the Müllegg near St. Gall, lived an aged
farmer, John Schucker, with his five sons. They had all of them,
including the domestics, received the new religion; and two of the
sons, Thomas and Leonard, were distinguished for their fanaticism. On
Shrove Tuesday (7th February 1526), they invited a large party to
their house, and their father killed a calf for the feast. The viands,
the wine, and this numerous assembly, heated their imaginations; the
whole night was passed in fanatical conversation and gesticulations,
convulsions, visions, and revelations.[601]

  [601] Mit wunderbaren geperden und gesprächen, verzucken, gesichten
  und offenbarungen. Bull. Chr. i. 324.

In the morning, Thomas, still agitated by this night of disorder, and
having, as it would seem, lost his reason, took the calf's bladder,
and placing in it part of the gall, intending thus to imitate the
symbolical language of the prophets, approached his brother Leonard,
saying with a gloomy voice: "Thus bitter is the death thou art to
suffer!" He then added: "Brother Leonard, kneel down!" Leonard fell on
his knees; shortly after, "Brother Leonard, arise!" Leonard stood up.
The father, brothers, and others of the company looked on with
astonishment, asking themselves what God would do. Thomas soon
resumed: "Leonard, kneel down again!" He did so. The spectators,
alarmed at the gloomy countenance of the wretched man, said to him:
"Think of what you are about, and take care that no mischief
happens."--"Fear not," replied Thomas, "nothing will happen but the
will of the Father." At the same time he hastily caught up a sword,
and striking a violent blow at his brother, kneeling before him as a
criminal before the executioner, he cut off his head, exclaiming: "Now
the will of the Father is accomplished." All the bystanders recoiled
with horror at the deed; and the farm resounded with groans and
lamentations. Thomas, who had nothing on but a shirt and trousers,
rushed barefooted and bareheaded out of the house, ran to St. Gall
with frenzied gestures, entered the house of the burgomaster Joachim
Vadian, and said to him with haggard looks and wild cries: "I proclaim
to thee the day of the Lord!" The frightful news soon spread through
St. Gall. "He has slain his brother, as Cain slew Abel," said the
people.[602] The culprit was seized. "It is true I did it," he
continually repeated; "but it is God who did it through me." On the
16th of February, this unhappy creature lost his head by the sword of
the executioner. Fanaticism had made its last effort. Men's eyes were
opened, and, according to an old historian, the same blow took off the
head of Thomas Schucker and of fanaticism in Saint Gall.

  [602] Glych wie Kain den Abel sinen Bruder ermort hat! Bull. Chron. i.
  324.

[Sidenote: DISCUSSION AT ZURICH.]

It still prevailed at Zurich. On the 6th of November in the preceding
year, a public discussion on the subject of infant baptism[603] had been
held in the council hall, when Zwingle and his friends proposed the
following theses:--

"Children born of believing parents are children of God, like those
who were born under the Old Testament, and consequently may receive
baptism.[603]

"Baptism[603] under the New Testament is what circumcision was under
the Old; consequently, baptism ought now to be administered to
children, as circumcision was formerly.

"We cannot prove the custom of re-baptizing[603] either by examples,
texts, or arguments drawn from Scripture; and those who are
re-baptized crucify Jesus Christ afresh."

  [603] See note, Vol. I. p. 145.

[Sidenote: LIMITS OF THE REFORMATION.]

But the dispute was not confined to religious questions; they called
for the abolition of tithes, on the ground that they were not of
Divine appointment. Zwingle replied, that the maintenance of the
schools and churches depended on the tithes. He desired a complete
religious reform; but was decided not to permit the public order or
political institutions to be in the least degree shaken. This was the
limit at which he perceived that word from heaven, written by the hand
of God, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther."[604] It was
necessary to stop somewhere, and here Zwingle and the reformers
halted, in spite of those headstrong men who endeavoured to hurry them
farther still.

  [604] Job xxxviii. 11.

But if the reformers halted, they could not stop the enthusiasts, who
seemed placed at their sides as if in contrast with their discretion
and prudence. It was not enough for them to have formed a church; this
church in their eyes was the state. When they were summoned before the
tribunals, they declared they did not recognise the civil authority,
that it was only a remnant of paganism, and that they would obey no
other power than God. They taught that it was not lawful for
Christians to fill public offices, or to carry the sword; and
resembling in this respect certain irreligious enthusiasts that have
sprung up in our days, they looked upon a community of goods as the
perfection of humanity.[605]

  [605] Füssli Beyträge, i. 229-258; ii. 263.

Thus the danger was increasing; the existence of civil society was
threatened. It rose up to reject from its bosom these destructive
elements. The government, in alarm, suffered itself to be hurried into
strange measures. Being resolved to make an example, it condemned
Mantz to be drowned. On the 5th of January 1527, he was placed in a
boat; his mother (the aged concubine of the canon) and his brother
were among the crowd that followed him to the water's edge. "Persevere
unto the end," exclaimed they. When the executioner prepared to throw
Mantz into the lake, his brother burst into tears; but his mother,
calm and resolute, witnessed with dry and burning eyes the martyrdom
of her son.[606]

  [606] Ohne das er oder die Mutter, sondern nur der Bruder, geweinet.
  Hott. Helv. K. Gesch. iii. 385.

On the same day Blaurock was scourged with rods. As they were leading
him outside of the city, he shook his blue cloak and the dust from off
his feet against the state of Zurich.[607] It would appear that two
years later this unhappy creature was burnt alive by the
Roman-catholics of the Tyrol.

  [607] Und schüttlet sinen blauen Rock und sine Schüh über die Statt
  Zurich. Bull. Chr. i. 382.

[Sidenote: LIBERTY AND INTOLERANCE.]

Undoubtedly a spirit of rebellion existed; no doubt the old
ecclesiastical law, condemning heretics to death, was still in force,
and the Reformation could not in one or two years reform every error;
and further, there is no question that the Romish states would have
accused the Protestant states of encouraging disorder if they had not
punished these enthusiasts; but these considerations may explain,
although they cannot justify, the severity of the magistrates. They
might have taken measures against everything that infringed the civil
authority; but religious errors, being combated by the teachers,
should have enjoyed complete liberty before the civil tribunals. Such
opinions are not to be expelled by the scourge; they are not drowned
by throwing their professors into the water; they float up again from
the depth of the abyss; and fire but serves to kindle in their
adherents a fiercer enthusiasm and thirst for martyrdom. Zwingle, with
whose sentiments on this subject we are acquainted, took no part in
these severities.[608]

  [608] Quod homines seditiosi, reipublicæ turbatores, magistratuum
  hostes, justa Senatus sententia, damnati sunt, num id Zwinglio fraudi
  esse poterit? Rod. Gualteri Ep. ad lectorem, Opp. 1544, ii.

CHAPTER XI.

     Progression and Immobility--Zwingle and Luther--Luther's
     Return to Scholasticism--Respect for
     Tradition--Occam--Contrary Tendency in Zwingle--Beginning of
     the Controversy--Œcolampadius and the Swabian
     Syngramma--Strasburg mediates.

It was not, however, on baptism[609] alone that diversities were to
prevail; more serious differences were to arise on the doctrine of the
Lord's Supper.

  [609] Vol. I. p. 145, bot.

[Sidenote: PROGRESSION AND IMMOBILITY.]

The human mind, freed from the yoke that had pressed upon it for so
many ages, made use of its liberty; and if Roman-catholicism has to
fear the shoals of despotism, Protestantism is equally exposed to
those of anarchy. Progression is the character of Protestantism, as
immobility is that of Romanism.

Roman-catholicism, which possesses in the papacy a means of
continually establishing new doctrines, appears at first sight,
indeed, to contain a principle eminently favourable to variations. It
has in truth largely availed itself of it, and from age to age we see
Rome bringing forward or ratifying new doctrines. But its system once
complete, Roman-catholicism has declared itself the champion of
immobility. In this its safety lies; it resembles those buildings
which tremble at the least motion, and from which nothing can be taken
without bringing them wholly to the ground. Permit the Romish priests
to marry, or aim a blow at the doctrine of transubstantiation, and the
whole system is shaken, the whole edifice crumbles into dust.

It is not thus with evangelical Christianity. Its principle is much
less favourable to variations, and much more so to progression and to
life. In fact, on the one hand it recognises Scripture only as the
source of truth, one and always the same, from the beginning of the
Church to the end: how then should it vary as Popery has done? But, on
the other hand, each Christian is to go and draw for himself from this
fountain; and hence proceed action and liberty. Accordingly,
evangelical Christianity, while it is the same in the nineteenth as in
the sixteenth century, and as in the first, is in every age full of
spontaneity and motion, and is now filling the world with its
researches, its labours, bibles, missionaries, light, salvation, and
life.

It is a great error to classify together and almost to confound
evangelical Christianity with mysticism and rationalism, and to impute
their irregularities to it. Motion is in the very nature of Christian
Protestantism; it is directly opposed to immobility and lethargy; but
it is the motion of health and life that characterizes it, and not the
aberrations of man deprived of reason, or the convulsions of disease.
We shall see this characteristic manifested in the doctrine of the
Lord's Supper.

[Sidenote: ZWINGLE AND LUTHER.]

Such a result might have been expected. This doctrine had been
understood in very different manners in the former ages of the Church,
and this diversity existed until the time when the doctrine of
transubstantiation and the scholastic theology began simultaneously to
rule over the middle ages. But when this dominion was shaken, the old
diversities were destined to reappear.

Zwingle and Luther, who had each been developed separately, the one in
Switzerland and the other in Saxony, were however one day to meet face
to face. The same spirit, and in many respects the same character,
animated both. Both alike were filled with love for the truth and
hatred of injustice; both were naturally violent; and this violence
was moderated in each by a sincere piety. But there was one feature in
Zwingle's character destined to carry him farther than Luther. It was
not only as a man that he loved liberty, but also as a republican and
fellow-countryman of Tell. Accustomed to the decision of a free state,
he did not permit himself to be stopped by those considerations before
which Luther recoiled. He had moreover studied less profoundly the
scholastic theology, and thus found his motions less fettered. Both
were ardently attached to their own convictions; both resolved to
defend them; and, little habituated to yield to the convictions of
another, they were now to meet, like two proud war-horses, which,
rushing through the contending ranks, suddenly encounter each other in
the hottest of the strife.

A practical tendency predominated in the character of Zwingle and in
the Reformation of which he was the author, and this tendency was
directed to two great objects, simplicity of worship and
sanctification of life. To harmonize the worship with the necessities
of the mind, that seeks not external pomp but invisible things--this
was Zwingle's first aim. The idea of the corporeal presence of Christ
in the Lord's Supper, the origin of so many ceremonies and
superstitions of the Church, must therefore be abolished. But another
desire of the Swiss reformer led to the same results. He found that
the Roman doctrine of the eucharist, and even that of Luther,
presupposed a certain magical influence prejudicial to sanctification;
he feared lest Christians, imagining they received Jesus Christ in the
consecrated bread, should henceforward less earnestly seek to be
united to him by faith in the heart. "Faith," said he, "is not
knowledge, opinion, imagination; it is a reality.[610] It leads to a
real union with Divine things." Thus, whatever Zwingle's adversaries
may have asserted, it was not a leaning to rationalism, but a
profoundly religious view, that led him to his peculiar doctrines.

  [610] Fidem rem esse, non scientiam, non opinionem vel imaginationem.
  Comment. de vera relig. Zw. Opp. iii. 230.

But there was another element in Zwingle's convictions: he was subject
to those historical influences which we must everywhere recognise in
the annals of the Church as in that of the world. It has been long
supposed that he was acquainted with the sentiments of Ratram,
Wickliffe, and Peter Waldo; but we possess a much safer historical
clue to the convictions of the Swiss reformer.

[Sidenote: THE NETHERLANDERS AT ZURICH.]

The two Netherlanders, Rhodius and Sagarus, whom we have seen arrive
at Wittemberg, and there occasion the first difference between Luther
and Carlstadt, had turned their steps towards Switzerland, carrying
with them Wessel's manuscripts, and reached Basle, where Luther
himself had commended them to Œcolampadius. The latter person, who
was of timid character, finding that Luther did not approve of the
opinions which these brethren from Holland were endeavouring to
propagate, did not venture to declare his sentiments, and sent them to
Zwingle. They arrived at Zurich in 1521, and having waited on the
reformer, immediately turned the conversation on the doctrine of the
Lord's Supper.[611]

  [611] Factum est ut Johannes Rhodius et Georgius Sagarus, pii et docti
  viri, Tigurum venirent, ut de Eucharistia cum Zwinglio conferrent.
  Lavateri Hist. de origine controv. sacram. Tiguri, 1564, p. 1.

[Sidenote: RESULT OF ZWINGLE'S INQUIRIES.]

Rhodius and his friend did not at first make known their opinions, but
after listening to Zwingle, they gave thanks to God for having
delivered them from so great an error.[612] They then presented the
letter from Cornelius Hoen, which Zwingle read, and published shortly
after.

  [612] Qui cum ejus sententiam audivissent dissimulantes suam, gratias
  egerunt Deo, quod a tanto errore liberati essent atque Honii Batavi
  epistolam protulerunt. Ibid.

This letter had an incalculable influence on the destinies of the
Reformation. Hoen, resting his arguments on Christ's words in the
sixth chapter of Saint John, said: "Christ gives himself to us by
means of the bread:[613] but let us distinguish between the bread we
receive by the mouth, and Christ whom we receive by faith. Whoever
thinks that he receives only what he takes into his mouth, does not
discern the body of the Lord, and eats and drinks his own
condemnation, because by eating and drinking he bears testimony to the
presence of Christ, whilst by his unbelief he remains far from
Him."--At the same time the Netherlanders laid Wessel's theses before
Zwingle.[614] These writings made a deep impression on the reformer's
mind.

  [613] Dominus per panem se ipsum tradit nobis. Epist. Christiana per
  Honnium Batavum Hist. Ev. i. 231-260.

  [614] Propositiones ex evangelio de corpore et sanguine Christi
  sumendo, &c. It is uncertain whether Zwingle had, at this time,
  received Wessel's treatise _de Eucharistia_.

The result of Zwingle's inquiries corresponded with his tendencies. By
studying Scripture as a whole, which was his custom, and not in
detached passages, and by having recourse to classical antiquity for
the solution of the difficulties of language, he arrived at the
conviction that the word is, employed in the formula of the
institution of the Lord's Supper, ought to be taken (as Hoen said) in
the meaning of _signifies_, and as early as 1523 he wrote to his
friend Wittembach that the bread and wine are in the Eucharist what
the water is in baptism. "It would be in vain," added he, "for us to
plunge a man a thousand times in water, if he does not believe. Faith
is the one thing needful."[615]

  [615] Haud aliter hic panem et vinum esse puto quam aqua est in
  baptismo. Ad Wittenbachium Ep. 15th June 1523.

It would appear, besides, that Zwingle had been prepared,[616]
indirectly at least, for these views by Erasmus. Melancthon says:
"Zwingle confessed to me (at Marburg) that it was originally from the
writings of Erasmus that he had derived his opinions on the Lord's
Supper." In fact Erasmus wrote in 1526: "The sentiments of
Œcolampadius would not displease me if the testimony of the Church
were not against them. I do not see what an insensible body can do, or
what utility would be derived from it, even if we could feel it; it is
enough that spiritual grace be found in the symbols."[617]

  [616] Zwinglius mihi confessus est, se ex Erasmi scriptis primum
  hausisso opinionem suam de cœna Domini. Corp. Ref. iv. 970.

  [617] Nec enim video quid agat corpus insensibile, nec utilitatem
  allaturum si sentiretur, modo adsit in Symbolis gratia spiritualis.
  Er. Opp. iii. 941.

[Sidenote: LUTHER'S RETURN TO SCHOLASTICISM.]

Luther at first set out, in appearance at least, from principles very
similar to those of the Zurich doctor. "It is not the sacrament that
sanctifieth," said he, "but faith in the sacrament." But the
extravagances of those whose mysticism spiritualized everything, led
to a great change in his views. When he saw enthusiasts who pretended
to a particular inspiration, breaking images, rejecting baptism,[618]
and denying the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, he was
alarmed; he had a sort of prophetic presentiment of the dangers that
would threaten the Church if this ultra-spiritual tendency should get
the upperhand, and he accordingly threw himself into the very opposite
course; like a pilot who, seeing his boat lean too much on one side
and near foundering, throws himself on the other to restore the
equilibrium.

  [618] Vol. I. p. 145 bot.

From that time Luther attached a higher importance to the sacraments.
He maintained that they were not only signs, by means of which
Christians were outwardly distinguished, as Zwingle said, but
testimonials of the Divine will, calculated to strengthen our faith.
More than this, Christ, in his view, had determined to give believers
a full assurance of their salvation, and in order to seal this promise
in the most effectual manner, he had added his real body to the bread
and wine. "Just as iron and fire," continued he, "which are
nevertheless two distinct substances, are confounded together in a
heated mass of iron so that in each of its parts there is at once iron
and fire; in like manner, and with much greater reason, the glorified
body of Christ is found in all the parts of the bread."

[Sidenote: RESPECT FOR TRADITION.]

Thus at this period there seems to have been some return on the part
of Luther towards the scholastic theology. In his doctrine of
justification by faith he had entirely renounced it; but in that of
the sacrament he abandoned one point only, transubstantiation, and
preserved the other, the corporeal presence. He even went so far as to
say, that he would rather receive the blood only with the pope, than
the wine only with Zwingle.

Luther's great principle was never to depart from the doctrine and
customs of the Church, except when the language of Scripture rendered
it absolutely necessary. "Where has Christ commanded us to elevate the
host and exhibit it to the people?" Carlstadt had demanded.--"And
where has Christ forbidden it?" was Luther's reply. In this answer
lies the principle of the two Reformations. Ecclesiastical traditions
were dear to the Saxon reformer. If he separated from them on several
points, it was not until after terrible struggles, and because, above
all, it was necessary to obey the Scriptures. But when the letter of
the Word of God appeared in harmony with the tradition and usages of
the Church, he adhered to it with immovable firmness. Now this was
what happened in the question of the eucharist. He did not deny that
the word _is_ might be taken in the sense indicated by Zwingle. He
acknowledged, for instance, that in the words, _That rock was
Christ_,[619] it must be so understood; but he denied that this word
must have the same meaning in the institution of the Lord's Supper.

  [619] 1 Cor. x. 4.

He found in one of the later schoolmen, Occam,[620] whom he preferred
to all others, an opinion which he embraced. Like Occam, he gave up
the continually repeated miracle, by virtue of which, according to the
Roman Church, the body and blood of Christ took the place of the bread
and wine after every consecration by the priest; and with this doctor,
he substituted a universal miracle, worked once for all,--that of the
ubiquity and omnipresence of the body of Jesus Christ. "Christ," said
he, "is present in the bread and wine, because he is present
everywhere, and above all, wherever he wills to be."[621]

  [620] Diu multumque legit scripta Occami cujus acumen anteferebat
  Thomæ et Scoto. Melancth. Vita Luth.

  [621] Occam und Luther, _Studien und Kritiken_, 1839, p. 69.

  [Sidenote: ZWINGLE'S TURN OF MIND.]

The turn of Zwingle's mind was very different from Luther's. He was
less inclined to preserve a certain union with the universal Church
and to maintain his connexion with the traditions of past ages. As a
theologian, he looked at Scripture alone, and thence only would he
receive his faith freely and immediately, without troubling himself
about what others had thought before him. As a republican, he looked
to his _commune_ of Zurich. It was the idea of the present Church that
engrossed his thoughts, and not that of the Church of former times. He
clung particularly to these words of St. Paul: _For we being many are
one bread, and one body_; and he saw in the Lord's Supper the sign of
a spiritual communion between Christ and all Christians. "Whoever acts
unworthily," said he, "is guilty towards the body of Christ of which
he is a member." This thought had a great practical influence over
men's minds; and the effects it produced in the lives of many
confirmed Zwingle in it.

Thus Luther and Zwingle had insensibly separated from each other. It
is probable however that peace might have subsisted longer between
them, if the turbulent Carlstadt, who kept passing to and fro between
Switzerland and Germany, had not inflamed these contrary opinions.

[Sidenote: BEGINNING OF THE CONTROVERSY.]

A step taken with a view to maintain peace led to the explosion. The
council of Zurich, desirous of preventing all controversy, forbade the
sale of Carlstadt's works. Zwingle, who disapproved of his violence,
and blamed his mystical and obscure expressions,[622] thought himself
now called upon to defend his doctrine, both in the pulpit and before
the council; and shortly after wrote a letter to Albert, pastor of
Reutlingen, in which he said: "Whether or not Christ speaks of the
sacrament in the sixth chapter of St. John, it is very evident that he
there inculcates a manner of eating his flesh and drinking his blood,
in which there is nothing corporeal."[623] He then proceeded to prove
that the Lord's Supper, by reminding the faithful, according to
Christ's intention, of his body which was broken for them, procured
for them that spiritual eating which alone is truly salutary.

  [622] Quod morosior est (Carlstadius) in cæremoniis non ferendis, non
  admodum probo. Zw. Epp. p. 369.

  [623] A manducatione cibi, qui ventrem implet, transiit ad verbi
  manducationem, quam cibum vocat cœlestem, qui mundum vivificet. Zw.
  Opp. iii. 573.

Yet Zwingle shrunk from a rupture with Luther; he trembled at the
thought that these unhappy disputes might tear in pieces that new
society which was then forming in the midst of fallen Christendom. But
it was not so with Luther. He did not hesitate to class Zwingle with
those enthusiasts against whom he had already broken so many lances.
He did not reflect that if the images had been taken down at Zurich,
it was done legally and by order of the public authority. Accustomed
to the forms of the German principalities, he knew but little of the
proceedings of the Swiss republics; and he inveighed against the grave
divines of Helvetia, as he had done against the Munzers and
Carlstadts.

Luther having published his _Treatise against the Celestial Prophets_,
Zwingle no longer hesitated, and at nearly the same time he gave to
the world his _Letter to Albert_, and his _Commentary on True and
False Religion_, dedicated to Francis I. In this last he said: "Since
Christ, in the sixth chapter of St. John, ascribes to faith the power
of imparting eternal life, and of uniting the believer to Him in the
closest union, what need have we of more? Why should He afterwards
have ascribed this virtue to His flesh, whilst He himself declares
that His flesh profiteth nothing? The flesh of Christ, so far as it
suffered death for us, is of incalculable utility, for it saves us
from perdition; so far as it is eaten by us, it is of no use
whatever."

The struggle began. Pomeranus, Luther's friend, rushed into the
conflict, and attacked the evangelist of Zurich somewhat too
contemptuously. Œcolampadius then began to blush at having so long
combated his doubts, and at having preached doctrines that already
began to waver in his mind. He took courage, and wrote from Basle to
Zwingle: "The dogma of the real presence is the fortress and safeguard
of their impiety. So long as they preserve this idol, no one can
conquer them." He then entered into the lists, by publishing a book on
the meaning of our Lord's words: _This is my body_.[624]

  [624] He took the word is in its usual acceptation, but by _body_ he
  understood a symbol of the body.

[Sidenote: THE SWABIAN SYNGRAMMA.]

The mere fact that Œcolampadius had joined the reformer of Zurich
excited an immense sensation, not only in Basle but in all Germany.
Luther was deeply affected by it. Brenz, Schnepff, and twelve other
pastors of Swabia, to whom Œcolampadius had dedicated his book, and
most of whom had been his pupils, experienced the keenest sorrow. "At
this very moment when I am separating from him in a just cause," said
Brenz, taking up the pen to reply to him, "I honour and admire him as
much as it is possible for a man to do. The bonds of love are not
broken between us because we are not of one opinion." He then
published, conjointly with his friends, the famous _Swabian
Syngramma_, in which he replied to Œcolampadius with firmness but
with charity and respect. "If an emperor," said the authors, "give a
wand to a judge, saying: 'Take; this is the power of judging;' the
wand no doubt is a mere sign; but the words being added, the judge has
not only the symbol but the power itself." The true members of the
reformed churches may admit this illustration. The _Syngramma_ was
received with acclamations; its authors were looked upon as the
champions of truth; many theologians, and even laymen, desirous of
sharing in their glory, began to defend the doctrine attacked, and
fell upon Œcolampadius.

Strasburg then came forward to mediate between Switzerland and
Germany. Capito and Bucer were the friends of peace, and the question
in debate was, in their opinion, of secondary consequence; they
therefore placed themselves between the two parties, sent one of their
colleagues, George Cassel, to Luther, and conjured him to beware of
snapping the ties of fraternity which united him with the Swiss
divines.

[Sidenote: LUTHER'S CHARACTER--CONSEQUENCES.]

Nowhere did Luther's character shine forth more strikingly than in
this controversy on the Lord's Supper. Never were more clearly
displayed that firmness with which he clung to a conviction which he
believed to be christian, his faithfulness in seeking for no other
foundation than Scripture, the sagacity of his defence, his animated
eloquence, and often overwhelming powers of argumentation. But never
also were more clearly shown the obstinacy with which he adhered to
his own opinions, the little attention he paid to the reasons of his
opponents, and the uncharitable haste with which he ascribed their
errors to the wickedness of their hearts, or to the wiles of the
devil. "One or other of us," said he to the Strasburg mediator, "must
be ministers of Satan--the Swiss or ourselves."

This was what Capito styled "the frenzies of the Saxon Orestes;" and
these frenzies were followed by exhaustion. Luther's health was
affected by them; one day he fainted in the arms of his wife and
friends; he was a whole week as if in "death and hell."[625]--"He had
lost Jesus Christ," he said, "and was tossed to and fro by the
tempests of despair. The world was passing away, and announcing by
prodigies that the last day was at hand."

  [625] In morte et in inferno jactatus. L. Epp. iii. 132.

But the divisions among the friends of the Reformation were destined
to have still more fatal consequences. The Romish theologians exulted,
particularly in Switzerland, at being able to oppose Luther to
Zwingle. And yet if, after three centuries, the recollection of these
divisions should convey to evangelical Christians the precious fruits
of unity in diversity, and of charity in liberty, they will not have
been in vain. Even then, the reformers, by opposing one another,
showed that they were not governed by a blind hatred against Rome, and
that truth was the primary object of their inquiries. Herein we must
acknowledge there is something generous; and conduct so disinterested
did not fail to bear fruit, and to extort, even from enemies, a
feeling of interest and esteem.

[Sidenote: DIFFERENT TENDENCIES.]

And further than this, we may here again recognise that sovereign
hand which directs all things, and permits nothing without the wisest
design. Luther, notwithstanding his opposition to the Papacy, was in
an eminent degree conservative. Zwingle, on the contrary, was inclined
to a radical reform. These two opposite tendencies were necessary. If
Luther and his friends had stood alone at the time of the Reformation,
the work would have been stopped too soon, and the reforming principle
would not have accomplished its prescribed task. If, on the contrary,
there had been only Zwingle, the thread would have been snapped too
abruptly, and the Reformation would have been isolated from the ages
that had gone before.

These two tendencies, which to a superficial observer might seem to
have existed only to combat each other, were ordained to complete each
other; and after a lapse of three centuries we can say that they have
fulfilled their mission.

CHAPTER XII.

     The Tockenburg--An Assembly of the People--Reformation--The
     Grisons--Disputation at Ilantz--Results--Reformation at
     Zurich.

Thus the Reformation had struggles to maintain in every quarter, and
after having contended with the rationalist philosophy of Erasmus, and
the fanaticism of some of the anabaptists,[626] it had still to endure
an intestine war. But its great conflict was always with popery; and
the attack begun in the cities of the plain was now carried on among
the most distant mountains.

  [626] A term applied to them by their opponents, but which they never
  admitted as applicable to themselves.

The mountains of the Tockenburg had heard the sound of the Gospel, and
three ecclesiastics were there persecuted by order of the bishop, as
inclining to heresy. "Convince us by the Word of God," said Militus,
Döring, and Farer, "and we will submit not only to the chapter, but
even to the least of our brethren in Christ; otherwise we will obey no
one, not even the mightiest among men."[627]

  [627] Ne potentissimo quidem, sed soli Deo ejusque verbo. Zw. Epp. p.
  370.

[Sidenote: A MEETING IN THE TOCKENBURG.]

This was truly the spirit of Zwingle and of the Reformation. A
circumstance occurred shortly after that inflamed the minds of the
inhabitants of these lofty valleys. A meeting of the people took place
on Saint Catherine's day; the citizens were assembled, and two men of
Schwytz, having come to the Tockenburg on business, were seated at one
of the tables; they entered into conversation. "Ulrich Zwingle," said
one of them, "is a heretic and a robber!" Steiger, the secretary of
state, undertook Zwingle's defence. Their noise attracted the
attention of the whole meeting. George Bruggmann, Zwingle's uncle, who
was at an adjoining table, sprung angrily from his seat, exclaiming:
"Surely they are speaking of Master Ulrich!" All the guests rose and
followed him, fearing a brawl.[628] As the tumult kept increasing, the
bailiff hastily assembled the council in the street, and prayed
Bruggmann, for the sake of peace, to be content with saying to these
men: "If you do not retract your words, it is you who are guilty of
lying and thieving."--"Recollect what you have just said," replied the
men of Schwytz; "be sure we shall remember them." They then mounted
their horses, and galloped off on the road to Schwytz.[629]

  [628] Totumque convivium sequi, grandem conflictum timentes. Zw. Epp.
  p. 371.

  [629] Auf solches, ritten sie wieder heim. Ibid. p. 374.

The government of Schwytz then addressed a threatening letter to the
inhabitants of the Tockenburg, which spread dismay among them. "Be
bold and fearless,"[630] wrote Zwingle to the council of his native
place. "Be not concerned at the lies they utter against me! Any
brawler can call me a heretic; but do you refrain from insults,
disorders, debauchery, and mercenary wars; relieve the poor, protect
those who are oppressed, and whatever abuse may be heaped upon you,
preserve an unshaken confidence in Almighty God."[631]

  [630] Macti animo este et interriti. Ibid. p. 351.

  [631] Verbis diris abstinete......opem ferte egenis......spem
  certissimam in Deo reponatis omnipotente. Zw. Epp. p. 351. There must
  be a mistake in the dates of one of the letters, 14th and 23d (anno
  1524), or else one of Zwingle's letters to his fellow-countrymen is
  lost.

Zwingle's exhortations produced the desired effect. The council still
hesitated, but the people, meeting in their respective parishes,
unanimously decreed that the mass should be abolished, and that they
would be faithful to the Word of God.[632]

  [632] Parochiæ uno consensu statuerunt in verbo Dei manere. Ibid. p.
  423.

[Sidenote: THE GRISONS--DISCUSSIONS AT ILANTZ.]

The conquests were not less important in Rhætia, which Salandronius
had been compelled to leave, but where Comander was boldly proclaiming
the Gospel. The enthusiasts, indeed, by preaching their fanatical
doctrines in the Grisons, had at first done great mischief to the
Reformation. The people were divided into three parties. Some had
embraced the views of these new prophets; others, amazed and
confounded, regarded this schism with anxiety; and lastly, the
partisans of Rome were loud in their exultation.[633]

  [633] Pars tertia papistarum est in immensum gloriantium de schismate
  inter nos facto. Zw. Epp. p. 400.

A meeting was held at Ilantz, in the gray league, for a public
disputation; the supporters of the papacy, on the one hand, the
friends of the Reformation on the other, collected their forces. The
bishop's vicar at first sought how to evade the combat. "These
disputes lead to great expense," said he; "I am ready to lay down ten
thousand florins in order to meet them; but I require the opposite
party to do as much."--"If the bishop has ten thousand florins at his
disposal," exclaimed the rough voice of a peasant in the crowd, "it is
from us he has wrung them; to give as much more to these poor priests
would be too bad."--"We are poor people with empty purses," said
Comander, pastor of Coire; "we have hardly the means of buying food:
where then can we find ten thousand florins?"[634] Every one laughed
at this expedient, and the business proceeded.

  [634] Sie wären gute arme Gesellen mit lehren Secklen. Füssl. Beytr.
  i. 358.

[Sidenote: THE BIBLES--THE THESIS.]

Among the spectators were Sebastian Hofmeister and James Amman of
Zurich; they held in their hands the Holy Bible in Greek and Hebrew.
The bishop's vicar desired that all strangers should be excluded.
Hofmeister understood this to be directed against him. "We have come
provided with a Greek and Hebrew Bible," said he, "in order that no
violence may be done in any manner to Scripture. Yet sooner than
prevent the conference, we are willing to withdraw."--"Ah!" exclaimed
the priest of Dintzen, looking at the books of the Zurichers, "if the
Greek and Hebrew languages had never entered our country, there would
have been fewer heresies!"[635]--"St. Jerome," said another, "has
translated the Bible for us; we do not want the books of the
Jews!"--"If the Zurichers are turned out," said the banneret of
Ilantz, "the _commune_ will interfere."--"Well then," replied others,
"let them listen, but be silent." The Zurichers remained accordingly,
and their Bible with them.

  [635] Wäre die Griechische und Hebraische Sprache nicht in das Land
  gekommen. Füssl. Beytr. i. 360.

After this Comander stood up and read the first of the theses he had
published; it ran thus: "The christian Church is born of the Word of
God; it must abide by this Word, and listen to no other voice." He
then proved what he had advanced by numerous passages from Scripture.
"He trod with a firm step," said an eye-witness,[636] "each time
setting down his foot with the firmness of an ox."--"There is too much
of this," said the vicar.--"When he is at table with his friends
listening to the pipers," said Hofmeister, "he does not find it too
long."[637]

  [636] Satzte den Fuss wie ein müder Ochs. Ibid. 362.

  [637] Den Pfeiffern zuzuhören, die......wie den Fürsten hofierten.
  Ibid.

[Sidenote: THE SCHOOLMASTER--SACRAMENTS--RESULTS.]

Then a man arose and advanced from the midst of the crowd, tossing his
arms, knitting his brows, blinking his eyes,[638] and who appeared to
have lost his senses; he rushed towards the reformer, and many thought
he was about to strike him. He was a schoolmaster of Coire. "I have
committed several questions to writing," said he to Comander; "answer
them instantly."--"I am here," said the reformer of the Grisons, "to
defend my doctrine: attack it, and I will defend it; or else return to
your place. I will answer you when I have done." The schoolmaster
remained a moment in suspense. "Very well," said he at last, and
returned to his seat.

  [638] Blintzete mit den Augen, rumfete die Stirne. Ibid. 368.

It was proposed to pass on to the doctrine of the sacraments. The
Abbot of St. Luke's declared that he could not approach such a subject
without awe, and the horrified curate in alarm made the sign of the
cross.

The schoolmaster of Coire, who had already made one attempt to attack
Comander, began with much volubility to argue in favour of the
doctrine of the sacrament according to the text, "This _is_ my
body."--"My dear Berre," said Comander, "how do you understand these
words, John is Elias?"--"I understand," replied Berre, who saw what
Comander was aiming at, "that he was really and essentially
Elias."--"Why then," continued Comander, "did John the Baptist himself
say to the Pharisees that he was not Elias?" The schoolmaster was
silent: at last he replied, "It is true." Everybody began to laugh,
even those who had urged him to speak.

The Abbot of St. Luke's made a long speech on the eucharist, which
closed the conference. Seven priests embraced the evangelical
doctrine; complete religious liberty was proclaimed, and the Romish
worship was abolished in several churches. "Christ," to use the
language of Salandronius, "grew up everywhere in these mountains, as
the tender grass of spring; and the pastors were like living
fountains, watering these lofty valleys."[639]

  [639] Vita, moribus et doctrina herbescenti Christo apud Rhætos fons
  irrigans. Zw. Epp. p. 485.

The Reform made still more rapid strides at Zurich. The Dominicans,
the Augustines, the Capuchins, so long at enmity, were reduced to the
necessity of living together; a foretaste of hell for these poor
monks. In the place of these corrupted institutions were founded
schools, an hospital, a theological college: learning and charity
everywhere supplanted indolence and selfishness.

CHAPTER XIII.

     The Oligarchs--Bernese Mandate of 1526 in Favour of the
     Papacy--Discussion at Baden--Regulations of the
     Discussion--Riches and Poverty--Eck and
     Œcolampadius--Discussion--Zwingle's Share in the
     Discussion--Vaunts of the Romanists--Abusive Language of a
     Monk--Close of the Disputation.

[Sidenote: THE OLIGARCHS--DEPUTATION TO BERNE.]

These victories of the Reformation could not remain unnoticed. Monks,
priests, and prelates, in distraction, felt that the ground was
everywhere slipping from beneath their feet, and that the Romish
Church was on the point of sinking under unprecedented dangers. The
oligarchs of the cantons, the advocates of foreign pensions and
capitulations, saw that they could delay no longer, if they wished to
preserve their privileges; and at the very moment when the Church was
frightened and beginning to sink, they stretched out their mailed
hands to save it. A Stein and a John Hug of Lucerne united with a John
Faber; and the civil authority rushed to the support of that
hierarchical power which openeth its mouth to blaspheme and maketh war
upon the saints.[640]

  [640] Revelation xiii. 5, 6, 7.

Their first efforts were directed against Berne. The seven
Roman-catholic cantons, in collusion with the Bernese oligarchs, sent
a deputation to that city, who laid their complaints before the
council on Whitmonday 1526. "All order is destroyed in the Church,"
said the schulthess (chief magistrate) of Lucerne, "God is blasphemed,
the sacraments, the mother of God, and the saints are despised, and
imminent and terrible calamities threaten to dissolve our praiseworthy
confederation." At the same time the Bernese partisans of Rome, in
harmony with the Forest cantons, had summoned to Berne the deputies of
the country, chosen from those who were devoted to the papacy. Some of
them had the courage to pronounce in favour of the Gospel. The sitting
was stormy. "Berne must renounce the evangelical faith and walk with
us," said the Forest cantons. The Bernese councils decreed that they
would maintain "the ancient christian faith, the holy sacraments, the
mother of God, the saints, and the ornaments of the churches."[641]
Thus Rome triumphed, and the mandate of 1526 was about to annul that
of 1523. In effect, all the married priests not born in the canton
were compelled to leave it; they drove from their borders all who were
suspected of Lutheranism; they exercised a vigilant censorship over
every work sold by the booksellers, and certain books were publicly
burnt. Even John Faber, with audacious falsehood, said publicly that
Haller had bound himself before the council to perform mass again, and
to preach the doctrine of Rome. It was resolved to take advantage of
so favourable an opportunity to crush the new faith.

  [641] Actum uff den heil. Pfingsel Montag, 1526. Tschudi.

[Sidenote: DISPUTATION PROPOSED.]

For a long while public opinion had been demanding a discussion; this
was the only means left of quieting the people.[642] "Convince us by
the Holy Scriptures," said the council of Zurich to the diet, "and we
will comply with your wishes."--"The Zurichers," it was everywhere
said, "have made you a promise; if you can convince them by the Bible,
why not do so? if you cannot, why do you not conform to the Bible?"

  [642] Das der gmein man, one eine offne Disputation, nit zu stillen
  was. Bull. Chr. i. 331

The conferences held at Zurich had exercised an immense influence, and
it was felt necessary to oppose them by a conference held in a Romish
city, with all necessary precautions to secure the victory to the
pope's party.

True, these discussions had been pronounced unlawful, but means were
found to evade this difficulty. "It is only intended," said they, "to
check and condemn the pestilent doctrines of Zwingle."[643] This being
settled, they looked about for a vigorous champion, and Doctor Eck
offered himself. He feared nothing. "Zwingle no doubt has milked more
cows than he has read books," said he, by Hofmeister's account.[644]

  [643] Diet of Lucerne, 13th March 1526.

  [644] Er habe wohl mehr Kühe gemolken, als Bücher gelesen. Zw. Opp.
  ii. 405.

[Sidenote: FEARS FOR ZWINGLE.]

The Great Council of Zurich sent Dr. Eck a safe-conduct to go direct
to Zurich; but Eck replied that he would wait for the answer of the
confederation. Zwingle then offered to dispute at Saint Gall or
Schaffhausen; but the council, acting on an article of the federal
compact, which provided "that every accused person should be tried in
the place of his abode," ordered Zwingle to withdraw his offer.

At last the diet fixed that the conference should take place at Baden
on the 16th of May 1526. This meeting promised to be important; for it
was the result and the seal of the alliance which had just been
concluded between the clergy and the oligarchs of the confederation.
"See," said Zwingle to Vadian, "what Faber and the oligarchs now
venture to attempt."[645]

  [645] Vide nunc quid audeant oligarchi atque Faber. Zw. Epp. p. 484.

Accordingly, the decision of the diet produced a great sensation in
Switzerland. It was not doubted that a conference held under such
auspices would be favourable to the Reformation. Are not the five
cantons the most devoted to the pope supreme in Baden, said the
Zurichers? Have they not already declared Zwingle's doctrine
heretical, and pursued it with fire and sword? Was not Zwingle burnt
in effigy at Lucerne, with every mark of ignominy? At Friburg, were
not his writings committed to the flames? Do they not everywhere call
for his death? Have not the cantons that exercise sovereign rights in
Baden declared, that in whatever part of their territory Zwingle made
his appearance, he should be apprehended?[646] Did not Uberlinger, one
of their chiefs, say that the only thing in the world that he desired
was to hang Zwingle, though he should be called a hangman all the rest
of his days?[647] And has not Doctor Eck himself, for years past,
been crying out that the heretics must be attacked with fire and
sword? What then will be the end of this conference? what other result
can it have, but the death of the reformer?

  [646] Zwingli in ihrem Gebiet, wo er betreten werde, gefangen zu
  nehmen. Zw. Opp. ii. 422.

  [647] Da wollte er gern all sein Lebtag ein Henker genannt werden.
  Ibid. 454.

[Sidenote: THE MARTYRS OF LINDAU AND FRIBURG.]

Such were the fears that agitated the commission appointed at Zurich
to examine into the affair. Zwingle, an eye-witness of their
agitation, rose and said: "You know what happened at Baden to the
valiant men of Stammheim, and how the blood of the Wirths dyed the
scaffold......and it is to the very place of their execution that they
challenge us!......Let Zurich, Berne, Saint Gall, or even Basle,
Constance, and Schaffhausen, be selected for the conference; let it be
agreed to discuss essential points only, employing nothing else than
the Word of God; let no judge be set above it; and then I am ready to
appear."[648]

  [648] Wellend wir ganz geneigt syn ze erschynen. Zw. Opp. ii. 423.

Meanwhile, fanaticism was already bestirring itself and striking down
its victims. A consistory, headed by that same Faber who had
challenged Zwingle, on the 10th of May 1526, about a week before the
discussion at Baden, condemned to the flames, as a heretic, an
evangelical minister named John Hügel, pastor of Lindau,[649] who
walked to the place of execution singing the _Te Deum_. At the same
time, another minister, Peter Spengler, was drowned at Friburg by
order of the Bishop of Constance.

  [649] Hunc hominem hæreticum damnamus, projicimus et conculcamus.
  Hotting. Helv. K. Gesch. iii. 300.

Sinister rumours reached Zwingle from all quarters. His
brother-in-law, Leonard Tremp, wrote to him from Berne: "I entreat
you, as you regard your life, not to repair to Baden. I know that they
will not respect your safe-conduct."[650]

  [650] Caveatis per caput vestrum......Zw. Epp. p. 483.

It was affirmed that a plan had been formed to seize and gag him,
throw him into a boat, and carry him off to some secret place.[651]
With these threats and persecutions before them, the council of Zurich
decreed that Zwingle should not go to Baden.[652]

  [651] Navigio captum, ore mox obturato, clam fuisse deportandum. Osw.
  Myc. Vit. Zw.

  [652] Zwinglium Senatus Tigurinus Badenam dimittere recusavit. Ibid.

[Sidenote: ŒCOLAMPADIUS--REGULATIONS.]

The discussion being fixed for the 19th of May, the disputants and the
representatives of the cantons and bishops began to arrive gradually.
On the side of the Roman-catholics appeared in the foremost place the
warlike and vain-glorious Doctor Eck; on the side of the Protestants,
the retiring and gentle Œcolampadius. The latter was well aware of
the perils attending this discussion. "He had long hesitated, like a
timid stag worried by furious dogs," says an old historian; at length
he decided on going to Baden, previously making this solemn
declaration, "I acknowledge no other standard of judgment than the
Word of God." At first, he had earnestly desired that Zwingle should
share his danger;[653] but he soon became convinced that, if the
intrepid doctor had appeared in that fanatical city, the anger of the
Romanists, kindling at his sight, would have caused the death of both
of them.

  [653] Si periclitaberis, periclitabimur omnes tecum. Zw. Epp. p. 312.

They began by determining the regulations of the conference. Doctor
Eck proposed that the deputies of the Forest Cantons should be
empowered to pronounce the final judgment; which was, in truth,
anticipating the condemnation of the reformed doctrines. Thomas
Plater, who had come from Zurich to attend the colloquy, was
despatched by Œcolampadius to ask Zwingle's advice. Arriving during
the night, he was with difficulty admitted into the reformer's house.
"Unlucky disturber," said Zwingle to him, as he rubbed his eyes, "for
six weeks I have not gone to bed, owing to this discussion.[654]......
What are your tidings?" Plater stated Eck's demands. "And who can make
those peasants understand such things?" replied Zwingle; "they would
be much more at home in milking their cows."[655]

  [654] Ich bin in sechs Wochen nie in das Beth Kommen. Plater's Leben,
  p. 263.

  [655] Sie verstunden sich bas auf Kuh mälken. Ibid.

[Sidenote: ECK AND ŒCOLAMPADIUS.]

On the 21st of May the conference opened. Eck and Faber, accompanied
by prelates, magistrates, and doctors, robed in garments of damask and
silk, and adorned with rings, chains, and crosses,[656] repaired to
the church. Eck haughtily ascended a pulpit splendidly decorated,
while the humble Œcolampadius, meanly clothed, was forced to take
his seat in front of his opponent on a rudely carved stool. "All the
time the conference lasted," said the chronicler Bullinger, "Eck and
his friends were lodged at the Baden parsonage, faring sumptuously,
living gaily and scandalously, and drinking much wine, with which the
abbot of Wettingen provided them.[657] Eck took the baths at Baden (it
was said) but......in wine. The evangelicals, on the contrary, made a
sorry appearance, and the people laughed at them as at a troop of
mendicants. Their way of living was in strong contrast to that of the
papal champions. The landlord of the Pike, the inn at which
Œcolampadius lodged, being curious to know what the latter did in
his room, reported that every time he peeped in, he found him reading
or praying. It must be confessed (said he) that he is a very pious
heretic."

  [656] Mit Syden, Damast und Sammet bekleydet. Bull. Chr. i. 351.

  [657] Verbruchten vil wyn. Bull. Chr. i. 351.

The disputation lasted eighteen days, and during the whole time the
clergy walked daily in solemn procession, chanting litanies in order
to ensure victory. Eck alone spoke in defence of the Romish doctrines.
He was still the champion of the Leipsic disputation, with the same
German accent, broad shoulders, and strong lungs, an excellent
town-crier, and in outward appearance having more resemblance to a
butcher than a theologian. According to his usual custom he disputed
with great violence, seeking to gall his adversaries by sarcasm, and
from time to time slipping out an oath.[658] But the president never
called him to order.

  [658] So entwuscht imm ettwan ein Schwür. Ibid.

    Eck stamps with his feet, and thumps with his hands,
      He blusters, he swears, and he scolds;
    Whatever the pope and the cardinals teach,
      Is the faith, he declares, that he holds.[659]

  [659] Egg zablet mit fussen and henden
        Fing an schelken und schenden, &c.

           Contemporary Poems by Nicholas Manuel of Berne.

[Sidenote: THE DISCUSSION--ZWINGLE'S SHARE.]

Œcolampadius, on the contrary, with his calm features and noble and
patriarchal air, spoke with so much mildness, and at the same time
with such courage and ability, that even his adversaries, affected and
impressed, said one to another: "Oh! that the tall sallow man were on
our side."[660]......At times, however, he was moved when he saw the
hatred and violence of his auditors: "How impatiently they listen to
me!" said he; "but God will not forsake His glory, and that is all we
seek."[661]

  [660] O were der lange gäl man uff unser syten. Bull. Chr. i. 353.

  [661] Domino suam gloriam, quam salvam cupimus ne utiquam deserturo.
  Zw. Epp. p. 511.

Œcolampadius having combated Dr. Eck's first thesis on the real
presence, Haller, who had come to Baden after the opening of the
conference, entered the lists against the second. But little used to
such conferences, of a timid character, tied down by the orders of his
government, and embarrassed by the looks of his avoyer Gaspard of
Mullinen, a great enemy to the Reformation, Haller possessed not the
haughty confidence of his opponent; but he had more real strength.
When Haller had finished, Œcolampadius returned to the combat, and
pressed Eck so closely, that the latter was compelled to fall back on
the customs of the Church. "Custom," replied Œcolampadius, "has no
force in our Switzerland, unless it be according to the constitution;
now, in matters of faith, the Bible is our constitution."

The third thesis on the invocation of saints; the fourth on images;
the fifth on purgatory, were successively discussed. No one rose to
contest the truth of the two last, which turned on original sin and
baptism.

Zwingle took an active part in the whole of the discussion. The Romish
party, which had appointed four secretaries, had forbidden all other
persons to take notes under pain of death.[662] But Jerome Walsch, a
student from the Valais, who possessed an excellent memory, impressed
on his mind all that he heard, and on returning home, hastened to
commit it to writing. Thomas Plater and Zimmerman of Winterthur
carried these notes to Zwingle every day, with letters from
Œcolampadius, and brought back the reformer's answers. Soldiers
armed with halberds were posted at all the gates of Baden, and it was
only by inventing different excuses that these two messengers evaded
the inquiries of the sentinels, who could not understand why they were
so frequently passing to and fro.[663] Thus Zwingle, though absent
from Baden in body, was present in spirit.

  [662] Man sollte einem ohne aller weiter Urtheilen, den Kopf abhauen.
  Thom. Plateri Lebens Beschreib. p. 262.

  [663] When they asked me: "What are you going to do?" I replied: "I am
  carrying chickens to sell to the gentlemen at the baths;" for they
  gave me some chickens at Zurich, and the sentries could not make out
  how I procured them always, and in so short a time. Plater's
  Autobiography, p. 262. Leben's Beschrieb.

He advised and strengthened his friends, and refuted his adversaries.
"Zwingle," said Oswald Myconius, "has laboured more by his
meditations, his sleepless nights, and the advice which he transmitted
to Baden, than he would have done by discussing in person in the midst
of his enemies."[664]

  [664] Quam laborasset disputando vel inter medios hostes. Osw. Myc.
  Vita. Zw.--See also Zwingle's several writings having reference to the
  Baden disputation. Opp. ii. pp. 398-520.

[Sidenote: ROMISH BOASTS--ABUSE OF A MONK.]

During the whole conference, the Roman-catholics were in commotion,
sending letters in every direction and loudly boasting of their
victory. "Œcolampadius," exclaimed they, "vanquished by Dr. Eck and
laid prostrate in the lists, has sung his recantation;[665] the
dominion of the pope will be everywhere restored."[666] These
statements were circulated through the cantons, and the people, prompt
to believe everything they hear, gave credit to all the vaunts of the
Romish partisans.

  [665] Œcolampadius victus jacet in arena prostratus ab Eccio,
  herbam porrexit. Zw. Epp. p. 514.

  [666] Spem concipiunt lætam fore ut regnum ipsorum restituatur. Ibid.
  513.

[Sidenote: END OF THE DISCUSSION.]

When the dispute was finished, the monk Murner of Lucerne, nicknamed
"the tom-cat," stepped forward, and read forty charges against
Zwingle. "I thought," said he, "that the coward would come and reply
to them; but he has not appeared. Well, then, by every law, both human
and divine, I declare forty times that the tyrant of Zurich and all
his partisans are traitors, liars, perjurers, adulterers, infidels,
robbers, sacrilegers, gallows-birds, and such that every honest man
must blush at having any intercourse whatever with them." Such was
the abuse which at this time was honoured with the name of "christian
controversy," by doctors whom the Romish church should herself
disavow.

Great agitation prevailed in Baden; the general impression was, that
the Roman champions had talked the loudest, but argued the
weakest.[667] Only Œcolampadius and ten of his friends voted
against Eck's theses; while eighty persons, including the presidents
of the debate and all the monks of Wittingen, adopted them. Haller had
quitted Baden before the end of the conference.

  [667] Die Evangelische weren wol überschryen, nicht aber
  überdisputiert worden. Hotting. Helv. K. Gesch. iii. 320.

The majority of the diet then decreed that, as Zwingle, the chief of
this pestilent doctrine, had refused to appear, and as the ministers
who had come to Baden had resisted all conviction, they were all
together cast out from the bosom of the catholic church.[668]

  [668] Von gemeiner Kyrchen ussgestossen. Bull. Chr. p. 355.

CHAPTER XIV.

     Consequences at Basle, Berne, Saint Gall, and other
     Places--Diet at Zurich--The small Cantons--Threats against
     Berne--Foreign Support.

[Sidenote: CONSEQUENCES AT BASLE AND BERNE.]

But this famous conference, owing to the zeal of the oligarchs and
clergy, was destined to be fatal to both. Those who had combated for
the Gospel were, on their return home, to fill their countrymen with
enthusiasm for the cause they had defended, and two of the most
important cantons in the Helvetic alliance, Berne and Basle, were
thenceforth to begin their separation from the papacy.

The first blows were to fall on Œcolampadius, a stranger in
Switzerland; and he did not return to Basle without apprehension. But
his anxiety was soon dissipated. The mildness of his language had
struck all impartial witnesses, much more than the clamours of Dr.
Eck, and all pious men received him with acclamation. The adversaries
made, in truth, every exertion to drive him from the pulpit, but in
vain; he taught and preached with greater energy than before, and the
people had never shown such thirst for the Word.[669]

  [669] Plebe Verbi Domini admodum sitiente. Zw. Epp. p. 518.

Similar results followed at Berne. The conference at Baden, intended
to crush the Reformation, gave it a new impulse in this canton, the
most powerful of all the Swiss league. Haller had no sooner arrived in
the capital, than the Smaller Council had summoned him before them,
and ordered him to celebrate the mass. Haller demanded permission to
reply before the Great Council, and the people, thinking it their duty
to defend their pastor, hastened to the spot. Haller in alarm declared
that he would rather leave the city than be the occasion of any
disturbance. Upon this, tranquillity being restored: "If I am required
to perform this ceremony," said the reformer, "I must resign my
office; the honour of God and the truth of his Holy Word are dearer to
me than any care about what I shall eat or wherewithal I shall be
clothed." Haller uttered these words with emotion; the members of the
council were affected; even some of his opponents burst into
tears.[670] Once more it was found that moderation was stronger than
power. To satisfy Rome in some degree, Haller was deprived of his
canonry, but nominated preacher. His most violent enemies, Lewis and
Anthony Diesbach, and Anthony d'Erlach, incensed at this resolution,
immediately withdrew from the council and the city, and renounced
their citizenship. "Berne stumbled," said Haller, "but has risen up
again with greater strength than ever." This firmness in the Bernese
made a deep impression in Switzerland.[671]

  [670] Tillier, Gesch. v. Bern., iii. 242.

  [671] Profuit hic nobis Bernates tam dextre in servando Berchtoldo suo
  egisse. Ecol. ad Zw. Epp. p. 518.

[Sidenote: ZWINGLE'S EXULTATION.]

But the results of the conference at Baden were not limited to Basle
and Berne. While these events were taking place in these powerful
cities, a movement, more or less similar, was going on in several
other states of the confederation. The preachers of St. Gall, on their
return from Baden, proclaimed the Gospel;[672] the images were removed
from the parochial church of St. Lawrence after a conference, and the
inhabitants sold their costly garments, their jewels, rings, and gold
chains, to found almshouses. The Reformation despoiled, but it was to
clothe the poor; and the spoils were those of the reformed
themselves.[673]

  [672] San Gallenses officiis suis restitutos. Zw. Epp. p. 518.

  [673] Kostbare Kleider, Kleinodien, Ring, Ketten, &c. freywillig
  verkauft. Hott. iii. p. 338.

At Mulhausen the Gospel was preached with fresh courage; Thurgovia and
the Rheinthal daily approximated more and more to Zurich. Immediately
after the disputation, Zurzach removed the images from its churches,
and almost the whole district of Baden received the Gospel.

Nothing was better calculated to show which party had really
triumphed; and hence Zwingle, as he looked around him, gave glory to
God. "We have been attacked in many ways," said he, "but the Lord is
not only above their threats, but also the wars themselves. In the
city and canton of Zurich there is an admirable agreement in favour of
the Gospel. We shall overcome all things by prayers offered up with
faith."[674] And shortly after, addressing Haller, Zwingle said:
"Everything here below has its course. The rude north wind is followed
by the gentle breeze. After the scorching heat of summer, autumn pours
forth its treasures. And now, after severe contests, the Creator of
all things, whom we serve, has opened a way for us into the camp of
our adversaries. At last we may welcome among us the christian
doctrine, that dove so long repulsed, and which ceased not to watch
for the hour of her return. Be thou the Noah to receive and save her."

  [674] Fideli enim oratione omnia superabimus. Zw. Epp. p. 519.

This same year, Zurich had made an important acquisition. Conrad
Pellican, superior of the Franciscans at Basle, professor of divinity
at the age of twenty-four, had been invited, through Zwingle's
exertions, to be Hebrew professor at Zurich. "I have long since
renounced the pope," said he on arriving, "and desired to live to
Jesus Christ."[675] Pellican, by his critical talents, became one of
the most useful labourers in the work of the Reformation.

  [675] Jamdudum papæ renuntiavi et Christo vivere concupivi. Zw. Epp.
  p. 455.

[Sidenote: DIET AT ZURICH--THE SMALLER CANTONS.]

Zurich, still excluded from the diet by the Romish cantons, wishing to
take advantage of the more favourable disposition manifested by some
of the confederates, convened, in the beginning of 1527, a diet to be
held in Zurich itself. The deputies of Berne, Basle, Schaffhausen,
Appenzell, and St. Gall attended it. "We desire," said the deputies of
Zurich, "that the Word of God, which leads us solely to Christ
crucified, should be the only thing preached, taught, and exalted. We
abandon all human doctrines, whatever may have been the custom of our
forefathers; being assured that had they possessed this light of the
Divine Word which we enjoy, they would have embraced it with more
reverence than we their feeble descendants have done."[676] The
deputies present promised to take the representations of Zurich into
consideration.

  [676] Mit höherem Werth and mehr Dankbarkeit dann wir angenommen.
  Zurich. Archiv. Absch. Sonntag nach Lichtmesse.

[Sidenote: CONSERVATIVE TENDENCY.]

Thus the breach in the walls of Rome was widened daily. The discussion
at Baden had been intended to repair it; and from that time, on the
contrary, the wavering cantons seemed willing to walk with Zurich.
Already the inhabitants of the plain inclined towards the Reformation;
already it was hemming in the mountains; already it was invading them,
and the primitive cantons, which were as the cradle, and are still the
citadel, of Switzerland, shut up in their higher Alps, seemed alone to
adhere firmly to the doctrine of their sires. These mountaineers,
continually exposed to violent storms, to avalanches, to overflowing
torrents and rivers, are compelled all their lives to struggle against
these formidable enemies, and to sacrifice everything to preserve the
meadow in which their herds graze, and the cottage where they shelter
themselves from the storms, and which the first inundation sweeps
away. Accordingly the conservative principle is strongly developed in
them, and transmitted from age to age, from generation to generation.
To preserve what they have received from their fathers constitutes the
whole wisdom of these mountains. These rude Helvetians were then
struggling against the Reformation, which aimed at changing their
faith and their worship, as they struggle to this day against the
torrents that fall in thunder from their snowy peaks, or against the
new political ideas that have been established at their very doors in
the surrounding cantons. They will be the last to lay down their arms
before that twofold power which already raises its banners on all the
hills around, and threatens daily and more nearly these conservative
districts.

Accordingly these cantons, at the period which I am recording, still
more irritated against Berne than against Zurich, and trembling lest
this powerful state should desert them, assembled their deputies in
Berne itself a week after the conference at Zurich. They called on the
council to depose the new teachers, to prosecute their doctrines, and
to maintain the ancient and true christian faith, as confirmed by past
ages and confessed by the martyrs. "Convoke all the bailiwicks of the
canton," added they; "if you refuse, we will take it upon ourselves."
The Bernese replied with irritation: "We have power enough ourselves
to speak to those under our jurisdiction."

This reply only increased the anger of the Forest Cantons, and these
cantons, which had been the cradle of the political freedom of
Switzerland, alarmed at the progress of religious liberty, began to
seek, even from without, for allies to destroy it. To combat the
enemies of foreign service, that foreign service might reasonably be
resorted to; and if the oligarchy of Switzerland could not suffice
alone, was it not natural to have recourse to the princes, their
allies? In fact, Austria, who had found it impossible to maintain her
own authority in the confederation, was ready to interfere to
strengthen the power of Rome. Berne learnt with dismay that Ferdinand,
brother of Charles V., was making preparations against Zurich and all
those who adhered to the Reformation.[677]

  [677] Berne to Zurich, Monday after _Misericorde_. Kirchhoff. B.
  Haller, p. 85.

[Sidenote: THE CRITICAL MOMENT.]

Circumstances were becoming more critical. A succession of events,
more or less unfortunate, the excesses of the fanatics, the disputes
with Luther on the Eucharist, and others besides, appear to have
seriously compromised the Reformation in Switzerland. The discussion
at Baden had disappointed the hopes of the papal party, and the sword
they had brandished against their adversaries had broken in their
hands; but this had only increased their vexation and anger, and they
were preparing for a fresh effort. Already the imperial power itself
was beginning to move; and the Austrian bands which had been routed in
the defiles of Morgarten and on the heights of Sempach, were ready to
enter Switzerland with colours flying, to re-establish the tottering
power of Rome. The moment was critical; it was no longer possible to
halt between two opinions, and be neither "muddy nor clear." Berne and
other cantons, which had long hesitated, were now to come to a
decision. They must either promptly return to the papacy, or take
their stand with fresh courage under the banners of Christ.

A Frenchman from the mountains of Dauphiny, William Farel by name, at
this time gave a powerful impulse to Switzerland, decided the
Reformation of Roman Helvetia, still immersed in deep slumber, and
thus turned the balance throughout the whole confederation in favour
of the new doctrines. Farel arrived on the field of battle like those
fresh troops which, when the issue of the contest hangs in the
balance, rush into the thickest of the fight and decide the victory.
He prepared the way in Switzerland for another Frenchman, whose
austere faith and commanding genius were to put a finishing hand to
the Reformation, and make the work complete. By means of these
illustrious men, France took her part in that vast commotion which
agitated christian society. It is now time that we should turn our
eyes towards that country.

BOOK XII.

THE FRENCH. 1500-1526.

CHAPTER I.

     Universality of Christianity--Enemies of the Reform in
     France--Heresy and Persecution in Dauphiny--A country
     Mansion--The Farel Family--Pilgrimage to the Holy
     Cross--Immorality and Superstition--William desires to
     become a Student.

[Sidenote: UNIVERSALITY OF CHRISTIANITY.]

Universality is one of the essential characteristics of Christianity.
It is not so with human religions. They are adapted to a certain
people, and to the degree of cultivation they have attained; they keep
these nations stationary, or if by any extraordinary circumstance the
people attain a fuller growth, their religion is left behind, and by
that means becomes useless to them.

There has been an Egyptian, a Grecian, a Latin, and even a Jewish
religion; Christianity is the only religion of mankind.

Its starting point in man is sin; and this is a characteristic not
peculiar to any one race, but is the heritage of every human being.
Hence the Gospel, as satisfying the universal and most elevated wants
of our nature, is received as coming from God by the most barbarous
and by the most civilized nations. It does not, like the religions of
antiquity, deify national peculiarities; but it does not destroy them
as modern cosmopolitism would do. It does better; it sanctifies,
ennobles, and raises them to a holy unity by the new and living
principle it communicates to them.

The introduction of Christianity into the world has wrought a great
revolution in history. Until then, there had only been a history of
nations; now there is a history of mankind; and the idea of a
universal education of the human race, accomplished by Jesus Christ,
has become the historian's compass, the clue to history, and the hope
of the nations.

But Christianity exerts its influence not only on all nations, but
also on every period of their history.

At the moment of its appearance, the world was like a torch about to
become extinct, and Christianity rekindled it with fire from heaven.

Subsequently, the barbarian tribes, having rushed upon the Roman
empire, had shattered and confounded every thing; and Christianity,
stemming that desolating torrent with the cross, subdued by it the
savage children of the north, and gave society a new form.

Yet an element of corruption already lay hid in the religion carried
by courageous missionaries to those barbarous tribes. Their faith came
from Rome almost as much as from the Bible. This element soon gathered
strength; man everywhere substituted himself for God,--the essential
characteristic of the Romish church; and a renovation of religion
became necessary. This Christianity accomplished at the epoch of which
we are treating.

The history of the Reformation in the countries that we have hitherto
surveyed has shown us the new doctrine rejecting the extravagances of
enthusiasts and of the new prophets; but in the country towards which
we now turn our attention, infidelity is the shoal which it has to
encounter. Nowhere had bolder protests been made against the
superstitions and abuses of the Church: nowhere had there been a more
striking development of a certain love of learning, independent of
Christianity, which often ends in irreligion. France carried in her
bosom two reformations at the same time,--the one of man, the other of
God. "Two nations were in her womb, and two manner of people were to
be separated from her bowels."[678]

  [678] Genesis xxv. 23.

[Sidenote: ENEMIES OF THE REFORM IN FRANCE.]

In France, the Reformation had to combat not only with infidelity as
well as superstition, but there was a third antagonist which it had
not yet encountered, at least in such force, among the people of
German origin: this was immorality. The scandals in the Church were
very great; debauchery sat on the throne of Francis I. and Catherine
de Medicis; and the austere virtues of the reformers irritated these
"Sardanapaluses."[679] Everywhere, no doubt, but especially in France,
the Reformation was of necessity not only doctrinal and
ecclesiastical, but moral also.

  [679] Sardanapalus (Henry II.) inter scorta. Calvin's Epp. MS.

Those violent enemies which the Reformation encountered simultaneously
in France, gave it a character altogether peculiar. Nowhere did it so
often dwell in dungeons, or so much resemble primitive Christianity in
faith, in charity, and in the number of its martyrs. If, in the
countries of which we have hitherto spoken, the Reformation was more
glorious by its triumphs, in that which is now to engage our
attention, it was still more so by its defeats. If elsewhere it could
point to thrones and sovereign councils, here it might point to
scaffolds and "hill-side" meetings. Whoever knows what constitutes the
true glory of Christianity upon earth, and the features that
assimilate it to its Head, will study with a livelier feeling of
respect and love the often blood-stained history that we now proceed
to relate.

The majority of the men who have afterwards glittered on the stage of
the world were born in the provinces where their minds first began to
expand. Paris is a tree that presents many flowers and fruits to the
eye, but whose roots spread far and wide into the bosom of the earth,
to draw from thence the nutritious juices which they transform. The
Reformation also followed this law.

The Alps, which beheld bold and christian men spring up in every
canton and almost in every valley of Switzerland, were destined in
France also to cover with their lengthened shadows the infancy of some
of the first reformers. For ages they had guarded the treasure more or
less pure in their high valleys, among the inhabitants of the
Piedmontese districts of Luzerne, Angrogne, and La Peyrouse. The
truth, which Rome could not reach there, had spread from these
valleys to the other side of these mountains, and along their base to
Provence and Dauphiny.

The year after the accession of Charles VIII., son of Louis XI., a
sickly and timid child, Innocent VIII. had assumed the pontifical
tiara (1484). He had seven or eight sons by different mothers; and
hence, according to an epigram of the times, Rome unanimously saluted
him with the name of Father.[680]

  [680]

      Octo nocens pueros genuit totidemque puellas.
      Hunc merito poterit dicere Roma Patrem.

[Sidenote: HERESY AND PERSECUTIONS IN DAUPHINY.]

There was at that time on all the slopes of the Dauphinese Alps, and
along the banks of the Durance, a new growth of the old Waldensian
opinions. "The roots," says an old chronicler, "were continually
putting forth new shoots in every direction."[681] Bold men called the
Roman Church the church of devils, and maintained that it was as
profitable to pray in a stable as in a church.

  [681] In Ebredunensi archiepiscopatu veteres Waldensium hæreticorum
  fibræ repullularunt. Raynald, Annales Eccles. ad ann. 1487.

The priests, the bishops, and the Roman legates uttered a cry of
alarm, and on the 5th kalends of May (27th April) 1487, Innocent
VIII., the father of the Romans, issued a bull against these humble
Christians. "To arms," said the pontiff, "and trample these heretics
under foot as venomous serpents."[682]

  [682] Armis insurgant, eosque veluti aspides
  venenosos......conculcent. Bull of Innocent VIII. preserved at
  Cambridge. Leger, ii. 8.

At the approach of the legate, followed by an army of eighteen
thousand men and a number of volunteers, who wished to share the
spoils of the Waldenses, the latter abandoned their houses and took
refuge in the mountains, caverns, and clefts of the rocks, as the
birds flee for shelter when the storm begins to lower. Not a valley,
nor a wood, nor a rock, escaped their persecutors; everywhere in this
part of the Alps, and particularly on the Italian side, these poor
disciples of Christ were hunted down like beasts of prey. At last the
pope's satellites were worn out; their strength was exhausted, their
feet could no longer scale the steep retreats of the "heretics," and
their arms refused to strike.

[Sidenote: FAREL'S BIRTHPLACE AND FAMILY.]

In these alpine districts, then disturbed by Romish fanaticism, three
leagues from the ancient town of Gap,[683] in the direction of
Grenoble, not far from the flowery turf that clothes the table-land of
Bayard's mountain, at the foot of the Aiguille and near the pass of
Glaize, towards the place where the Buzon takes its rise, stood and
still stands a group of houses, half hidden by the surrounding trees,
and which bears the name of Farel,--or, in the dialect of the country,
Fareau.[684] On an extensive terrace raised above the neighbouring
cottages might be seen a house of that class which is denominated
_Gentilhommière_, a manor-house. It was surrounded by an orchard which
led to the village. Here, in these days of trouble, dwelt a noble
family of established piety, known by the name of Farel.[685] In 1489,
the very year in which the papacy was employing its severest measures
in Dauphiny, was born in this modest mansion a son who received the
name of William. Three brothers, Daniel, Walter, and Claude, and one
sister, grew up with William, and shared his sports on the banks of
the Buzon and at the foot of the Bayard.

  [683] Chief town of the Hautes Alpes.

  [684] Revue du Dauphiné, July 1837, p. 35. As you go from Grenoble to
  Gap, a quarter of an hour's journey beyond the last post-house, and
  about a stone's throw to the right of the high road, may be seen the
  village of the Farels. The site of the house inhabited by Farel's
  father is still shown. It is now occupied only by a cottage, but from
  its dimensions it may be seen that it could not have belonged to an
  ordinary house. The present inhabitant bears the name of Farel. I am
  indebted for this information to M. Blanc, pastor of Mens.

  [685] Gulielmum Farellum, Delphinatem, nobili familia ortum. Bezæ
  Icones.--Calvin, writing to Cardinal Sadolet, sets off Farel's
  disinterestedness-_-sorti de si noble maison_ (sprung from so noble a
  family). Opuscula, p. 148.

There William's childhood and early youth were passed. His parents
were among the most devoted servants of the papacy. "My father and
mother believed everything," he tells us himself;[686] "and
accordingly they brought up their children in all the observances of
Romish devotion."

  [686] Du vray usage de la croix, par Guillaume Farel, p. 237.

[Sidenote: PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY CROSS.]

God had bestowed rare qualities on William Farel, such as were fitted
to give him a great ascendency over his fellows. Possessing a
penetrating mind and lively imagination, sincere and upright, having a
greatness of soul that never allowed him, at whatever risk, to betray
the convictions of his heart, he was remarkable also for ardour, fire,
indomitable courage, and daring, which never shrunk from any obstacle.
But, at the same time, he had all the defects allied to these
qualities; and his parents were often compelled to check his
impetuosity.

William threw himself with his whole soul into the superstitious
habits of his credulous family. "I am horror-struck," said he, "when I
consider the hours, the prayers, and the divine honours, which I
myself have offered and caused others to offer to the cross and other
such things."[687]

  [687] Du vray usage de la croix, by W. Farel, p. 232.

Four leagues to the south of Gap, near Tallard, in a hill that rises
above the impetuous stream of the Durance, was a place in great
repute, named Sainte Croix (the holy cross). William was only seven or
eight years old when his father and mother resolved to take him
thither on a pilgrimage.[688] "The cross in that place," they told
him, "is made of the very wood on which Christ was crucified."

  [688] J'estoye fort petit et à peine je savoye lire. Ibid. p. 237. Le
  premier pélerinage auquel j'ay esté a esté à la saincte croix. Ibid.
  p. 233.

The family began their journey, and at last reached the highly
venerated cross, before which they all fell prostrate. After gazing
for a time on the sacred wood and the copper of the cross, the latter
being made (as the priest told them) of the basin in which Christ
washed his apostles' feet, the pilgrims turned their eyes to a small
crucifix attached to the cross: "When the devils send us hail and
thunder," continued the priest, "this crucifix moves about so
violently, that it seems to get loose from the cross, as if desirous
of running at the devil, and it continues throwing out sparks of fire
against the storm; if it were not for this, nothing would be left upon
earth."[689]

  [689] Ibid. p. 235-239.

The pious pilgrims were deeply moved by the account of these wonderful
prodigies. "No one," continued the priest, "sees or knows aught of
these things except myself and this man." The pilgrims turned their
heads, and saw a strange-looking person standing near them. "It was
frightful to look at him," said Farel.[690] White scales covered the
pupils of his eyes, "whether they were there in reality, or Satan only
made them appear so." This extraordinary man, whom the incredulous
denominated "the priest's wizard," on being appealed to by the latter,
immediately replied that the prodigy was true.[691]

  [690] Du vray usage de la croix, par Guillaume Farel, p. 237.

  [691] Ibid. p. 238.

[Sidenote: IMMORALITY AND SUPERSTITION.]

A new episode completed the picture by mingling a suspicion of
criminal disorders with these superstitions. "There came up a young
woman, intent on other devotion than that of the cross, carrying her
infant wrapped in a cloth. Then the priest went up, took hold of the
woman and child, and led them into the chapel. I may safely assert,
that never did dancer take a woman and lead her out more lovingly than
these two did. But such was our blindness, that neither their looks
nor their gestures, even when they had behaved in an unseemly manner
before us, appeared otherwise than good and holy. It was clear that
the woman and my gallant of a priest understood the miracle
thoroughly, and made it a cover to their intercourse."[692]

  [692] Ibid. p. 235.

Such is a faithful picture of religion and morals in France at the
commencement of the Reformation. Morality and belief were alike
poisoned, and both required a powerful renovation. The greater the
value attached to external works, the farther men were removed from
sanctification of heart; dead ordinances had been everywhere
substituted for a christian life, and a strange but not unnatural
union had taken place between the most scandalous debauchery and the
most superstitious devotion. Theft had been committed before the
altar, seduction practised in the confessional, poison mingled with
the consecrated elements, adultery perpetrated at the foot of the
cross. Superstition, by destroying belief, had destroyed morality.

[Sidenote: WILLIAM DESIRES TO STUDY.]

There were, however, numerous exceptions in the Christianity of the
middle ages. Even a superstitious faith might be sincere, and of this
William Farel is an example. The same zeal that afterwards urged him
to travel to so many different places to spread the knowledge of Jesus
Christ was at this time attracting him wherever the Church exhibited a
miracle or claimed any adoration. Dauphiny had its seven wonders,
which long possessed the power of striking the imagination of the
people.[693] But the beauties of nature that surrounded him had also
their influence in raising his soul to the Creator.

  [693] The burning spring, the cisterns of Sassenage, the manna of
  Briançon, &c.

The magnificent chain of the Alps, those summits covered with eternal
snow,--those vast rocks, here rearing their sharp peaks to heaven,
there stretching their immense and jagged ridges high above the
clouds, as if an island was suspended in the air;--all these wonders
of creation, which were at this time elevating the soul of Ulrich
Zwingle in the Tockenburg, were appealing also in mute but powerful
language to the heart of William Farel among the mountains of
Dauphiny. He thirsted for life, for knowledge, and for light;--he
aspired to be something great;--he asked permission to study.

This was a great blow to his father, who thought that a young noble
ought to know nothing beyond his rosary and his sword. At this time
fame was trumpeting the prowess of a young countryman of William
Farel's, a Dauphinese like himself, named Du Terrail, but better known
as Bayard, who at the battle of the Tar, on the other side of the
Alps, had just given a signal display of courage. "Such sons," it was
observed, "are like arrows in the hand of a strong man. Blessed is the
man that hath his quiver full of them!" Accordingly, Farel's father
opposed the taste which William manifested for learning. But the young
man was not to be shaken. God destined him for nobler conquests than
those of Bayard. He persevered in his entreaties, and the old
gentleman gave way at last.[694]

  [694] Cum a parentibus vix impetrassem ad literas concessum. (Farel,
  Natali Galeoto, 1527. MS. letters belonging to the consistory of
  Neufchatel.)

Farel immediately applied to study with surprising ardour. The masters
whom he found in Dauphiny were of little help to him, and he had to
contend with bad methods and the incapability of his teachers.[695]
These difficulties excited instead of discouraging him, and he soon
surmounted these obstacles. His brothers followed his example. Daniel
afterwards entered on the career of politics, and was employed in
important negotiations concerning religion.[696] Walter gained the
entire confidence of the Count of Furstemberg.

  [695] A præceptoribus præcipue in Latina lingua ineptissimis
  institutus. Farelli Epist.

  [696] Vie de Farel. MS. at Geneva.

[Sidenote: FAREL GOES TO PARIS.]

Farel, eager in the pursuit of knowledge, having learnt all that could
be acquired in his province, turned his eyes elsewhere. The renown of
the university of Paris had long filled the christian world. He
desired to see "this mother of all learning, this true lamp of the
Church which never knew eclipse, that clear and polished mirror of the
faith, dimmed by no cloud, and spotted by no touch."[697] He obtained
the permission of his parents, and set out for the capital of France.

  [697] Universitatem Parisiensem matrem omnium
  scientiarum......speculum fidei torsum et politum......Prima Apellat.
  Universit. an. 1396, Bulœus, iv. p. 806.

CHAPTER II.

     Louis XII. and the Assembly of Tours--Francis and
     Margaret--Learned Men--Lefevre--His Courses at the
     University--Meeting between Lefevre and Farel--Farel's
     Hesitation and Researches--First Awakening--Lefevre's
     Prophecy--Teaches Justification by
     Faith--Objections--Disorder of the Colleges--Effects on
     Farel--Election--Sanctification of Life.

[Sidenote: LOUIS XII.--FRANCIS AND MARGARET.]

One day in the year 1510, or shortly after, the young Dauphinese
arrived in Paris. The province had made him an ardent follower of the
papacy; the capital was to make him something very different. In
France the Reformation was not destined to go forth, as in Germany,
from a small city. All the movements that agitate the people proceed
from the metropolis. A concurrence of providential circumstances made
Paris, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, a focus whence a
spark of life might easily escape. The young man from the
neighbourhood of Gap, who arrived there humble and ignorant, was to
receive that spark in his heart, and many others with him.

Louis XII., the father of his people, had just convoked the
representatives of the French clergy to meet at Tours. This prince
seems to have anticipated the times of the Reformation; so that had
this great revolution taken place during his reign, the whole of
France might have become protestant. The assembly of Tours had
declared that the king possessed the right of waging war on the pope,
and of enforcing the decrees of the Council of Basle. These measures
were the object of general conversation in the colleges, the city, and
the court; and must have made a deep impression on the mind of young
Farel.

Two children were then growing up in the court of Louis XII. One was a
prince of tall stature, striking features, who showed little
moderation in his character, and followed blindly wherever his
passions led him; so that the king was in the habit of saying: "That
great boy will spoil all."[698] This was Francis of Angoulême, duke of
Valois, and cousin to the king. Boisy, his tutor, had taught him,
however, to honour literature.

  [698] Mezeray, vol. iv. 127.

By the side of Francis was his sister Margaret, his senior by two
years, "a princess," says Brantôme, "of great mind and ability, both
natural and acquired."[699] Accordingly, Louis had spared no pains in
her education, and the most learned men in the kingdom hastened to
acknowledge her as their patroness.

  [699] Brant., Dames illustres, p. 331.

Already, indeed, a group of illustrious men surrounded these two
Valois. William Budœus, a man giving the run to his passions, fond
of the chase, living only for his hawks, his horses, and his hounds,
on a sudden, at the age of twenty-three, had stopped short, sold his
hunting train, and applied himself to study with the zeal he had
formerly displayed in scouring the fields and forests with his
dogs;[700] the physician Cop, Francis Vatable, whose knowledge of
Hebrew was admired by the Jews themselves; James Tusan, a celebrated
Hellenist; and many others, encouraged by Stephen Poncher, bishop of
Paris, by Louis Ruzé, the civil lieutenant, and by Francis de Luynes,
and already protected by the two young Valois, resisted the violent
attacks of the Sorbonne, who looked upon the study of Greek and Hebrew
as the most deadly heresy. At Paris, as in Germany and Switzerland,
the restoration of sound doctrine was to be preceded by the revival of
letters. But in France the hands that thus prepared the materials were
not destined to construct the edifice.

  [700] His wife and sons came to Geneva in 1540, after his death.

[Sidenote: LEARNED MEN--LEFEVRE.]

Among all the doctors who then adorned the capital, was observed a man
of very diminutive stature, of mean appearance, and humble
origin,[701] whose intellect, learning, and powerful eloquence had an
indefinable attraction for all who heard him. His name was Lefevre;
and he was born about 1455 at Etaples, a village in Picardy. He had
received a rude, or as Theodore Beza calls it, a barbarous education;
but his genius had supplied the want of masters; and his piety,
learning, and nobility of soul, shone out with so much the brighter
lustre. He had travelled much, and it would appear that his desire of
acquiring knowledge had led him into Asia and Africa.[702] As early as
1493, Lefevre, then doctor of divinity, was professor in the
university of Paris. He immediately occupied a distinguished rank,
and, in the estimation of Erasmus, was the first.[703]

  [701] Homunculi unius neque genere insignis. Bezæ Icones.

  [702] In his Commentary on 2 Thessalonians ii. will be found a curious
  account of Mecca and its temple, furnished to him by some traveller.

  [703] Fabro, viro quo vix in multis millibus reperias vel integriorem
  vel humaniorem, says Erasmus. Epp. p. 174.

[Sidenote: LECTURES AT THE UNIVERSITY.]

Lefevre saw that he had a task to perform. Although attached to the
practices of the Romish Church, he resolved to attack the barbarism
then prevailing in the university;[704] he began to teach the various
branches of philosophy with a clearness hitherto unknown. He
endeavoured to revive the study of languages and learned antiquity. He
went farther than this; he perceived that, as regards a work of
regeneration, philosophy and learning are insufficient. Abandoning,
therefore, scholasticism, which for so many ages had reigned supreme
in the schools, he returned to the Bible, and revived in Christendom
the study of the Holy Scriptures and evangelical learning. He did not
devote his time to dry researches, he went to the heart of the Bible.
His eloquence, his candour, his amiability, captivated all hearts.
Serious and fervent in the pulpit, he indulged in a sweet familiarity
with his pupils. "He loves me exceedingly," wrote Glarean, one of
their number, to his friend Zwingle. "Full of candour and kindness, he
often sings, prays, disputes, and laughs at the follies of the world
with me."[705] Accordingly, a great number of disciples from every
country sat at his feet.

  [704] Barbariem nobilissimæ academiæ......incumbentem detrudi. Beza
  Icones.

  [705] Supra modum me amat totus integer et candidus, mecum cantillat,
  ludit, disputat, ridet mecum. Zw. Epp. p. 26.

[Sidenote: FAREL'S DEVOTION TO THE POPE.]

This man, with all his learning, submitted with the simplicity of a
child to every observance of the Church. He passed as much time in the
churches as in his study, so that a close union seemed destined to
unite the aged doctor of Picardy and the young scholar of Dauphiny.
When two natures so similar as these meet together, though it be
within the wide circuit of a capital, they tend to draw near each
other. In his pious pilgrimages, young Farel soon noticed an aged man,
and was struck by his devotion. He prostrated himself before the
images, and remained long on his knees, praying with fervour and
devoutly repeating his hours. "Never," said Farel, "never had I seen a
chanter of the mass sing it with greater reverence."[706] This man was
Lefevre. William Farel immediately desired to become acquainted with
him; and could not restrain his joy when he found himself kindly
received by this celebrated man. William had gained his object in
coming to the capital. From that time his greatest pleasure was to
converse with the doctor of Etaples, to listen to him, to hear his
admirable lessons, and to kneel with him devoutly before the same
shrines. Often might the aged Lefevre and his young disciple be seen
adorning an image of the Virgin with flowers; and alone, far from all
Paris, far from its scholars and its doctors, they murmured in concert
the fervent prayers they offered up to Mary.[707]

  [706] Ep. de Farel à tous seigneurs, peuples et pasteurs.

  [707] Floribus jubebat Marianum idolum, dum una soli murmuraremus
  preces Marianas ad idolum, ornari. Farel to Pellican, anno 1556.

Farel's attachment to Lefevre was noticed by many. The respect felt
towards the old doctor was reflected on his young disciple. This
illustrious friendship drew the Dauphinese from his obscurity. He soon
acquired a reputation for zeal; and many devout rich persons in Paris
intrusted him with various sums of money intended for the support of
the poorer students.[708]

  [708] Geneva MS.

Some time elapsed ere Lefevre and his disciple arrived at a clear
perception of the truth. It was not the hope of a rich benefice or a
propensity to a dissolute life which bound Farel to the pope; those
vulgar ties were not made for souls like his. To him the pope was the
visible head of the Church, a sort of deity, by whose commandments
souls might be saved. Whenever he heard any one speaking against this
highly venerated pontiff, he would gnash his teeth like a furious
wolf, and would have called down lightning from heaven "to overwhelm
the guilty wretch with utter ruin and confusion."--"I believe," said
he, "in the cross, in pilgrimages, images, vows, and relics. What the
priest holds in his hands, puts into the box, and there shuts it up,
eats, and gives others to eat, is my only true God, and to me there is
no other, either in heaven or upon earth."[709]--"Satan," says he in
another place, "had so lodged the pope, the papacy, and all that is
his in my heart, that even the pope had not so much of it in himself."

  [709] Ep. de Farel. A tous seigneurs, &c.

[Sidenote: HESITATION AND INQUIRY--FIRST AWAKENING.]

Thus, the more Farel appeared to seek God, the more his piety decayed
and superstition increased in his soul; everything was going from bad
to worse. He has himself described this condition in energetic
language:[710] "Alas! how I shudder at myself and at my faults," said
he, "when I think upon it; and how great and wonderful a work of God
it is, that man should ever have been dragged from such an abyss!"

  [710] Quo plus pergere et promovere adnitebar, eo amplius
  retrocedebam. Farellus Galeoto, MS. Letters at Neufchatel.

From this abyss he emerged only by degrees. He had at first studied
the profane authors; his piety finding no food there, he began to
meditate on the lives of the saints; infatuated as he was before,
these legends only made him still more so.[711] He then attached
himself to several doctors of the age; but as he had gone to them in
wretchedness, he left them more wretched still. At last he began to
study the ancient philosophers, and expected to learn from Aristotle
how to be a Christian; again his hopes were disappointed. Books,
images, relics, Aristotle, Mary, and the saints--all proved
unavailing. His ardent soul wandered from one human wisdom to another,
without finding the means of allaying its burning thirst.

  [711] Quæ de sanctis conscripta offendebam, verum ex stulto insanum
  faciebant. Farellus Galeoto, MS. Letters at Neufchatel.

Meantime the pope, allowing the writings of the Old and New Testaments
to be called _The Holy Bible_, Farel began to read them, as Luther had
done in the cloister at Erfurth; he was amazed[712] at seeing that
everything upon earth was different from what is taught in the
Scriptures. Perhaps he was on the point of reaching the truth, but on
a sudden a thicker darkness plunged him into another abyss. "Satan
came suddenly upon me," said he, "that he might not lose his prize,
and dealt with me according to his custom."[713] A terrible struggle
between the Word of God and the word of the Church then took place in
his heart. If he met with any passages of Scripture opposed to the
Romish practices, he cast down his eyes, blushed, and dared not
believe what he read.[714] "Alas!" said he, fearing to keep his looks
fixed on the Bible, "I do not well understand these things; I must
give a very different meaning to the Scriptures from that which they
seem to have. I must keep to the interpretation of the Church, and
indeed of the pope."

  [712] Farel. A tous seigneurs, &c.

  [713] Ibid.

  [714] Oculos demittens, visis non credebam. Farellus Natali Galeoto.

[Sidenote: THE PANTHEON--LEFEVRE'S PROPHECY.]

One day, as he was reading the Bible, a doctor who happened to come in
rebuked him sharply. "No man," said he, "ought to read the Holy
Scriptures before he has learnt philosophy and taken his degree in
arts." This was a preparation the apostles had not required; but Farel
believed him. "I was," says he, "the most wretched of men, shutting my
eyes lest I should see."[715]

  [715] Oculos a luce avertebam. Farellus Natali Galeoto.

From that time the young Dauphinese had a return to his Romish
fervour. The legends of the saints inflamed his imagination. The
greater the severity of the monastic rules, the greater was the
attraction he felt towards them. In the midst of the woods near Paris,
some Carthusians inhabited a group of gloomy cells; he visited them
with reverence, and shared in their austerities. "I was wholly
employed, day and night, in serving the devil," said he, "after the
fashion of that man of sin, the pope. I had my Pantheon in my heart,
and such a troop of mediators, saviours, and gods, that I might well
have passed for a papal register."

The darkness could not grow deeper; the morning star was soon to
arise, and it was destined to appear at Lefevre's voice. There were
already some gleams of light in the doctor of Etaples; an inward
conviction told him that the Church could not long remain in its
actual position; and often, at the very moment of his return from
saying mass, or of rising from before some image, the old man would
turn towards his youthful disciple, and grasping him by the hand would
say in a serious tone of voice: "My dear William, God will renew the
world, and you will see it!"[716] Farel did not thoroughly understand
these words. Yet Lefevre did not confine himself to this mysterious
language; a great change which was then wrought in him, was destined
to produce a similar effect on his disciple.

  [716] A tous seigneurs.--See also his letter to Pellican. Ante annos
  plus minus quadraginta, me manu apprehensum ita alloquebatur:
  "Gulielme, oportet orbem immutari et tu videbis!"

[Sidenote: THE LEGENDS AND THE WORD OF GOD.]

The old doctor was engaged in a laborious task; he was carefully
collecting the legends of the saints and martyrs, and arranging them
according to the order in which their names are found in the
calendar. Two months had already been printed, when one of those beams
of light which come from heaven, suddenly illuminated his soul. He
could not resist the disgust which such puerile superstitions must
ever cause in the heart of a Christian. The sublimity of the Word of
God made him perceive the paltry nature of these fables. They now
appeared to him no better than "brimstone fit to kindle the fire of
idolatry."[717] He abandoned his work, and throwing these legends
aside, turned ardently towards the Holy Scriptures. At the moment when
Lefevre, quitting the wondrous tales of the saints, laid his hand on
the Word of God, a new era began in France, and is the commencement of
the Reformation.

  [717] A tous seigneurs, peuples et pasteurs.

In effect, Lefevre, weaned from the fables of the Breviary, began to
study the Epistles of St. Paul; the light increased rapidly in his
heart, and he immediately imparted to his disciples that knowledge of
the truth which we find in his commentaries.[718] Strange doctrines
were those for the school and for the age, which were then first heard
in Paris, and disseminated by the press throughout the christian
world. We may easily understand that the young disciples who listened
to them were aroused, impressed, and changed by them; and that thus,
prior to the year 1512, the dawn of a brighter day was preparing for
France.

  [718] The first edition of his Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul
  is, if I mistake not, that of 1512. A copy is extant in the
  Bibliothèque Royale of Paris. The second edition is that from which I
  quote. The learned Simon says (Observations on the New Testament),
  that "James Lefevre deserves to be ranked among the most skilful
  commentators of the age." We should give him greater praise than this.

[Sidenote: JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH--OBJECTIONS.]

The doctrine of justification by faith, which overthrew by a single
blow the subtleties of the schoolmen and the observances of popery,
was boldly proclaimed in the bosom of the Sorbonne. "It is God alone,"
said the doctor, and the vaulted roofs of the university must have
been astonished as they re-echoed such strange sounds, "it is God
alone, who by his grace, through faith, justifies unto everlasting
life.[719] There is a righteousness of works, there is a
righteousness of grace; the one cometh from man, the other from God;
one is earthly and passeth away, the other is heavenly and eternal;
one is the shadow and the sign, the other the light and the truth; one
makes sin known to us that we may escape death, the other reveals
grace that we may obtain life."[720]

  [719] Solus enim Deus est qui hanc justitiam per fidem tradit, qui
  sola gratia ad vitam justificat æternam. Fabri Comm. in Epp. Pauli, p.
  70.

  [720] Illa umbratile vestigium atque signum, hæc lux et veritas est.
  Fabri Comm. in Epp. Pauli, p. 70.

"What then!" asked his hearers, as they listened to this teaching,