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XIV.

Religious

country.

of heroic conflicts, the liberty of the whole Helvetic Confederation was established.1

It is obvious that, in such a country as this, the reformation might proceed without encountering any such powerful opponents as it had to contend with in Germany. Shut up within their own mountains, and each state free and independent within itself, the people had little to fear from either the pope or the emperor, or from any one but the members of their own union; whose powers were so equally balanced or duly checked as to excite in them little apprehension of danger.

Of the religious condition of Switzerland prestate of the viously to the reformation, and of the necessity which existed there for that great moral revolution, a sufficiently correct judgment may be formed, from the account which has been given of the state of Christendom in general at that period.2 "The church of Rome, at the commencement of the sixteenth century," says Ruchat, in the opening of his history of the Swiss Reformation," had attained such a height of grandeur and power, that it seemed impossible that it should he disturbed. Especially in Switzerland any change of religion appeared hopeless, both on account of the strict alliance which subsisted with the pope, and of the extreme ignorance and corruption which prevailed. But

See "Travels in Switzerland" in the years 1776, 1779, 1785, 1786, by the late Archdeacon Coxe: a work replete with interest and information on every subject-save that of religion. When I speak of the present state of Switzerland, I in general refer to nothing more recent than the date of these travels. I trust the reader may find the information collected in the above paragraph useful for reference in various parts of the succeeding history.

Milner, vol. iv. first chapter on the Reformation.

it is in such circumstances," he piously adds, "that God is pleased to work, that all the glory may be given to him. His sanctity could not permit him longer to tolerate the frightful excess of disorder which reigned in the churches of Europe, where the Creator seemed to be entirely forgotten, and creatures substituted in his place. But God," he proceeds, "must have his true worshippers, who shall worship him in spirit and in truth: and hence he raised up at this time, in almost all the states of Europe, (Italy itself not excepted,) pious, learned, and illustrious men, animated with a noble zeal for the glory of God and the good of his church. These great men rose up all at once, as if by concert, though actually without any previous communication, against the dominant errors; and by their constancy and resolution, accompanied by the blessing of heaven, happily succeeded in drawing forth the light of the gospel from under the vessel which had covered it, and in effecting a reformation of the church." 1

A. D. 1516.

of the

Zwingle, though he was the great apostle of Precursors the Swiss reformation, had had some precursors, reformawho in a measure prepared his way, like the tion. star that is the harbinger of the rising sun. Of these, as the accounts we have of them are brief and jejune, it may suffice to mention John Geiler, surnamed, from the place where he was brought up, Cæsaremontanus, or Keiserberger, and Thomas Wyttenbach. The former was a native of Schaffhausen, born in 1445, who "sowed," we are told, "the seeds of divine truth at Strasburg, for thirty-three years together, from 1477 to 1510, in such a manner as

1 Ruchat refers back to his Preliminary Discourse on the necessity which existed for the Reformation.

CHAP.
XIV.

Wyttenbach.

Early history of

Zwingle.

not so much to have prepared the way of reformation, as actually to have reformed the church of that city." He appears to have been held in high veneration for his sanctity and wisdom: and on this account he was treated with great kindness, and even familiarity, by the emperor Maximilian. Wyttenbach was of a noble family at Bienne, and was born there in 1472. He was professor of divinity, first at Tübingen, and afterwards at Basle, and finally became pastor of his native town. At Basle, he had Zwingle, Leo Jude, and others who bore an important part in the work of reformation, for his pupils. Leo Jude commemorates him as a man "accomplished in all kinds of learning, as well as in the knowledge of the sacred scriptures, so that he was esteemed the phenix of his age. And from him," he says, "both Zwingle and myself derived whatever sound knowledge we have possessed." Zwingle also says of him, that from him he had first learned that Jesus Christ is made of God unto us righteousness, and the satisfaction for the sins of the world." He publicly disputed in the divinity schools against indulgences, and for the liberty of marriage to the clergy; and maintained" that the death of Christ is the only ransom of our souls."2 As he lived to see his pupils carrying on successfully the great work of reformation, and to animate and cooperate with them in it, he will again claim our notice in the course of the following history. We proceed to Zwingle himself.

66

Ulric Zwingle was born January 1, 1484,3 in 1 Mel. Adam, i. 3-6. Gerdes, i. 100.

Gerd. i. 100, 101. Ruchat, i. 1, 127-8.

3 Some have said, 1487; but, in his treatise De Religione, he states himself to be in his 42d year in 1525. Opera, ii. 202 (b).

2

A. D. 1516.

the county of Tockenburg, a dependency of the abbey of S. Gallen, at a place which, from its rude and mountainous situation, was called Wildenhaus. His father was of a respectable rank in life, having been chief magistrate of the district in which he lived. Our reformer is said to have been principally brought up, till he was ten years of age, with his uncle, an ecclesiastic, who held the office of a rural dean, and was a man of learning and probity.' He afterwards studied successively at Basle, Berne, Vienna, and then again at Basle. His removal to Vienna appears to have been occasioned by the attempts made by the Dominicans, at Berne, to induce him to join their order; which was contrary to his father's wishes. During his second residence at Basle, he was a teacher of others, as well as a learner himself. From his earliest years he appears to have been the favourite of his masters, all of whom were captivated alike with his genius, and with the promising dispositions which he displayed. After having gone through his course of theology under Wyttenbach, and taken the degree of master of arts, he was called to the pastoral charge of the town He becomes of Glaris, in the year 1506. His tutor Wytten- pastor of bach, it seems, used subsequently to regret having wasted so much precious time, both his own and that of his pupils, on the frivolous refinements of scholastic philosophy and divinity. Zwingle kindly told him, that it was useless now to regret it; it was the misfortune of the times; and that they might be thankful for having been delivered from it, and must caution others, but

1 Beausobre, Hist. de la Ref. i. 249.

2 Hess, Life of Zwingle, from Bullinger. Beausob. i.249.

Glaris.

1506.

CHAP.
XIV.

His study of the

could not themselves undo what was past. At Glaris he spent ten years: and during that time, especially, acquired his preparation for all that he afterwards achieved. Here it pleased God gradually to open his eyes to the disorders and corruptions of the church. Becoming sensible, likewise, that the most obvious and most necessary step towards a just acquaintance with divine truth is the diligent study of the scriptures; he, in order to that, resolved to apply himself to the scriptures. original languages-for hitherto, it would seem, he was a proficient only in the Latin tongue. A most interesting manuscript still exists in the library of Zuric-a copy of all S. Paul's Epistles, in the original Greek, with numerous annotations from the principal fathers, which Zwingle wrote out with his own hand, and then committed entire to memory.' He afterwards pursued the same course with respect to the other books of the New Testament. His friend Oswald Myconius, in his brief narrative concerning him, beautifully describes the devout conduct of his studies at this time. "After he had learned from Peter, that scripture is not of private interpretation, he directed his eyes upward to heaven, seeking the Spirit for his teacher; supplicating, in earnest prayer, to be taught in what manner best to search out the sense of the divine mind." He did not however confine himself to the inspired writers, or to authors approved by the church; he read the works of Ratramn, or Bertram, who taught the primitive doctrine of the sacrament, to the exclusion of transubstantiation; and those also of Wycliffe and of

"At the end is written an inscription in the Greek tongue, signifying, Copied by Ulric Zwingle, 1514." Coxe, Letter 9.

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