CHAP. could not have arisen, much less have been foreseen, except from the badness of the cause which his opponents had to maintain, or from their mismanagement of it. Unless for one or both of these reasons, the event might have been the very reverse of what is assumed in this argument. It can never be shewn that Zwingle lay under no necessity of publicly vindicating himself from the aspersions cast upon both his character and his doctrines: or that he was not goaded into this measure, as he professes himself to have been, for that purpose.-Nor can it be said, that he did not bring the case fairly to issue. The meeting was publicly proclaimed to all the world, and none were excluded from it: umpires of unimpeachable character and authority presided: competent advocates were, or might have been, present on one side as well as on the other: every encouragement was given, and sufficiently pointed challenges were addressed, to the accusers of the reformer to prefer their charges: no complaint of unfair dealing was or could be alleged: yet the attempt was scarcely made to defend the papal doctrines, or to impugn those which were opposed to themthough the consequences of such omission, both to the one side and to the other, must have been obvious. As to insulting the bishop through his representatives; when the discussion was proposed by Zwingle and appointed by the government of Zuric, it must have been deemed improbable, rather than the contrary, that they should be present. Faber, indeed, and his colleagues could not be expected to take the part of disputants; and, in the complaints urged against them for not doing this by some of the historians, I conceive they have not been fairly treated: they must be considered rather as assessors with the council in hearing the cause, than as parties committed in it: but surely it shewed an extraordinary sense of weakness on that side of the question, that none could be found to maintain it against the reformers.-If the whole were an artifice of Zwingle's, how came it to escape the detection of his many, and powerful, and sagacious adversaries? Why was he suffered so completely to out-general the bishop, the papacy, and all its adherents? A. D. 1523. Decree, The decree promulgated by the council must Remarks not pass without a remark. It may be consi- on the dered as a model of what is to be approved on such an occasion. It offers no shadow of violence to any man's conscience: it ordains no pains, no penalties on a religious account. No penalties at all are enacted, except for a breach of the peace, or what directly tends to break it: and these are to be awarded with an equal hand to both parties alike. Zwingle is merely to be protected in going on to preach the word of God as he had heretofore done: by that word he is to defend himself, and by it he is to stand or fall.' tion. Indeed the whole scene before us must be and on the acknowledged to be striking and extraordinary. DisputaThe supreme power of the state, and that in times yet papal, convoking such an assembly; itself presiding at the religious discussion, and taking so great interest in the question at issue; yet exercising such perfect abstinence from all 1 Let it not be thought that I here express sentiments unfavourable to ecclesiastical establishments. Zwingle lived and laboured under such an establishment, which provided instruction for the people, and maintenance for their instructors. The conduct of the government towards those who differed from him, and from it, is the only subject here under consideration. CHAP. XVI. Animosity authoritative interference with religion, as the decree manifests: all this seems nearly without parallel. Little discussion, it is true, took place on this occasion-evidently for no other reason but because the papal advocates dared not enter into debate: yet it was impossible that the proceeding should not be attended with important consequences. The publicity of the transaction; the number and respectability of the parties who attended; the loud and repeated calls made, but without effect, upon the adversaries of the reformation to avow and defend their opinions; the exclusive appeal to the authority of scripture, made on the one side, and declined by the other: these and numerous other obvious facts could not but make a strong impression, which the persons who had been present would, on their return home, propagate even to distant parts. Popery, it was here clearly ascertained, had no foundation in scripture to stand upon; nothing, which could bear examination, to be urged in its support. Henceforward the reformation, as far at least as Zuric was concerned, was not the mere work of individuals, connived at but not sanctioned; Zwingle was expressly encouraged to proceed in his work, with the avowed countenance of the state. But, proportioned to the confirmation which these events gave to the reformed, was the vexation which they occasioned to their opponents. Faber, chagrined as might have been expected, wrote to a friend, "You expect news from me: I have none to send you which may be relied on, except that there is another Luther rising up at Zuric, who is more formidable than the other in proportion as the character of the people A. D. 1523. is more untractable. Against him I am compelled, whether I will or not, and indeed sorely against my will, to draw my pen-as you will shortly see in a book in which I prove the mass to be a sacrifice."1 He demanded of Zwingle to explain his sixty-seven Articles more at large, (ás the reformer had expressed his intention of doing,) that he might know how to meet them. But this only tended still further to hurt his cause, as it led Zwingle to publish the copious "Exposition of the Articles," which occupies the first place in his printed works, and Faber never gave his promised answer to them.2 The bishop of Constance complained bitterly to the cantons at large of the proceedings at Zuric: and he and the pope's legate, Ennius, are said to have employed their emissaries to take off Zwingle, if the opportunity could be found of doing it without too great a risk.3 Incessant calumnies were spread against the reformer; and he was formally accused to the cantons assembled at Baden. The charge there alleged against him was, that he had publicly said that the Swiss sold the blood of Christian people, and ate their flesh!' This absurd accusation arose from the form in which, alluding to the prosecution of people for eating flesh in lent, he had put his censure of the hired military services. He justified himself in a printed paper addressed to the diet again assembled at Berne; in which he renewed the explanation of his doctrines, and entreated the Cantons not to obstruct the preaching of the gospel. They however July. 1 J. H. Hott. vi. 229. 2 Zuing. Op. fo. 3—109. Ru. i. 173. Gerd. i. 287. 3 Ru. i. 173. Gerd. i. 285, 287. CHAP. Decree of Berne, June 15. ordered, that he should be seized wherever he could be found.'-Alluding to the dangers which he was told surrounded him after the disputation of Zuric, he writes to Steiner of Zug, April 14th, "If I had been to be frighted by plots formed against me, I should never have taken up the office of preaching the gospel in the manner I have done. I say this, not to boast myself, but to set your mind at ease respecting me."2 In Berne we may probably trace the effect of the discussion of Zuric. The supreme council, a few months after, taking into consideration the height to which controversy was carried the preachers undertaking to confute one another from the pulpit, and the minds of the people being in consequence much agitated issued an edict, enjoining that "the ministers, both in town and country, should preach the gospel freely, fully, and clearly, but should take care to deliver nothing which they did not feel well assured that they could prove from the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament." 3 This was, in fact, recognizing the grand principle of the reformation; and must have been felt, both by one party and the other, to be a measure of great importance in that age; while it was, at the same time, so general and so temperate, that none could reasonably complain of it. This was considered as the first public step taken at Berne towards the reformation, which was in the event so successfully established there. It was soon followed by others. Haller having held a conference on the subject of reli Ru. i. 175-6. Gerd. i. 288. Zuing. Op. i, 147, 148. 2 Ec. et. Z. Epist. 184 (b). 3 Ru. i. 176-7. Gerd. ii. 233. |