years there were influences actively at work, which not only determined the course of the Reformation, but eventually led to much doctrinal divergence among Protestants. Chief among these influences were the teachings and labours of Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland. At a very early period Zwingli had been attracted by Luther's teachings; but he was led by independent study of the Scriptures to different conclusions on some important points. At a great religious conference at Zurich in 1523, the Swiss Reformer had propounded sixty-seven Theses, or, as he termed them, Conclusions, which, like the Theses of Luther at Wittenberg six years previously, rather opened the way for further discussion than attempted any complete syllabus of doctrine. They went, however, considerably farther than Luther in their divergence from traditional belief, and were the herald of a greater Reformation than his. In Luther's Theses the chief topics were sin, repentance, and forgiveness; Zwingli's Conclusions are 'full of Christ as the only Saviour and Mediator, and recognise the Scriptures as the only rule of faith.' 'The Sum of the Gospel,' the Swiss Reformer declares, 'is that our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Son of God,

has made known to us the will of His heavenly Father, and redeemed us by His innocence from eternal death, and reconciled us to God.' And again, 'Christ is the Head of all believers.' 'All Head are His members, and

who live in this

children of God.

And this is the true Catholic

Church, the Communion of Saints.'

Once more,

Christ, who offered Himself once upon the Cross, is the sufficient and perpetual Sacrifice for the sins of all believers. Therefore the Mass is no

sacrifice, but a commemoration of the one Sacrifice of the Cross, and a seal of the redemption through Christ.' In this last Article, especially, Zwingli definitely broke with the teaching of Luther, who, to the last, maintained a real presence of our Lord's Body and Blood in the Eucharist, although in a different way than that maintained by Romish theologians. But the Swiss Reformer gained enthusiastic adherents, especially Ecolampadius and Martin Bucer, who maintained the same positions in the Ten Articles of Berne, prepared after an animated discussion with the representative of the Papacy, Dr. Martin Eck. The promulgation of these views, it must be confessed, alarmed and grieved the German reformers even

more than they irritated the Romanists. Melanchthon himself, with all his large-heartedness, could not understand Zwingli; and he especially feared that the opinions of the Swiss Reformer on the Sacraments would hopelessly injure the Protestant

cause.

Once only during their Zwingli meet face to face.

career did Luther and This was at Marburg, of Frankfurt, in 1529,

in Cassel, fifty miles north the year of the Catechisms. Luther was accompanied by Melanchthon, Zwingli by Ecolampadius. Long was the conference, conducted at first in private and by pairs, Zwingli being matched with Melanchthon, Ecolampadius with Luther. It was feared, perhaps, that if the two principals confronted each other, their strong wills and fiery tempers might lead to some disastrous issue. A more general conference ensued after the ground had been thus broken; and the points at issue were debated before a great assembly. As might have been expected, the disputants remained of the same opinion still. In the preliminary debate Luther had chalked in large letters, on the table where he and his antagonist sat, Hoc est corpus meum, 'This is My body,' putting his finger

down emphatically on the word est; and from his literal interpretation of the saying he could not be moved. Melanchthon thought that Zwingli must be out of his mind! After the general discussion Zwingli offered Luther his hand; I am sorry to say that Luther refused it. 'No,' he said, 'you have another spirit.' Afterwards, however, he seems to have relented, and the upshot of the conference was the drafting of fourteen articles 1 on which the combatants could agree the fif teenth being left undetermined;2 thus—

1

XV. (1) That the Eucharist should be received in both kinds.

1

(2) That the sacrifice of the Mass is inadmis

sible.

(3) That the Sacrament of the Altar is a

sacrament of the Body and Blood of

Christ, and that the partaking of it is salutary.

I. The Trinity; 2. Incarnation of Christ; 3. Birth, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ; 4. Original Sin (but with a difference between the two Reformers); 5. Redemption; 6, 7. Justification by Faith; 8. Operation of the Holy Ghost through the written Word and the Sacraments; 9. Baptism; 10. Good works as the fruit of Faith; II. Confession and Absolution; 12. Civil Authority; 13. Tradition; 14. Necessity of Infant Baptism.

2 See Hagenbach, History of the Reformation (Clark's ed.), vol. ii. p. 107.

'And although,' it was further stated, 'we are not at this time agreed as to whether the true Body and Blood of Christ are physically present in the Bread and Wine, we recommend that either party manifest a Christian love to the other, to the extent that the conscience of every man shall permit, and that both parties entreat God Almighty to confirm us by His Spirit in the right doctrine. Amen.' It is pleasant to think that Luther and Zwingli parted thus. There was a Christian magnanimity in this concord of those two strong souls which may commend the example to controversialists everywhere, and which at the time augured well for the progress and success of the Reformation.

In the meantime, preparations were in active progress for the solemn consideration of the points at issue between the Reformers and the Romanists, at a specially convened Diet or Assembly of the States of the German Empire. The Emperor Charles V. had been crowned by the Pope in September, and now made it his first business to convoke this diet, in the Bavarian city of Augsburg, for two purposes. First, to deliberate concerning the Turkish power, the incursions of which