History of the Great Reformation Part 68

[1213] Welche redlicher Eidgnossen wart sind, die louffind uns nach.

(Bull. iii. p. 125.)

[1214] Sa.s.s ylends wiederum uff sin Ross. (Tschudi, Helv. ii. p. 191.)

[1215] Zertheilt die Hagken hinter die Baum im Wald in grosser Stille (Tschudi, Helv. ii. p. 191.)

VIII. The Zurichers, fearing that the enemy would seize upon the road that led to their capital, were then directing part of their troops and their guns to a low hill by which it was commanded. At the very moment that the invisible arquebusiers stationed among the beech trees were taking their aim, this detachment pa.s.sed near the little wood.

The deepest silence prevails in this solitude: each one posted there picks out the man he desires to bring down, and Jauch exclaims: "In the name of the Holy Trinity--of G.o.d the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost--of the Holy Mother of G.o.d, and of all the heavenly host--fire!"

At the word the deadly b.a.l.l.s issue from the wood, and a murderous carnage in the ranks of Zurich follows this terrible discharge. The battle, which had begun four hours ago, and which had never appeared to be a serious attack, now underwent an unforeseen change. The sword was not again to be returned to the scabbard until it had been bathed in torrents of blood. Those of the Zurichers who had not fallen at this first discharge, lie flat on the ground, so that the b.a.l.l.s pa.s.s over their heads; but they soon spring up, saying: "Shall we allow ourselves to be butchered? No! let us rather attack the enemy!"

Lavater seizes a lance, and rushing into the foremost rank exclaims: "Soldiers, uphold the honour of G.o.d and of our lords, and behave like brave men!" Zwingle, silent and collected, like nature before the bursting of the tempest, was there also halberd in hand. "Master Ulric," said Bernard Sprungli, "speak to the people and encourage them." "Warriors!" said Zwingle, "fear nothing. If we are this day to be defeated, still our cause is good. Commend yourselves to G.o.d!"

The Zurichers quickly turn the artillery they were dragging to another quarter, and point it against the wood; but their bullets, instead of striking the enemy, only reach the top of the trees, and tear off a few branches that fall upon the skirmishers.[1216]

[1216] Denn das die Aest auf sie fielent (Tschudi, p. 182.)

Rychmuth, the landamman of Schwytz, came up at a gallop to recall the volunteers; but seeing the battle begun, he ordered the whole army to advance. Immediately the five banners moved forward.

[Sidenote: BATTLE OF CAPPEL.]

But already Jauch's skirmishers, rushing from among the trees, had fallen impetuously upon the Zurichers, charging with their long and pointed halberds. "Heretics! sacrilegists!" cried they, "we have you at last!"--"Man-sellers, idolaters, impious Papists!" replied the Zurichers, "is it really you?" At first a shower of stones fell from both parties and wounded several; immediately they come to close quarters. The resistance of the Zurichers was terrible.[1217] Each struck with the sword or with the halberd: at last the soldiers of the Five Cantons were driven back in disorder. The Zurichers advanced, but in so doing lost the advantages of their position, and got entangled in the marsh. Some Roman-catholic historians pretend that this flight of their troops was a stratagem to draw the Zurichers into the snare.[1218]

[1217] Der angriff war hart und wahrt der Wiederstand ein gute Wyl.

(Tschudi, p. 192.)

[1218] Catholici autem, positis insidiis, retrocesserunt, fugam simulantes. (Cochlus, Acta Luth. p. 214.)

In the mean time the army of the Five Cantons hasten through the wood.

Burning with courage and with anger, they eagerly quicken their steps; from the midst of the beech-trees there resounded a confused and savage noise--a frightful murmur; the ground shook; one might have said that the forest was uttering a horrible roar, or that witches were holding their nocturnal revels.[1219] In vain do the bravest of the Zurichers offer an intrepid resistance: the Waldstettes have the advantage in every quarter. "They are surrounding us," cried some.

"Our men are fleeing," said others. A man from the canton of Zug mingling with the Zurichers, and pretending to be of their party, exclaims: "Fly, fly, brave Zurichers, you are betrayed!" Thus everything is against Zurich. Even the hand of Him who is the disposer of battles, turns against this people. Thus was it also in times of old that G.o.d frequently chastised his own people of Israel by the a.s.syrian sword. A panic terror seizes upon the bravest, and the disorder spreads everywhere with frightful rapidity.

[1219] Der Boden erzittert; und nit anders war, denn als ob der Wald lut bruelete. (Tschudi, p. 123.)

[Sidenote: THE BANNER IN DANGER.]

In the meanwhile the aged Schweizer had raised the great banner with a firm hand, and all the picked men of Zurich were drawn up around it; but soon their ranks were thinned. John Kammli, charged with the defence of the standard, having observed the small number of combatants that remained upon the field of battle, said to the banneret: "Let us lower the banner, my lord, and save it, for our people are flying shamefully:"--"Warriors, remain firm," replied the aged banneret, whom no danger had ever shaken. The disorder augmented--the number of fugitives increased every minute; the old man stood fast, amazed and immoveable as an aged oak beaten by a frightful hurricane. He received unflinchingly the blows that fell upon him, and alone resisted the terrible storm. Kammli seized him by the arm: "My lord," said he again, "lower the banner, or else we shall lose it: there is no more glory to be reaped here!" The banneret, who was already mortally wounded, exclaimed: "Alas! must the city of Zurich be so punished!" Then, dragged off by Kammli, who held him by the arm, he retreated as far as the ditch. The weight of years, and the wounds with which he was covered, did not permit him to cross it. He fell in the mire at the bottom, still holding the glorious standard, whose folds dropped on the other bank.

The enemy ran up with loud shouts, being attracted by the colours of Zurich, as the bull by the gladiator's flag. Kammli seeing this, unhesitatingly leaps to the bottom of the ditch, and lays hold of the stiff and dying hands of his chief, in order to preserve the precious ensign, which they tightly grasped. But it is in vain; the hands of the aged Schweizer will not loose the standard. "My lord banneret!"

cried this faithful servant, "it is no longer in your power to defend it." The hands of the banneret, already stiffened in death, still refuse; upon which Kammli violently tears away the sacred standard, leaps upon the other bank, and rushes with his treasure far from the steps of the enemy. The last Zurichers at this moment reach the ditch, they fall one after another upon the expiring banneret, and thus hasten his death.

[Sidenote: THE BANNER SAVED.]

Kammli, however, having received a wound from a gunshot, his march was r.e.t.a.r.ded, and soon the Waldstettes surround him with their swords. The Zuricher, holding the banner in one hand, and his sword in the other, defends himself bravely. One of the Waldstettes catches hold of the staff--another seizes the flag itself and tears it. Kammli with one blow of his sword cuts down the former, and striking around him, calls out: "To the rescue, brave Zurichers! save the honour and the banner of our lords." The a.s.sailants increase in number, and the warrior is about to fall, when Adam Naeff of Wollenwyd rushes up sword in hand, and the head of the Waldstette who had torn the colours rolls upon the plain, and his blood gushes out upon the flag of Zurich. Dumysen, member of the Smaller Council, supports Naeff with his halberd, and both deal such l.u.s.ty blows, that they succeed in disengaging the standard-bearer. He, although dangerously wounded, springs forward, holding the blood-stained folds of the banner in one hand, which he carries off hastily, dragging the staff behind him. With fierce look and fiery eye, he thus pa.s.ses sword in hand through the midst of friends and enemies: he crosses plains, woods, and marshes, everywhere leaving traces of his blood, which flows from numerous wounds. Two of his enemies, one from Schwytz, the other from Zug--were particularly eager in his pursuit. "Heretic! villain!" cried they, "surrender and give us the banner."--"You shall have my life first," replied the Zuricher. Then the two hostile soldiers, who were embarra.s.sed by their cuira.s.ses, stopped a moment to take them off. Kammli took advantage of this to get in advance: he ran; Huber, Dumysen, and Dantzler of Naenikon were at his side. They all four thus arrived near Husen, half-way up the Albis. They had still to climb the steepest part of the mountain. Huber falls covered with wounds. Dumysen, the colonel-general, who had fought as a private soldier, almost reaches the church of Husen, and there he falls lifeless: and two of his sons, in the flower of youth, soon lie stretched on the battle-field that has drunk their father's blood. Kammli takes a few steps further; but halts erelong, exhausted and panting, near a hedge that he would have to clear, and discovers his two enemies, and other Waldstettes running from all sides, like birds of prey, towards the wavering standard of Zurich. The strength of Kammli sinks rapidly, his eyes grow dim, thick darkness surrounds him: a hand of lead fastens him to the ground. Then, mustering all his expiring strength, he flings the standard on the other side of the hedge, exclaiming: "Is there any brave Zuricher near me? Let him preserve the banner and the honour of our lords! As for me, I can do no more!" Then casting a last look to heaven, he adds: "May G.o.d be my helper!" He fell exhausted by this last effort. Dantzler, who came up, flung away his sword, sprung over the hedge, seized the banner, and cried, "With the aid of G.o.d, I will carry it off." He then rapidly climbed the Albis, and at last placed the ancient standard of Zurich in safety. G.o.d, on whom these warriors fixed all their hopes, had heard their prayers, but the n.o.blest blood of the republic had been spilt.

The enemy were victorious at all points. The soldiers of the Five Cantons, and particularly those of Unterwalden, long hardened in the wars of the Milanese, showed themselves more merciless towards their confederates than they had ever been towards foreigners. At the beginning of the battle, Goldli had taken flight, and soon after he quitted Zurich for ever. Lavater, the captain-general, after having fought valiantly, had fallen into the ditch. He was dragged out by a soldier, and had escaped.

[Sidenote: TERRIBLE SLAUGHTER.]

The most distinguished men of Zurich fell one after another under the blows of the Waldstettes.[1220] Rudi Gallmann found the glorious tomb he had wished for, and his two brothers stretched beside him left their father's house desolate. Toning, captain of the arquebusiers, died for his country as he had foretold. All the pride of the population of Zurich, seven members of the Smaller Council, nineteen members of the Two Hundred, sixty-five citizens of the town, four hundred and seventeen from the rural districts: the father in the midst of his children,--the brother surrounded by his brothers,--lay on the field.

[1220] Optimi et docti viri, quos necessitas traxerat in commune periculum patriae et ecclesiae veritatisque defensandae, quam et suo sanguine redemerunt. (Pell. Vit. MS. p. 6.)

Gerold Meyer of Knonau, son of Anna Zwingle; at that time twenty-two years of age, and already a member of the council of Two Hundred,--a husband and a father,--had rushed into the foremost ranks with all the impetuosity of youth. "Surrender, and your life shall be spared,"

cried some of the warriors of the Five Cantons, who desired to save him. "It is better for me to die with honour than to yield with disgrace," replied the son of Anna, and immediately struck by a mortal blow, he fell and expired not far from the castle of his ancestors.

The ministers were those who paid proportionally the greatest tribute on this b.l.o.o.d.y day. The sword that was at work on the heights of Cappel thirsted for their blood: twenty-five of them fell beneath its stroke. The Waldstettes trembled with rage when they discovered one of these heretical preachers, and sacrificed him with enthusiasm, as a chosen victim, to the Virgin and the saints. There has, perhaps, never been any battle in which so many men of the Word of G.o.d have bitten the dust. Almost everywhere the pastors had marched at the head of their flocks. One might have said that Cappel was an a.s.sembly of christian churches rather than an army of Swiss companies. The Abbot Joner, receiving a mortal wound near the ditch, expired in sight of his own monastery. The people of Zug, in pursuit of the enemy, uttered a cry of anguish as they pa.s.sed his body, remembering all the good he had done them.[1221] Schmidt of Kuprach, stationed on the field of battle in the midst of his parishioners, fell surrounded by forty of their bodies,[1222] Geroldseck, John Haller, and many other pastors, at the head of their flocks, suddenly met in a terrible and unforeseen manner the Lord whom they had preached.

[1221] Es klagtend inn insonders die Zuger. (Bull. iii. p. 151.)

[1222] Uff der Walstett warder funden, under und by sinen Kussnachern.

(Ibid. p. 147.)

[Sidenote: ZWINGLE'S LAST MOMENTS.]

But the death of one individual far surpa.s.sed all others. Zwingle was at the post of danger, the helmet on his head, the sword hanging at his side, the battle-axe in his hand.[1223] Scarcely had the action begun, when, stooping to console a dying man, says J. J. Hottinger, a stone hurled by the vigorous arm of a Waldstette struck him on the head and closed his lips. Yet Zwingle arose, when two other blows which struck him successively on the leg,[1224] threw him down again.

Twice more he stands up; but a fourth time he receives a thrust from a lance, he staggers, and sinking beneath so many wounds, falls on his knees. Does not the darkness that is spreading around him announce a still thicker darkness that is about to cover the Church? Zwingle turns away from such sad thoughts; once more he uplifts that head which had been so bold, and gazing with calm eye upon the trickling blood, exclaims: "What evil is this? They can indeed kill the body, but they cannot kill the soul!"[1225] These were his last words.

[1223] The chaplains of the Swiss troops still wear a sword. Zwingle did not make use of his arms.

[1224] Hatt auch in den Schenklen yween Stiche. (Tschudi, Helv. ii. p.

194.)

[1225] In genua prolapsum dixisse: "Ecquid hoc infortunii? Age! corpus quidem occidere possunt, animam non possunt" (Osw. Myconius, Vit. Zw.)

He had scarcely uttered them ere he fell backwards. There under a tree (Zwingle's Pear-tree) in a meadow, he remained lying on his back, with clasped hands and eyes upturned to heaven.[1226]

[1226] Was er nach lebend, lag an dem Ruggen und hat seine beide hand zamen gethan, wie die betenden, sach mit synem angen obsich in hymel.

(B. iii. p. 136.)

[Sidenote: THE FURNACE OF TRIAL.]

While the bravest were pursuing the scattered soldiers of Zurich, the stragglers of the Five Cantons had pounced like hungry ravens on the field of battle. Torch in hand, these wretches prowled among the dead, casting looks of irritation around them, and lighting up the features of their expiring victims by the dull glimmering of these funereal torches. They turned over the bodies of the wounded and the dead; they tortured and they stripped them.[1227] If they found any who were still sensible, they cried out, "Call upon the saints and confess to our priests!" If the Zurichers, faithful to their creed, rejected these cruel invitations, these men, who were as cowardly as they were fanatical, pierced them with their lances, or dashed out their brains with the b.u.t.t-ends of their arquebuses. The Roman-catholic historian, Salat of Lucerne, makes a boast of this. "They were left to die like infidel dogs, or were slain with the sword, or the spear, that they might go so much the quicker to the devil, with whose help they had fought so desperately."[1228] If any of the soldiers of the Five Cantons had recognised a Zuricher against whom they had any grudge, with dry eyes, disdainful mouth, and features changed by anger, they drew near the unhappy creature, writhing in the agonies of death, and said: "Well! has your heretical faith preserved you? Ah ha! it was pretty clearly seen to-day who had the true faith......To-day we have dragged your Gospel in the mud, and you too, even you are covered with your own blood. G.o.d, the Virgin, and the saints have punished you."

Scarcely had they uttered these words before they plunged their swords into their enemy's bosom. "Ma.s.s or death!" was their watchword.

[1227] Ein gross plunderen, ein ersuchen und usgiessen der todten und der wunden. (Bull. iii. p. 135.)

[1228] Damit sie desto eher zum Teufel, damit sie mit allen vieren fechtend, gefuhrt wurdend. (Salat.)

[Sidenote: ZWINGLE'S LAST MOMENTS.]

Thus triumphed the Waldstettes; but the pious Zurichers who expired on the field of battle called to mind that they had for G.o.d one who has said: "_If ye endure chastening, G.o.d dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?_"--"_Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him._" It is in the furnace of trial that the G.o.d of the Gospel conceals the pure gold of his most precious blessings. This punishment was necessary to turn aside the Church of Zurich from the "broad ways" of the world, and lead it back to the "narrow ways" of the Spirit and the life. In a political history, a defeat like that of Cappel would be styled a great misfortune; but in a history of the Church of Jesus Christ, such a blow, inflicted by the hand of the Father himself, ought rather to be called a great blessing.

Meanwhile Zwingle lay extended under the tree, near the road by which the ma.s.s of the people was pa.s.sing. The shouts of the victors, the groans of the dying, those flickering torches borne from corpse to corpse, Zurich humbled, the cause of Reform lost,--all cried aloud to him that G.o.d punishes his servants when they have recourse to the arm of man. If the German Reformer had been able to approach Zwingle at this solemn moment, and p.r.o.nounce these oft-repeated words: "Christians fight not with sword and arquebus, but with sufferings and the cross,"[1229] Zwingle would have stretched out his dying hand, and said, "Amen!"

[1229] Christen sind nicht die fur sich selbst mit dem Schwerdt oder Buchsen streiten, sondern mit dem Kreuz und Leyden. (Luth. Opp.)

[Sidenote: DAY AFTER THE BATTLE.]

Two of the soldiers who were prowling over the field of battle, having come near the reformer without recognising him, "Do you wish for a priest to confess yourself?" asked they. Zwingle, without speaking (for he had not strength), made signs in the negative. "If you cannot speak," replied the soldiers, "at least think in thy heart of the Mother of G.o.d, and call upon the saints!" Zwingle again shook his head, and kept his eyes still fixed on heaven.[1230] Upon this the irritated soldiers began to curse him. "No doubt," said they, "you are one of the heretics of the city!" One of them, being curious to know who it was, stooped down and turned Zwingle's head in the direction of a fire that had been lighted near the spot.[1231] The soldier immediately let him fall to the ground. "I think," said he, surprised and amazed, "I think it is Zwingle!" At this moment Captain Fockinger of Unterwalden, a veteran and a pensioner, drew near: he had heard the last words of the soldier. "Zwingle!" exclaimed he; "that vile heretic Zwingle! that rascal, that traitor!" Then raising his sword, so long sold to the stranger, he struck the dying Christian on the throat, exclaiming in a violent pa.s.sion, "Die, obstinate heretic!"