History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume III Part 34

At these words the spectators rose indignantly from their seats. Thus terminated the disputation.

CHAPTER II.

Papal Temptations--Progress of the Reformation--The Idol at Stadelhofen--Sacrilege--The Ornaments of the Saints.

[Sidenote: PAPAL TEMPTATIONS.]

The Reformation had gained the day; it was now to accelerate its conquests. After this battle of Zurich, in which the most skilful champions of the papacy were dumb, who would be bold enough to oppose the new doctrine? But weapons of a different kind were tried.

Zwingle's firmness and republican bearing overawed his adversaries; accordingly they had recourse to peculiar measures to subdue him.

While Rome was pursuing Luther with her anathemas, she endeavoured to win over the reformer of Zurich by gentleness. The dispute was scarcely ended when Zwingle received a visit from the captain of the pope's guard--the son of the burgomaster Roust. He was accompanied by the legate Einsius, the bearer of a papal brief, in which Adrian VI.

called Zwingle his beloved son, and a.s.sured him of "his special favour."[475] At the same time the pope urged Zink to gain over Zwingle. "And what has the pope commissioned you to offer him?" asked Oswald Myconius. "Everything," replied Zink, "except the papal chair."[476]

[475] c.u.m de tua egregia virtute specialiter n.o.bis sit cognitum. Zw.

Epp. p. 266.

[476] Serio respondit: Omnia certe praeter sedem papalem. Vita Zwingli, per Osw. Myc.

[Sidenote: ZWINGLE'S FIRMNESS--FABER'S HOSTILITY.]

There was no mitre, or crozier, or cardinal's hat, that the pope would not have given to bribe the reformer of Zurich. But Rome was strangely mistaken in this respect; all her proposals were unavailing. In Zwingle, the Romish Church had a still more pitiless enemy than Luther. He cared far less than the Saxon reformer for the ideas and ceremonies of former ages; it was enough for him that any custom, however innocent in itself, was connected with some abuse; he fell violently upon it. The Word of G.o.d (thought he) should stand alone.

But if Rome understood so imperfectly what was then taking place in Christendom, she found counsellors who endeavoured to put her in the way.

Faber, exasperated at seeing the pope thus humble himself before his adversary, hastened to enlighten him. He was a courtier with a constant smile upon his lips and honied words in his mouth; to judge from his own language, he was everybody's friend, even of those whom he accused of heresy. But his hatred was mortal. Accordingly, the reformer, playing on his name (Faber), used to say, "the Vicar of Constance is a lie-smith. Let him openly take up arms, and see how Christ defends us."[477]

[477] Prodeant volo, palamque arma capiant. Zw. Epp. p. 292.

These words were no mere idle boasting; for while the pope was complimenting Zwingle on his eminent virtues, and the special confidence he placed in him, the enemies of the reformer were increasing in number throughout Switzerland. The veteran soldiers, the great families, the herdsmen of the mountains, combined their hatred against this doctrine which thwarted their tastes. At Lucerne, the magnificent representation of Zwingle's _pa.s.sion_ was announced; in effect, the people dragged the reformer's effigy to the scaffold, shouting out that they were going to put the heretic to death; and laying hands on some Zurichers who happened to be at Lucerne, compelled them to be spectators of this mock execution. "They shall not trouble my repose," said Zwingle; "Christ will never be wanting to his followers."[478] Even the diet re-echoed with threats against him.

"My dear confederates," said the councillor of Mullinen to the cantons, "make a timely resistance to the Lutheran cause......At Zurich a man is no longer master in his own house!"

[478] Christum suis nunquam defecturum. Ibid. p. 278.

[Sidenote: THE CRUCIFIX OF STADELHOFEN.]

This agitation among the enemy announced what was pa.s.sing in Zurich more loudly than any proclamations could have done. The victory was indeed bearing fruit; the conquerors were gradually taking possession of the country, and every day the Gospel made fresh progress.

Twenty-four canons and a great number of chaplains voluntarily pet.i.tioned the council to reform their statutes. It was decided to replace these sluggish priests by pious and learned men, with commission to give the Zurich youth a Christian and liberal education, and to establish in the place of their vespers and Latin ma.s.ses, a daily explanation of a chapter in the Bible, according to the Hebrew and Greek texts, first for the learned, and afterwards for the people.

[Sidenote: SACRILEGE--ORNAMENTS OF THE SAINTS.]

There are unfortunately in every army a number of those desperate heroes who leave their ranks and make unseasonable attacks on points that ought still to be respected. A young priest, Louis Hetzer, had published a treatise in German ent.i.tled, _The judgment of G.o.d against Images_, which produced a great sensation, and the images wholly engrossed the thoughts of a part of the people. It is only to the detriment of those essentials that ought to occupy his mind, that man can fix his attention on secondary matters. At a place called Stadelhofen, outside the city gates, stood a crucifix elaborately carved and richly ornamented. The most zealous partisans of the Reformation, shocked at the superst.i.tions to which this image gave rise, could not pa.s.s by without giving vent to their indignation. A citizen named Claude Hottinger, "a worthy man," says Bullinger, "and well read in the Holy Scriptures," having fallen in with the miller of Stadelhofen, to whom the crucifix belonged, asked him when he intended to throw down his idols. "No one compels you to worship them," replied the miller.--"But do you not know," retorted Hottinger, "that the Word of G.o.d forbids us to have any graven images?"--"Well then," said the miller, "if you are authorized to remove them, I abandon them to you."

Hottinger thought himself empowered to act, and shortly after, about the end of September, he was seen to pa.s.s the gates with a body of citizens. On arriving at the crucifix, they deliberately dug round it, until the image, yielding to their efforts, fell to the earth with a loud crash.

This daring action spread dismay on every side: one might have thought that religion itself had fallen with the crucifix of Stadelhofen.

"They are guilty of sacrilege! They deserve to be put to death!"

exclaimed the friends of Rome. The council caused the image-breakers to be apprehended.

"No!" cried Zwingle and his colleagues from their pulpits: "Hottinger and his friends are not guilty in the sight of G.o.d and worthy of death.[479] But they may be punished for having acted with violence and without the sanction of the magistrates."[480]

[479] An exposition of the same principles may be seen in the speeches of MM. de Broglie and Royer-Collard, at the period of the famous debates on the law of sacrilege in France 1824.

[480] Dorum habend ir unser Herren kein racht zu inen, sy zu toden.

Bull. Chron. p. 127.

Meantime acts of a similar nature were continually taking place. A curate of Saint Peter's, one day remarking in front of the church a number of poor people ill fed and with tattered garments, said to one of his colleagues, as he turned his eyes on the costly ornaments of the saints: "I should like to strip these idols of wood to procure clothing for these poor members of Jesus Christ." A few days later, at three o'clock in the morning, the saints and all their ornaments disappeared. The council flung the curate into prison, notwithstanding he protested his innocence of this proceeding. "What!" exclaimed the people, "is it these logs of wood that Jesus ordered us to clothe? Is it on account of these images that he will say to the righteous: _I was naked, and ye clothed me_?"

Thus, the greater the resistance, the higher soared the Reformation; and the more it was compressed, the more energetically did it spring forward, and threaten to overthrow all that withstood it.

CHAPTER III.

The Disputation of October--Zwingle on the Church--The Church--Commencement of Presbyterianism--Discussion on the Ma.s.s--Enthusiasts--The Language of Discretion--Victory--A Characteristic of the Swiss Reformation--Moderation--Oswald Myconius at Zurich--Revival of Literature--Thomas Plater of the Valais.

[Sidenote: DISPUTATION OF OCTOBER.]

Even these excesses were destined to be salutary; a new combat was needed to secure fresh triumphs; for in the things of the Spirit, as in the affairs of the world, there is no conquest without a struggle; and as the soldiers of Rome stood motionless, the conflict was to be brought on by the undisciplined sons of the Reformation. In fact, the magistrates were embarra.s.sed and agitated; they felt the necessity of having their consciences enlightened, and with this view they resolved to appoint another public disputation in the German language, in which the question of idols should be examined according to Scripture.

The Bishops of Coire, Constance, and Basle, the university of the latter city, and the twelve cantons, were accordingly requested to send deputies to Zurich. But the bishops declined the invitation, and calling to mind the wretched figure their deputies had made at the former disputation, they had little inclination to repeat such humiliating scenes. Let the evangelicals dispute if they please, but let them dispute alone. On the first occasion, the Romish party had kept silence; on the second they were resolved not to appear. Rome may possibly have imagined that the great combat would cease for want of combatants. The bishops were not alone in refusing to attend. The men of Unterwalden replied that they had no scholars among them, but only worthy and pious priests, who explained the Gospel as their fathers had done; that they would send no deputy to Zwingle "and his fellows;"

but that, if he fell into their hands, they would treat him in such a manner as to deprive him of all wish to relapse into the same faults.[481] Schaffhausen and St. Gall alone sent representatives.

[481] So wollten wir Ihm den Lohn geben, da.s.s er's nimmer mehr thate.

Simmler Samml. MS. ix.

[Sidenote: ZWINGLE ON THE CHURCH.]

On the 26th of October, after the sermon, an a.s.sembly of more than nine hundred persons, composed of members of the Great Council and of three hundred and fifty priests, filled the large hall of the town-house. Zwingle and Leo Juda were seated at a table, on which lay the Old and New Testament in the original languages. Zwingle spoke first, and overthrowing with a vigorous arm the authority of the hierarchy and of its councils, established the rights of every Christian Church, and claimed the liberty of the primitive ages--of those times when the Church knew neither general nor provincial councils. "The universal Church," said he, "is spread over the whole world, wherever there is faith in Christ, in India as well as at Zurich......And as for particular churches, we have them at Berne, at Schaffhausen, and even here. But the popes, with their cardinals and their councils, form neither the universal Church nor a particular Church.[482] The a.s.sembly before which I now speak," continued he with energy, "is the Church of Zurich; it desires to hear the Word of G.o.d, and it has the right of ordering all that may appear to it conformable with the Holy Scriptures."

[482] Der Pabste, Cardinale und Bischoffe Concilia sind nich die christliche Kirche. Fussl. Beytr. iii. 20.

Thus did Zwingle rely on the Church, but on the true Church; not on the clergy alone, but on the a.s.sembly of Christians,--on the people.

All that the Scriptures say of the Church in general, he applied to particular churches. He did not think that any church could err which listened with docility to the Word of G.o.d. In his eyes, the Church was represented politically and ecclesiastically by the Great Council.[483] At first he explained every question from the pulpit; and when his hearers' minds were convinced of the truth, he carried the matter before the Great Council, who, in harmony with the ministers of the Church, formed such decisions as the Church called for.[484]

[483] Diacosion Senatus summa est potestas Ecclesiae vice. Zw. Opp.

iii. 339.

[484] Ante omnia mult.i.tudinem de quaestione probe docere ita factum est, ut quidquid diacosii (the great council of two hundred), c.u.m verbi ministris ordinarent, jamdudum in animis fidelium ordinatum esset. Zw. Opp. iii. 339.

[Sidenote: CANON HOFFMAN--PRESBYTERIANISM.]

In the absence of the bishop's deputies, Conrad Hoffmann, the same aged canon who had procured Zwingle's election to Zurich, undertook the defence of the pope. He maintained that the Church, the flock, the "third estate," had no right to discuss such matters. "I was thirteen years at Heidelberg," said he, "living in the house of a very great scholar, whose name was Doctor Joss, a worthy and pious man, with whom I long ate and drank and led a merry life; but I always heard him say that it was not proper to discuss such matters; so you see......" All were ready to burst into laughter; but the burgomaster checked them.

"Let us therefore wait for a council," continued Hoffmann. "For the present, I shall not dispute, but obey the bishop's orders, even should he be a knave!"

"Wait for a council!" replied Zwingle. "And who will attend a council?