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070 - 7 The Reformation in German Switzerland · Short History of the Christian Church

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  Speaker 1: Part three, Chapter seven of Short History of the Christian
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  Speaker 1: Church by John Fletcher Hurst. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter seven The Reformation in German Switzerland.
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  Speaker 1: The political condition of Switzerland was highly favorable to the
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  Speaker 1: introduction of Protestant ideas. The country was divided into cantons
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  Speaker 1: or districts, an arrangement that had existed from early times.
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  Speaker 1: Each canton was in a measure independent of the rest,
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  Speaker 1: and yet was connected in a federation with all the others.
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  Speaker 1: While the Roman Catholic Church held sway over all, the
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  Speaker 1: people of each canton claimed the right of deciding what
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  Speaker 1: their confession should be. The spirit pervading all the cantons
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  Speaker 1: was that of civil liberty, and so when the Protestant
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  Speaker 1: doctrines descended from the North, the Swiss saw in them
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  Speaker 1: a system of religion mosely allied to their political traditions
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  Speaker 1: and preferences. Freedom in the state, as the Swiss mind side,
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  Speaker 1: was inseparable from freedom of conscience. In Zurich, the largest
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  Speaker 1: city in eastern Switzerland, the doctrines of the German reformers,
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  Speaker 1: and especially the works of Luther, took stronghold. The people
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  Speaker 1: speaking the same language with the Germans read the earliest
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  Speaker 1: Protestant writings with interest, while correspondence with the reformers fanned
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  Speaker 1: the flame. Ulrich Zwingli was the leader of the new
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  Speaker 1: movement in Switzerland. He was born in Wildehouse in fourteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty four. In his ninth year, he went to Wessen,
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  Speaker 1: where he enjoyed the instruction of his uncle, the dean
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  Speaker 1: of that place. He was designed by his parents for
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  Speaker 1: the priesthood, and no pains were spared to fit him
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  Speaker 1: for his calling. In fourteen ninety four he went to
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  Speaker 1: Basel and for three years was a student in the
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  Speaker 1: Saint Theodore School. He then went to Berne, where the
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  Speaker 1: celebrated humanist Heinrich Wolfin introduced him to a profound knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of the classics. He then went to Vienna, where, having
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  Speaker 1: latinized his name, he appeared as the student Congentius. In
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  Speaker 1: fifteen o two he returned to Basil, and, in addition
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  Speaker 1: to prosecuting further studies taught in the Latin school of
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  Speaker 1: Saint Martin, Weetenbach came to Basel as professor, and he
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  Speaker 1: entered a bold protest against indulgences. Zwingli came under his
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  Speaker 1: influence and from that time onward, it is likely that
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  Speaker 1: the seeds of Protestantism lay in his mind. In fifteen
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  Speaker 1: o six he became priest at Glaris and remained there
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  Speaker 1: ten years. All the while he was an ardent student.
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  Speaker 1: He was enraptured with the new Hue humanism, and yet
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  Speaker 1: he regarded it only as an aid to the study
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  Speaker 1: of the Bible. He wrote at this time, nothing but
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  Speaker 1: God shall prevent me from acquiring Greek, not for fame,
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  Speaker 1: but for the sake of the Holy scriptures. In fifteen sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: Zwingli went to the celebrated abbey of Ainsidelm, which is
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  Speaker 1: situated on a lofty mountain on the north side of
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  Speaker 1: Lake Zurich and is still visited annually by many thousands
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  Speaker 1: of pilgrims. Zwingli, seeing the blind idolatry of the worshippers
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  Speaker 1: of the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary in that abbey,
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  Speaker 1: began to preach against the superstition. Zwingli awakened violent opposition
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  Speaker 1: in Ainsideln. He was branded as a heretic, and yet
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  Speaker 1: was made by Pucci, the Pope's agent, the object of
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  Speaker 1: great attention and flattery. The hope was to conquer him
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  Speaker 1: by dissimulation. But Zwingli south through the deception and kept
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  Speaker 1: steadily on in his course. He did not remain, however,
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  Speaker 1: any longer, in Isidom, but moved to Zurich fifteen nineteen,
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  Speaker 1: where he was priest in the cathedral. Here his sermons
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  Speaker 1: created the greatest sensation for their freedom of utterance and
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  Speaker 1: evangelical tone, and were attended by multitudes from all parts
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  Speaker 1: of the country. Indulgences were just now sold in public
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  Speaker 1: in that city, and Zwingli proclaimed against them. Zurich was
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  Speaker 1: ready for the Reformation, and it was only waiting for
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  Speaker 1: a leader. The humanist circles were tired of the old
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  Speaker 1: darkness and were eager for the light of the Gospel.
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  Speaker 1: The uneducated masses were overwhelmed with the opposition of the
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  Speaker 1: Habsburgs and the priesthood. I wish, said Zwingli, that they
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  Speaker 1: had bored a hole through the Pope's letter and hung
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  Speaker 1: it to his messenger's back, that he might carry it home.
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  Speaker 1: If a wolf is seen in the country, you sound
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  Speaker 1: an alarm that it may be caught. But you will
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  Speaker 1: not defend yourselves from the wolves that ruin the bodies
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  Speaker 1: and souls of men, how appropriate, their red hats and cloaks.
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  Speaker 1: If you shake them outfall ducats, if you wring them
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  Speaker 1: outflows the blood of your sons, brothers and friends. Such
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  Speaker 1: language could not be tolerated. Maledictions were hurled against Zwingli,
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  Speaker 1: but he continued to preach, and the people thronged to
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  Speaker 1: hear him. He was fearless, scriptural, and discreet. He was
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  Speaker 1: now drawn within the circle of reformers, and at once
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  Speaker 1: became their head among the Swiss. He preached strongly against indulgences, merioltry,
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  Speaker 1: clerical celibacy, and indeed the whole cluster of those perverted
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  Speaker 1: doctrines against which Luther was warring in the North Mass
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  Speaker 1: was abolished in Zurich, and one by one the institutions
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  Speaker 1: of Romanism fell to the ground. Zwingley's sixty seven articles
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  Speaker 1: committed him so thoroughly to the Protestant cause that no
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  Speaker 1: retracing of his steps was supposable. He was very busy
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  Speaker 1: with his pen. His choosing and freedom of foods, his
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  Speaker 1: Christian introduction, and True and False Religion were masterpieces of
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  Speaker 1: polemical literature. The simplicity of Swingley's views of worship was
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  Speaker 1: a fundamental quality. His repugnance to Romanism was so strong
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  Speaker 1: that he resolved on a complete renunciation. He would have
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  Speaker 1: no pictures or organs, or bells in the churches, or
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  Speaker 1: any reminder of the old faith. He was morbidly intense
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  Speaker 1: in his dread of all materialistic elements. He differed radically
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  Speaker 1: from Luther on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, the
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  Speaker 1: German reformer holding to con substantiation, whiles Wingley regarded the
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  Speaker 1: bread and wine as only symbols of the body and
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  Speaker 1: blood of Christ. The two reformers came into open difference.
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  Speaker 1: A discussion was arranged, and they met in the castle
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  Speaker 1: of Marburg October fifteen, twenty nine, where each defended his views.
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  Speaker 1: No compromise was reached. Luther, with a piece of chalk
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  Speaker 1: in his hand, wrote in great characters on the table
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  Speaker 1: hawk as corpus metum, this is my body. And with
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  Speaker 1: this appeal to Christ's own words by which to defend
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  Speaker 1: his belief in con substantiation, the discussion closed. Henceforward there
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  Speaker 1: was no agreement between German and Swiss theology on the
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  Speaker 1: Lord's Supper. Luther and Zwingley returned to their fields of
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  Speaker 1: labor each as firmly intent upon the one work of reform,
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  Speaker 1: as though he did not differ from his brother on
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  Speaker 1: d non essentials in theological interpretation. Busser tried very hard
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  Speaker 1: to harmonize the Swiss and German differences, but failed completely.
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  Speaker 1: The Halvetic Confession, adopted in fifteen thirty six, became the
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  Speaker 1: final standard of doctrine for the Protestants throughout eastern Switzerland.
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  Speaker 1: The religious conflict in the Eastern Canons became so bitter
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  Speaker 1: that it grew into an appeal to arms. Zurich, which
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  Speaker 1: had been included in the Bishopric of Constance, threw off
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  Speaker 1: all episcopal allegiance, banished Latin from its churches, and burned
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  Speaker 1: the time honored relics. Some of the Eastern Canons followed
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  Speaker 1: the lead of Zurich, while others remained firm to Catholicism.
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  Speaker 1: The result was a civil war. The Roman Catholic Cantons
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  Speaker 1: were aided by the Pope, the Austrian Empire, and even
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  Speaker 1: by Spain, while France and England helped the Protestant Cantons.
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  Speaker 1: In the Battle of Capel near Zurich October eleventh, fifteen
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  Speaker 1: thirty one, the Protestant army was almost annihilated and Zwingli
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  Speaker 1: was killed. Yet a moral victory remained with the Protestants,
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  Speaker 1: inasmuch as they were allowed by the Treaty of Capel
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  Speaker 1: the free exercise of their religion in their own cantons,
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  Speaker 1: while restoring Catholicism in the Five Cantons. Basil was an
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  Speaker 1: important center of Protestant movements in German Switzerland. The Council
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  Speaker 1: which had been held there in the preceding century had
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  Speaker 1: left a strong desire for reform among the people. The
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  Speaker 1: university was a rallying place of minds intent upon the
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  Speaker 1: liberty of science. Erasmus lived in its cloisters for a
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  Speaker 1: time and gave his scholarly energies to the good work. Hadeo,
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  Speaker 1: Capito and Rublen preached the new doctrines with energy and success. Ecolampadius,
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  Speaker 1: though a German by birth, became pastor of Saint Martin's
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  Speaker 1: Church and was the acknowledged leader of the cause in
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  Speaker 1: the city. In other parts of eastern Switzerland, the Reformation
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  Speaker 1: spread with amazing rapidity, and in addition to Zurich and Basel,
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  Speaker 1: the cantons of Saint gall and Schaffhausen renounced allegiance to
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  Speaker 1: the Roman Catholic Church, and introduced Protestant worship and doctrines
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  Speaker 1: throughout their territory. End of Chapter seven