Zwingle, on the contrary, who would have gone to the end of the world, made every exertion to obtain from the magistrates of Zurich permission to visit Marburg. "I am convinced," said he to the secret council, "that if we doctors meet face to face, the splendour of truth will illuminate our eyes."[196] But the council that had only just signed the first religious peace,[197] and who feared to see war burst out afresh, positively refused to allow the departure of the Reformer.
Upon this Zwingle decided for himself. He felt that his presence was necessary for the maintenance of peace in Zurich; but it was the welfare of all Christendom that summoned him to Marburg. Accordingly, raising his eyes towards heaven, he resolved to depart, exclaiming, "O God! Thou hast never abandoned us; Thou wilt perform thy will for thine own glory."[198] During the night of the 31st August, Zwingle, who was unwilling to wait for the Landgrave's safe-conduct, prepared for his journey. Rodolph Collin, the Greek professor, was alone to accompany him. The Reformer wrote to the Smaller and to the Great Council: "If I leave without informing you, it is not because I despise your authority, most wise lords; but because, knowing the love you bear towards me, I foresee that your anxiety will oppose my going."
RUMOURS IN ZURICH.
As he was writing these words, a fourth message arrived from the Landgrave, more pressing still than the preceding ones. The Reformer sent the prince's letter to the burgomaster with his own; he then quitted his house privily by night,[199] concealing his departure both from his friends, whose importunity he feared, and from his enemies, whose snares he had good cause to dread. He did not even tell his wife where he was going, lest it should distress her. He and Collin then mounted two horses that had been hired for the purpose,[200] and rode off rapidly in the direction of Basle.
During the day the rumour of Zwingle's absence spread through Zurich, and his enemies were elated. "He has fled the country," said they; "he has run away with a pack of scoundrels!" "As he was crossing the river at Bruck," said others, "the boat upset and he was drowned." "The devil," affirmed many with a malicious smile, "appeared to him bodily and carried him off."[201]—"There was no end to their stories," says Bullinger. But the council immediately resolved on acceding to the wish of the Reformer. On the very day of his departure they appointed one of the councillors, Ulric Funck, to accompany him to Marburg, who forthwith set out with a domestic and one arquebusier. Strasburg and Basle in like manner sent statesmen in company with their theologians, under the idea that this conference would doubtless have also a political object.
Zwingle arrived safe and sound at Basle,[202] and embarked on the river on the 6th September with Œcolampadius and several merchants.[203] In thirteen hours they reached Strasburg, where the two Reformers lodged in the house of Matthew Zell, the cathedral preacher. Catherine, the pastor's wife, prepared the dishes in the kitchen, waited at table, according to the ancient German manners,[204] and then sitting down near Zwingle, listened attentively, and spoke with so much piety and knowledge, that the latter soon ranked her above many doctors.
THE REFORMERS AT MARBURG.
Zwingle, after discussing with the Strasburg magistrates the means of resisting the Romish league, and the organization to be given to the christian confederacy,[205] quitted Strasburg; and he and his friends, conducted along by-roads, through forests, over mountains and valleys, by secret but sure paths, at last arrived at Marburg, escorted by forty Hessian cavaliers.[206]
Luther, on his side, accompanied by Melancthon, Cruciger, and Jonas, had stopped on the Hessian frontier, declaring that nothing should induce him to cross it until he had a safe-conduct from the Landgrave. This document being obtained, Luther arrived at Alsfeld, where the scholars, kneeling under the Reformer's windows, chanted their pious hymns. He entered Marburg on the 30th September, a day after the arrival of the Swiss. Both parties went to inns; but they had scarcely alighted, before the Landgrave invited them to come and lodge in the castle, thinking by this means to bring the opposing parties closer together. Philip entertained them in a manner truly royal.[207] "Ah!" said the pious Jonas, as he wandered through the halls of the palace, "it is not in honour of the Muses, but in honour of God and of his Christ, that we are so munificently treated in these forests of Hesse!" After dinner, on the first day, Œcolampadius, Hedio, and Bucer, desirous of entering into the prince's views, went and saluted Luther. The latter conversed affectionately with Œcolampadius in the castle-court; but Bucer, with whom he had once been very intimate, and who was now on Zwingle's side, having approached him, Luther said to him, smiling, and making a sign with his hand: "As for you, you are a good-for-nothing fellow and a knave!"[208]
PRELIMINARY DISCUSSIONS.