PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION.
Struck with the grandeur of this divine love which existed from eternity, the herald of grace raised his voice to all the timid or irresolute. "Can you fear," said he, "to approach the tender Father who has chosen you? Why has he chosen us in his grace? Why has he called us? Why has he drawn us? Was it that we might not dare to go to him?"...[779]
Such was the doctrine of Zuinglius. It was the doctrine of Christ himself. "If Luther preaches Christ he does what I do," said the preacher of Zurich; "those who have been brought to Christ by him are more numerous than those who have been brought by me. But no matter! I am unwilling to bear any other name than that of Christ, whose soldier I am, and who alone is my head. Never was a single scrap written by me to Luther, or by Luther to me. And why? In order to show to all how well the spirit of God accords with himself, since, without having heard each other, we so harmoniously teach the doctrine of Jesus Christ."[780]
ZUINGLIUS AND STAHELI.
Thus Zuinglius preached with energy and might.[781] The large cathedral could not contain the crowds of hearers. All thanked God that a new life was beginning to animate the lifeless body of the Church. Swiss from all the cantons, brought to Zurich either by the Diet or by other causes, being touched by this new preaching, carried its precious seeds into all the Helvetic valleys. One acclamation arose from mountains and cities. Nicolas Hageus, writing from Lucerne to Zurich, says, "Switzerland has hitherto given birth to Scipios, Cæsars, and Brutuses, but has scarcely produced two men who had the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and could nourish men's hearts, not with vain disputes, but with the Word of God. Now that Divine Providence gives Switzerland Zuinglius for its orator, and Oswald Myconius for its teacher, virtue and sacred literature revive among us. O happy Helvetia! could you but resolve at length to rest from all your wars, and, already so celebrated, become still more celebrated for righteousness and peace."[782] "It was said," wrote Myconius to Zuinglius, "that your voice could not be heard three yards off. But I now see it was a falsehood; for all Switzerland hears you."[783] "You possess intrepid courage," wrote Hedio to him from Bâle, "I will follow you as far as I am able."[784] "I have heard you," said Sebastian Hofmeister of Schaffausen, writing to him from Constance. "Ah, would to God that Zurich, which is at the head of our happy confederation was delivered from the disease, and health thus restored to the whole body."[785]
But Zuinglius met with opponents as well as admirers. "To what end," said some, "does he intermeddle with the affairs of Switzerland?" "Why," said others, "does he, in his religious instructions, constantly repeat the same things?" Amid all these combats the soul of Zuinglius was often filled with sadness. All seemed to be in confusion, as if society were turned upside down.[786] He thought it impossible that any thing new should appear without something of an opposite nature being immediately displayed.[787] When a hope sprang up in his heart, a fear immediately sprang up beside it. Still he soon raised his head. "The life of man here below," said he, "is a war; he who desires to obtain glory must attack the world in front, and, like David, make this haughty Goliath, who seems so proud of his stature, to bite the dust. The Church," said he, like Luther, "has been acquired by blood, and must be renewed by blood.[788] The more numerous the defilements in it, the more must we arm ourselves, like Hercules, in order to clean out these Augean stables.[789] I have little fear for Luther," added he, "even should he be thundered against by the bolts of this Jupiter."[790]
Zuinglius stood in need of repose, and repaired to the waters of Baden. The curate of the place, an old papal guard, a man of good temper, but completely ignorant, had obtained his benefice by carrying a halberd. True to his soldier habits, he spent the day and part of the night in jovial company, while Stäheli, his vicar, was indefatigable in fulfilling the duties of his office.[791] Zuinglius invited the young minister to his house. "I have need of Swiss help," said he to him, and from this moment Stäheli was his fellow-labourer. Zuinglius, Stäheli, and Luti, afterwards pastor of Winterthur, lived under the same roof.
INTERFERENCE OF THE CIVIL POWER.
The devotedness of Zuinglius was not to pass unrewarded. The Word of God, preached with so much energy, could not fail to produce fruit. Several magistrates were gained, experiencing the Word to be their consolation and their strength. The Council, grieved at seeing the priests, and especially the monks, shamelessly delivering from the pulpit whatever came into their heads, passed a resolution, ordering them not to advance anything in their discourses "that they did not draw from the sacred sources of the Old and New Testament."[792] It was in 1520 that the civil power thus interposed for the first time in the work of the Reformation; acting as a Christian magistrate, say some—since the first duty of the magistrate is to maintain the Word of God and defend the best interests of the citizens; depriving the Church of its liberty, say others,—by subjecting it to secular power, and giving the signal for the series of evils which have since been engendered by the connection between Church and State. We will not give any opinion here on this great controversy which in our day is carried on with so much warmth in several countries. It is sufficient for us to point out its commencement at the period of the Reformation. But there is another thing also to be pointed out—the act of these magistrates was itself one of the effects produced by the preaching of the Word of God. At this period the Reformation in Switzerland ceased to be the work of private individuals, and began to be included within the national domain. Born in the heart of a few priests and literary men, it extended, rose, and took up elevated ground. Like the waters of the ocean, it gradually increased till it had overflowed an immense extent.
The monks were confounded: they were ordered to preach nothing but the Word of God, and the greater part of them had never read it. Opposition provokes opposition. The resolution of the council became the signal of more violent attacks on the Reformation. Plots began to be formed against the curate of Zurich. His life was in danger. One evening, when Zuinglius and his vicars were quietly conversing in their house, some citizens arrived in great haste, and asked, "Are your doors well bolted? Be this night on your guard." "Such alarms were frequent," adds Stäheli; "but we were well armed,[793] and a guard was stationed for us in the street."