To this the peculiar character of the monastery of Einsiedeln, as a far-famed place of pilgrimage, contributed. In general there is little to admire in the disposition of any one, who does not find his soul elevated in places hallowed by departed greatness. A noble feeling lay at the bottom of the expeditions to the Holy Sepulchre during the Middle Ages, although they partook of all the rudeness of the time that produced them; and even yet, how many spots are there in the land of Palestine, that awaken, in the bosom of the traveler, meditations, in which earnestness and sorrow mingle. On fields of battle, in haunts, where ruled the leaders and the teachers of mankind, memory works with double power, and even around graves known only to perishing tradition, there lingers for some an imperishable charm. No censure therefore on pilgrimages that spring from such deep impulses!
But when the hand of man ventures to write down in such a place: "Here is plenary absolution from guilt and punishment," when the mortal will forestall the eternal judge, and by the fancy of expiation obtained through such a pilgrimage, the frivolity of the sinner is directly enhanced and the perpetration of grosser crimes encouraged, when money rings in the sanctuary, in whose courts a market is opened for relics and consecrated amulets--who can be angry, if a feeling of indignation flashes through the mind of the clear-sighted thinker, as well as through the believing heart of the truly pious?
But Zwingli was now compelled to witness frequent scenes of this kind. And in what troubled shapes, did not the events of the day, the delusion of the crowd, and the avarice of those who made again of them, array themselves, when in the stillness of the evening or the night, the Gospel opened to him its fountains of light, warmth, and living sacrifice. No doubt this conviction of the unworthiness of this trade, carried on with lost men, was confirmed, and the impulse to come out at once and maintain stout battle against all these powers of darkness, more and more strengthened. Though somewhat before, yet now more than ever the feeling, that such a conflict must come, paved his way; the eyes of thousands were seeking some, who would undertake it, and were turned with desire to every one, gifted with a resolute spirit; and many friendly voices told him, that on his efforts the hopes of the father-land chiefly rested. "This is he"--said John Œchslin in Stein to his friend Fabricius--"of whom I cannot say enough,--he, who towers above all other Swiss,--he, who has spread around him here a better civilization." "He"--the German Nesenus wrote to him--"who has humbled our monks, those spiritual tyrants, has done more for the true doctrine of Christ, than he who has beaten the ferocious Turks. Go on, my Zwingli, in the work begun for the blessing of your nation." "You show us"--is contained in a letter of Rhenanus from Basel--"the true doctrine of Christ, sketched intuitively, as it were, on a tablet; you inform us, that Christ was sent into the world for this purpose--to communicate to us the will of his Father; that he commands us to despise earth with its riches, its honors, its power, its pleasures and every thing of this kind, and seek after the heavenly father-land; that he teaches us peace, unity and all the lovely charities of life (nothing else is Christianity), as of old, Plato, who is truly worthy of being counted a great prophet, dreamed of them in his republic; that he would lift us above a state of abject dependence on country, parents, kindred, health, and all the blessings of earth, and convince us that poverty and the other miseries of life are in no wise evil. These doctrines Christ has confirmed by his life, more glorious than that of any man. Would that Helvetia had many, who could so exhibit Him to us! Such alone have power to improve our national character. And our people are by no means incapable of improvement."
The relation in which Zwingli stood to Geroldseck gave him encouragement to take a bolder step. Whatever he needed in the way of scientific help Geroldseck permitted him to buy for the monastery and was glad to add thus to its treasures. Zwingli was always grateful for his protection and support, and at a later period, when he had left Einsiedeln, gave utterance to the following expression, "You have never looked back, after you laid your hand to the plough. You are indeed the friend of all scholars, but me you have loved like a father, having not only admitted me to your friendship, but to the most intimate confidence of your heart. Go on, as you have begun; stand firmly at your post. God will in the end lead you to the goal. No one can gain the crown, who does not fight bravely for it." Most willingly did he respond to the order of the unprejudiced Administrator, to go, with his friends, Zink, Œchslin, and Schmied, to the convent under the supervision of Einsiedeln, there to relieve the nuns from the duty of singing matins, to recommend to them the reading of the German Bible, and to grant permission to any, who might wish it, to leave the convent and marry.[8]
But the most powerful weapon of his spirit was the living word. Proceeding cautiously, step by step, he as yet only attacked abuses in Einsiedeln; nevertheless his pulpit discourses made a deep impression, and already the number of pilgrims began to diminish, yea, many brought back again the presents, which they had carried away. Reports are still extant of the sermons preached at the festival of the Consecration of the Angels, in 1517, and those of Whitsuntide, 1518.[9] The first must have been bold, and according to the testimony of Hedion, who was present, the second were "beautiful, thorough, solemn, comprehensive, penetrating, evangelical, in the power of their language reminding one of the oldest church-fathers." A part of the monks were scandalized, but the Abbot and Geroldseck encouraged and protected the orator.
The attention of Rome was drawn to these things; but it did not at all abandon the hope of winning him back again. A literal and faithful translation of the letter, sent to him from Zurich, on the 14 August 1518, by Antonio Pucei, nuntio of the Apostolic See, is here added:
"Glorious by virtues and merits, commended as well by experience as by the testimony of your honorable fame, you have found such favor in the eyes of our Lord, the Pope and the Apostolic See, that we, full of paternal kindness, keeping in view your person adorned with scientific culture, graciously purpose, according to the authority granted as by our aforesaid Lord, the Pope, to confer on you a title of special dignity. But hereby you perceive in truth, whither our kind disposition toward you would tend, when we now create you--who are a master of arts, whom, we, out of regard to merits already alluded to, would promote and adorn with the title and privileges of a special post of honor,--you, whom we, if you have fallen in any way under any ban, suspension, interdict, or other ecclesiastical sentence, or under any censure or penalty of any court, or of individual men, be its origin what it may, partaking in the operations of our favor, and turning your prayer toward us in relation to the matter, we would now absolve and have known as absolved--you, we now, in the name of our holy Lord, the Pope and the Apostolic See, in accordance with these presents, create an acolyte-chaplain, by the apostolical authority, granted us by the most holy Father in Christ, our Lord, the Lord Leo X, Pope by the decree of God, and exercised by us, and graciously enroll you in the number and society of the other chosen acolyte-chaplains of our Lord, the Pope, and the Romish See. At the same time we grant you the possession and enjoyment of all the privileges, prerogatives, honors, exceptions, favors, liberties, immunities and indulgences, singly and collectively, which belong to the other acolyte-chaplains of our Lord, the Pope and the Apostolic See, or which they in any way hereafter shall be allowed to possess and enjoy, to be used by you freely and in a lawful manner, unrestricted by the apostolic constitutions and commands, or any other kind of impediment whatsoever. Then will you by aspiring after virtue advance from good to better, and become worthy of a still higher place in the presence of our Lord, the Pope and ourselves, and he himself, our Lord, the Pope, and we will thereby be moved to bestow on you more extensive favors and honors. The present document is dispatched to bear witness, and we have allowed it to be ratified by our seal appended thereto."
"An official style," the scientific reader, who looks at this letter may exclaim; but the people, in whose ranks Zwingli ranged himself, understood and needed another kind of language. That which the Church granted to her pliant acolyte-chaplains--freedom from excommunication, the dwellers in the Alps had sometimes ventured to bestow upon themselves on their own authority in moments of power. The complicated sentences and the promises contained in them, in case of fidelity and submission, made, therefore, little impression upon the Reformer. How independent he was, in this respect, even at Einsiedeln, appears from his letter, of 1525, to Valentine Compar, former state-secretary in Uri. "Observe," says he, "dear Valentine, what I will yet publicly make known to the people, now living, that I, both before and since the schism arose, have discoursed and treated with distinguished cardinals, bishops and prelates concerning errors in doctrine, and warned them to begin the correction of abuses, or else they would be involved in greater trouble. Eight years ago at Einsiedeln and then at Zurich I often proved to the Lord Cardinal of Sion, that the whole Papacy rested on a rotten foundation, and this always by appealing to the Holy Scriptures. The noble Sir Diebold von Geroldseck, Master Francis Zink and Doctor Michael Sander, all three yet living are my witnesses; and the above-named Cardinal has frequently expressed himself to me in this way, 'If God restores me again to favor (for he was at that time in disgrace with the Pope), I would then willingly see the pride and falsehood of the Roman Bishop exposed and corrected.' And then, he has not seldom conversed with me about doctrine and the Holy Scripture, and every time would acknowledge the falsehood and his displeasure at it. But how he behaved afterwards, need not be told here."
When, therefore, the Bishop of Constance himself, just at this time, in a pastoral letter to the clergy of his diocese, uttered, in the strongest terms, complaints of their thoroughly corrupt condition, and deplored, that "many of them, without regard to shame and the fear of God, kept lewd women in their houses, and would neither put them away nor do better, and that others were addicted to gambling and oftener to be met with in taverns than in their own rooms, wrangled in the streets, scolded, giving rise to uproar as well as blasphemy against the Savior, his blessed mother, and all the saints of God, wore weapons and clothes altogether unsuited to their condition, entered into unlawful agreements, crept into nunneries and otherwise led abandoned lives at variance with the priestly character," and acknowledged the urgent necessity of a remedy, was it a seditious movement, or not rather a noble effort to help on a good cause, when Zwingli thanked his chief pastor for this, but at the same time begged him to act as well as speak?
It is easy to imagine how such a zealous discharge of the duties of his calling should more and more attract the attention of the public authorities. Wintherthur was anxious to see him in the place of its deceased pastor. He had to decline, because the citizens of Glarus were not willing to release him from his former engagement. In Zurich even, wither he had come on a visit, the number of his admirers continually increased. The burgomaster Roist and his brethren-in-arms at Marignano were acquainted with him since the Italian campaign. To the senator, Jacob Grebel, he was introduced by his son Conrad, at that time one of his warmest admirers. The canons Utinger, Erasmus, Schmied and Engelhart knew and honored his scientific attainments, and even the hostile disposition, which, then already, some of the most resolute defenders of every kind of wickedness cherished toward him, might well have proved a recommendation to all well-disposed people. Thus the way was prepared for a translation to the scene of his future labors, but before this, Einsiedeln was yet to see him coming out boldly against one of the cardinal sins of the Papal Court.