The people's priest began now by referring to the internal harmony of Zurich and her peaceful position toward foreign countries. He asked whether these could be a result of seditious doctrines, and such especially as were derived from the Gospel, which commands us to render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's and obey our rulers? He showed what human ordinances were, and denied that he rejected them without discrimination. Their beneficial tendency ought to be proven, and they, who enjoin them, ought to observe them also. He had never encouraged a violation of the rules of fasting, but rather advised them to be kept, in order to spare the weak. Yet he esteemed such restraint pharisaical and in conflict with the letter and spirit of the Gospel. Vattli was about to make objections, when Engelhart drew out his Greek Testament, and, having opened it at the beginning of the fourth chapter of the first epistle to Timothy, handed it to Zwingli. Zwingli translated the passage. Then the suffragan said nothing on this point, but exhorted the Council to respect the decrees of the Fathers and their usages, and not to sunder themselves from the Church. "Do not suffer yourselves to be persuaded, my dear lords"--replied Zwingli--"that anything permitted by us can produce such an effect. Among all people, he who does righteousness and loves God, he who believes the words of Jesus and follows Him, belongs to his Church."--This was succeeded by many speeches on one side and the other, which gradually became so warm that the burgomaster dissolved the meeting. But a unanimous resolution was passed by the Great Council, to request the Bishop, so to influence the highest authorities that by means of a council of learned men and synods an opportunity should be afforded for explanation and reply in regard to the point in dispute. The people's priests were to be exhorted meanwhile to enforce obedience to the rules of fasting.
By this important event, happening in the midst of the highest authorities of the canton, the fire, which had hitherto existed only in scattered sparks was now suddenly fanned into a clear blaze. The laity and priests, the bishop, the government and even the Confederates took steps, which compelled Zwingli, in the course of the same year to vindicate himself on all sides, to buckle on his armor for the conflict and declare himself openly.
The canon Hoffman, stirred up by the legation of the Bishop, was the first to take the field. A good scholar of the old type, pure in his morals, in former years a frank and fearless orator of the people, devoted, as was natural for an old man, to the forms in which he had moved during a long life, he esteemed it a duty to defend them, and that so much the more, because he was summoned to the task by the other clergy. He was lacking, however, in two particulars. According to his own confession he had heard Zwingli but seldom. Still he received as truth what was reported to him about his sermons, and boasted too much of his riper experience against a man scarce forty years old. Making skillful use of these weak points, the armed warrior advanced the more resolutely against the rusted weapons of his antagonist. The old man could not maintain his position. At a later period he once more regained his courage, and certainly it must be said to his honor, that, though vanquished, he did not shun the knightly combat.
With great bluntness, and not to a limited circle of associates like Hoffman, the monks poured out their wrath from the convent-pulpits. The more tasteless, silly, and ridiculous their revilings were, the more did they expose themselves to the edge of Zwingli's keen argument and wit. Without mercy he fell upon these people, among whom, as far as the monasteries of the city are concerned, not a single one is known, to whose praise anything can be said. We need only read his writings to see how, dealing blow upon blow, he pursued them into every corner, and brought out the truth in the clearness of sunlight against their loose harangues. But then, in the pride of victory he suffered himself to run perhaps into an extreme, which did not comport well with the earnestness of the pulpit or of controversy conducted in a dignified manner, and zealous use was made of this fact to his reproach.[5]
Remarkable phenomena began to develop themselves from this pulpit-battle against the monks. Hot-headed characters, old and young, impelled sometimes by a conviction of the truth, but oftener by conceit and a desire to make a noise in the world, interrupted the awkward preachers in the midst of their discourses, and accused them of teaching error and even lies. A tumult arose in the church. It might easily become a theatre of dishonorable strife. The Council arrested several of the most violent of these stormers and forbade all such disorderly behavior in future. Already the monks were in hopes they had won the day; but Zwingli did not suffer them to escape, and probably at his suggestion the preachers of the three orders were unexpectedly summoned to the house of the provost, where with a deputation from the government, the burgomaster Roist at its head, the three people's priests, the commander Schmied and all the canons were assembled, and Zwingli, being called on, began to read aloud from a written document to each individual, the errors which he had taught. They were greatly amazed, and denied some things, but admitted others. An attempt was now made to have the chapter of canons appointed as umpire and mediator, but Zwingli instantly opposed it with all his might: "I"--said he--"am bishop and pastor in Zurich; to me the care of souls is committed, and I have given my oath thereon, the monks not. They should hear me, not I them. Indeed, if they ever again preach lies, I will mount the pulpit and rebuke them publicly." Only in the conviction of his own strength durst he venture to use such language. Only their felt weakness struck his opponents dumb. Dr. Engelhart and the Commander Schmied also sided with Zwingli. The Councils saw themselves obliged to follow the men of learning, and the burgomaster concluded the act with the words: "Yes, Masters of the Orders, this is also the opinion of my colleagues, that henceforth vi u must preach the Gospel, Paul and the Prophets, and let Scotus, Thomas[6] and such stuff lie."
The monks, compelled now to restrain themselves somewhat in the pulpit, renewed their attacks the more stubbornly in private houses, confessionals, drinking-gardens and wherever else they could do so with safety. From Bunden, Constance, Luzern and Schwyz reports of their calumnies reached him through his friends. Nothing pained him so much as that he should be charged with distorting the Gospel. "Though I had firmly resolved"--so he says in a sermon--"not to answer those, who invented stories as to how many children were born to me this year, and as to how much money I got from princes and lords, yet I never could bear that such slander should be believed concerning me. Any one may say what he pleases about my morals, but blasphemy I will not tolerate." But then, the best citizens of Zurich roused to the highest pitch of enthusiasm clung to him, especially the younger generation, who trooped around him like a body-guard; and besides these, friends sprang up beyond the canton on all sides, who came out boldly, or watched over him in secret, were active on his behalf, and sympathized in his struggles. In Luzern, Myconius and the canon Kilchmeier advocated his cause even against statesmen and envoys of the Confederacy with danger to themselves, holding out as long as it was possible. In St. Gall, the same thing was done by Vadianus, who had returned from Vienna and settled in his native city; in Constance by the prebendary Wanner, who, when a member of the Episcopal embassy, had been won over by the weight of his arguments; in Bern by the Franciscan, Sebastian Meier, and in Freiburg by the youthful organist Kother, who expressed his love for him in verses after the manner of a capuchin-sermon. Martin Sænger, a native of Graubunden, sent him a poem against his and Luther's enemies, from the fictitious pen of the Abbot von Pfæffers, with the request that he would revise and prepare it for publication. He also received an evidence of faithful friendship in an anonymous letter of a more serious kind, written half in Latin and half in Greek. "Keep a special guard over thy health and life"--so it runs--"for it is high time. Verily thou art everywhere begirt by snares and spies; sharp poison is ready for thee. The knaves durst no longer rail against thee openly. But in secret they are plotting to mingle poisonous mushrooms with thy food, as was done for the Emperor Claudius. Hence take as much care of thyself as possible. If thou art hungry, then eat at home bread, which thine own maid has baked. Abroad thou canst eat nowhere with safety. There are persons living within your walls, who will venture everything to destroy thee. Who they are, from what oracle I have learned their design, I cannot write thee; but it utters more truth than that of the Delphian Apollo; yet it were a gross sin in a priest to give names either by mouth or pen. Thou art sharp-sighted, and able to guess with ease, whence that has come, which, out of brotherly love, could not be withholden from thee. Preserve thyself for thine own sake, for thy followers, for the cause of Christ, whose Gospel is proclaimed by you with such blessed results. Whoever I may be, I am thine. Thou wilt find out hereafter." This was the case. The writer was Michael Hummelberg, preacher at Ravensburg. Of the same import were the warnings of others, to guard the approaches to his dwelling, to take care, if he should be called from home, the breaking of his windows by stones hurled at them, and the attack, which was actually made one night on his assistant as he was about to go forth at the feigned call of a sick person, instead of the people's priest, who was expected by the bandits.
How little power all this had to frighten Zwingli from the course he had marked out for himself, is seen in a yet bolder step, which he took the same year--the sending of a petition to the Bishop of Constance in the Latin language and to the governments of the Confederacy in German, asking them to approve the marriage of priests. No proof is needed to show that the noblest endeavor of man is after self-rule, spiritual purification, the attainment of the supernatural. A few rarely-gifted individuals press up this steep path with ease; by far the greater number follow slowly and with toil. Before deliverance from the fetters of earth, no one achieves a complete victory. This world is a school not the home of perfection. They, who are nearest the goal, know best how far they are yet distant from it. The following reflections are suggested by this subject.
The statesman, zealous for the good of his country, as well as the thinker, busied with the higher interests of mankind in general, must both acknowledge in the difference and mutual wants of the sexes, in their union by marriage, the chief source of all civilization, the ground-pillar of all domestic, social and political well-being. Far be it from us to oppose merely natural impulses to purity of heart, endeavors after improvement, struggles for self-dominion; nay rather, marriage requires and makes all these the more easy. What victories over ease and self, what offerings of renunciation do not our duties to husbands, wives and parents demand? They are only the purer and nobler, because they spring from love, not compulsion. Still more--it is proved by all experience, that just in proportion as the marriage tie is worthily apprehended and held sacred, the heart is at the same time expanded with love for all men, and the sharing of common joys and sorrows in our own families teaches us to understand and share those of others also.
Hence Christianity has declared marriage to be pure and by no means placed him, who feels called to it by God and nature, below another, who has the power or inclination to remain independent in order to labor for the good of his brethren. The latter ought to be highly esteemed, but the choice left free to each one according to his own will, or necessity.
This is not the place to quote the passages, in which the Holy Scriptures speak of marriage, even in the case of preachers of the Gospel, the shepherds of the congregation. They are too numerous, too decided, too striking for any one to overthrow or weaken. Laying hold of these, Zwingli had drawn up the papers just mentioned. Ten of his associates signed with him the one addressed to the Bishop. Others approved of the thing, but did not yet venture to avow it openly. The concluding words of the memorial to the Confederates will here exhibit the character of the author in the clearest light: