The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli

by Johann Jakob Hottinger

With this we have enough about Zwingli's relation to the Papal See. That he had broken with it decidedly will be inferred from what has been quoted. By the government also Rome was not particularly feared. It seemed to set more value on its connection with the Bishop, which leads us now to take a glance at affairs in Constance.

Since the year 1496 the episcopal chair in that place was occupied by Hugo of Hohenlandenberg. History has a great deal to tell about his legations in the name of the Emperor, his treaties with the Confederates, his synodal constitutions, his ordinances and his pastoral letters. He was, particularly in his old age, an active, grasping man, restlessly employed in the maintenance and extension of his cathedral chapter, especially of its revenues. Scandalous facts could be adduced to prove the latter. The knowledge of his character made the Confederate governments shy of him, so that he was not always successful in his negotiations with them. In regard to scientific culture he needed foreign support, and when with the beginning of reform circumstances became more difficult, he was forced to a greater dependence on his general-vicar.

In the latter, who was at an earlier period Zwingli's friend, we now find his most bitter and decided enemy. John Heigerlin, son of a smith in the village of Leutkirch, had, according to the prevailing custom, assumed the Latin name of Faber (Smith). To the clerical estate, to which he devoted himself, after completing his studies in Vienna, he brought talent of no common order, and ambition to turn it to the best account. First a popular preacher in Linden, and esteemed likewise as an author, he afterwards accepted a call from the Bishop of Constance, who, as well as the Diocesan of Basle, wished to have him in his service. At the same time the degree of Doctor of the Common Law was conferred on him by the University of Freiburg. With all the better minds of the age he took a lively interest in the awakening of science, which immediately preceded the Reformation. He it was, who chiefly prevailed on the Bishop to declare against the wretched trade in indulgences, and encouraged Zwingli in his battle against it. Every improvement was altogether right in his eyes, if it only proceeded from the priesthood; every light, so long as it remained under its patronage. But nothing is more foreign to the spirit of caste than the fundamental idea of the Gospel, and between Christianity as represented by it and priestdom (by no means to be confounded with churchdom) the antagonism is irreconcilable. Hence all priestdom is in absolute need of supplements to the Gospel; it must have tradition; it cannot give it up without self-destruction. This is not the place to pursue this observation further; but it could not be wholly overlooked, because thus only are we able to account for the sudden change of feeling in a man liberal in other respects. As late as May 1521, he had ridiculed Doctor Eck, Luther's opponent, and accused him of traveling to Rome to offer his services to the Pope against Luther, and yet at the end of the very same year, he himself took the very same road. The extensive circulation of Luther's writings had stirred him up, because by this means religious questions were dragged down to the circle of the people, skillful and unskillful speakers arose among them, individual princes and governments sought to extricate themselves from the fetters of the spiritual power, and against all ordinances of the church, which were not clearly warranted by the Holy Scriptures, a growing indifference prevailed. He himself also wrote from Rome against Luther. "You cunningly strive"--he says in his book--"to subject the spiritual to the worldly, but the Lord will not suffer his anointed (Christos suos) to go to the ground." He came back to Constance completely transformed, and his influence was very soon observable here.

In the abduction of the pastor of Fislispach he had a hand, and the pastoral letter of the Bishop, to which we have alluded, as well as the address to the Zurich chapter of canons had, according to the universal opinion, proceeded from him. We saw that Zwingli put off answering the letter. He took some time for it. But then an ample vindication appeared. "May your Highness, illustrious Chief Shepherd"---he thus begins--"pardon, if I trouble you with this paper in your manifold labors. The Lord procure it a hearing! For six years I have preached the Gospel, and am now represented to thee not as a dutiful guardian, but as a robber and destroyer in the sheep-fold. By their continual, unwearied outcries they have prevailed on you to send an admonition, as illiterate as it is unbecoming, to the chapter of our convent. Thou wouldst have done nothing of the kind of thine accord; thou couldst not have written, of thyself, anything so vain and boasting; thou wouldst also have made known thy thoughts to us in the German language. Therefore I send thee this epistle called Archeteles, because I hope it is the beginning and end of my quarrel with thy counsellors." After this somewhat diffuse introduction follow the sixty-nine points of complaint, again printed, and an answer appended to each one separately. As he proceeds in the letter we see his courage and assurance increase; the style becomes bolder, his judgment more decided, and the interwoven sallies of wit more cutting, till here again in a feeling of triumph, and prompted by the lugubrious tone of the last point of the Bishop, he gives a mock-review of it somewhat in the manner of the litany:

That we may remain in the unity of our Holy Mother, the Church;--for this we beseech thee, O Lord, hear us.

That we may obey our Superiors, i.e. the pious governments;--for this we beseech Thee, hear us.

That Thou wilt teach the false bishops humility enough not to think themselves supreme lords but co-pastors, according to the word of Peter; for this we beseech Thee.

That Thou wilt enlighten them with thy light, first to acknowledge Thy true Church itself;--for this we beseech Thee, hear us.

That Thou wilt open for them the fountains of living water;--for this we beseech Thee, hear us.

From the troubled fountains, which they have dug, out of which no wholesome water flows;--set us free, O Lord.