The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli

by Johann Jakob Hottinger

But how very far in the rear was such science in Zwingli's age! Philology, history, an enlarged knowledge of nature and geography--what light have they not since furnished for the explanation of the Holy Scriptures! With what wonderful rapidity the results of scientific investigation, universally intelligible, are poured out by an unfettered press among the multitude! Questions must now be started, can not be kept back, on which nobody then, or at least a very few, ever thought; and if three centuries ago a knowledge of grammar only was needed for the interpretation of Scripture, there is now need of philosophy also.

Still, in a book designed for general information, we cannot enter deeply into what is scientific. It is enough to shew plainly, that Zwingli must not be judged by the ideas of our age, if in the discussion about images he opposed his friend Schmied.

In the noble feelings of the latter he shared, but surpassed Lim, in a just appreciation of the age and its immediate wants, and in the logical carrying out of a well-weighed system. Only by holding firmly to the very language of Holy Scripture could he keep his ground against his numerous opponents, for only thus far were his hearers able to follow him. We will see hereafter what difficulties he prepared for himself, when, instead of clinging to the letter in explaining the words of the eucharist, he yielded to a freer spirit.

"Well has my lord and brother said"--so Zwingli answered Schmied's objections--"that we ought to put away the false images in our hearts by the preaching of God's Word. I hope too that Leo and I have not been negligent in this; but he has spoken ill, when he calls images 'the staves of the weak.' Where is there any passage of this sort in the Holy Scripture? But we are to follow its plain language. And it is clear as day, that it permits no images, least of all those of gold and silver, of whose value poverty is deprived."

Hofmeister also thought, that, according to the commission he had received, he must admonish the commander to contend only with Scripture. The latter, from respect to the order of the government, did not prolong the colloquy.

So decided was Zwingli's victory, so general the aversion to meet him, that a whole troop of those, who were enemies, carpers and boasters behind his back, now became silent in his presence, when called by name. The manner in which some tried to get out of the affair was quite characteristic. This one played the part of an injured man, and growled out, that no body had a right to ask him as long as he kept his peace; that one naively declared, that he had believed the old, but now he must believe the new; a third, that he would teach nothing bad, that he could understand neither Greek nor Hebrew, and it were well if these languages had never come into the country; a fourth, that he could not fight, his sword having been broken off at the hilt; the prior of the Augustinians said, that he could give answer any moment from the Papal Decrees, and if he was not able to do it, then he would stand there like any other "cowled pate;" and the rest in a similar strain.

Thus the fate of images was decided by an easy battle. "This has been child's play,"--said Zwingli--"but now we come to a more important matter."

Here again we must be reminded, that it belongs to the province of theology, not history, to show in what nearer or more remote connection the doctrine of the mass, as then laid down and practised by the Church, stands with the declarations of Holy Scripture. It is enough to remark, that it rests upon the idea, so deeply rooted in the human spirit, of the duty of sacrifice. But what is true sacrifice? At bottom, nothing else than offering up to Him, from whom we have everything and by whom we are. In such offering--in offering at the same time from the purest love for man, Christ has gone before us all. That the perpetual presence of his sacrifice, therefore, must strengthen us in faith and love, we all agree. But then there is a difference between the sensuous and the spiritual apprehension of the fact. Zwingli taught that Christ offering himself must not be looked for in a host made of meal, but in his living image, the helper of the needy. "He who receives one of these, receives me"--so he himself once said. This was the plain, practical view, which Zwingli maintained not only in this Conference, but in his whole system of doctrine also.

This practical view has for centuries now exerted its influence amongst us, and with whatever reason we may be censured for other things--that there is a sense of active benevolence amongst us can never be denied. Here, Zurich, hold firm! Here is thy rock! May thy Church lean on it with wisdom, in youthful strength! Then need she dread neither time, nor science, nor Jacobins, nor Jesuists. Religion, that flower of life, has its root neither in the vague dreams of the rustic, nor in the naked formulas of the philosopher, but in noble, unpretending acts. Here the real and the ideal, the beautiful and the time meet for their eternally necessary mutual strengthening and purification.^[12]

Owing to the nature of the subject, the Conference assumed a more peaceful and scientific cast, and at times became quite familiar. Even Zwingli, especially after the commander Schmied had again spoken in his mild, conciliatory manner, confessed to his most persevering opponent, Steinlin, people's priest at Schaffhausen, that he had learned much from him, and desired, that, if severe expressions sometimes fell from his lips, they should not be laid too much to heart. "Many"--said he--"there are, who catch up only the bitter things said by me, and so too it happens with that learned gentleman, Martin Luther, whom they are willing to imitate in naught, save the sharpness of his language, which nevertheless he often utters out of true, ardent love; but the pious, faithful heart and its struggles after truth, remain unnoticed."