"May God and our Lord Jesus Christ grant it!" wrote Martin Luther, in the beginning of the year 1525, "since a new storm is brewing. I had almost settled down to rest, thinking the battle over, when all at once this rises up, and it happens to me as the wise man says: If a man leave off, then he must begin again. Doctor Andrew Carlstadt has deserted us and become our bitterest enemy." This defection of Carlstadt, who wished to proceed in the work of reformation more thoroughly than Luther, demanding the destruction of images, and setting very little value on external worship, was spoken of with praise everywhere, and especially at Waldshut, by Thomas Muenzer, during his visit to the borders of Switzerland, about the middle of the year 1524. Muenzer likewise professed these same principles, yea, was ready, for his part, to go still further than Carlstadt himself. Just at this time, the fanatical proceedings in Zollikon, before described, the breaking of the images there and the removal of the baptismal font, took place. That Grebel and Manz were privy to this, and made frequent journeys to and from Zollikon, appears with entire certainty from reports afterward received. With Muenzer they did not become personally acquainted. Before they could accomplish this, he had traveled back to Germany; but his influence on Swiss affairs is evident from two letters sent to him soon after by Grebel and his friends.
"Dear brother Thomas," began one of them, "for God's sake, do not be surprised, that we address thee without title and urge thee as a brother to communicate with us by writing in the future, and that we, uninvited and unacquainted with thee, have ventured to open up a correspondence. God's Son, Jesus Christ, has prompted and impelled us to this act of friendship and brotherhood, and to make known the following points. Moreover thy work in two small volumes, on 'Faith Feigned,' have encouraged us. Hence, if thou wilt take it kindly, it shall be a source of good to us, if God will. Thou shouldst also know that thou along with Carolostadtius art esteemed amongst us as the purest proclaimer and preacher of the pure Word of God, although ye are little thought of by the lazy theologians and doctors at Wittemberg. We are also thus reprobate toward our learned pastors. With them everything depends on man, everything is done by him, so that they preach a sinful, pleasant Christ, and good discrimination is wanting to them, as thou shewest in thy little books, which have beyond measure instructed and strengthened us poor folks." But then, passing over the chief point, re-baptism, which had won for them a party in Zurich, and as a badge of confession, as a banner, had enabled them to keep together--they thus continue: "Because thou also hast uttered thy protest against infant-baptism, we trust thou actest not against the eternal word, wisdom and command of God, according to which we ought to baptise believers alone, and thou baptisest no child. If thou, or Carolostadius will not write in full against infant-baptism with all that belongs thereto, why and how we ought to baptise, then will I, Conrad Grebel, try my hand and complete what I have begun, against all who hitherto (except thee) have written on baptism at large and deliberately, and maintained the senseless, blasphemous form of infant-baptism; but if God do not prevent then am I, and then will I and all of us be sure of persecution from the learned and other people." Grebel also wrote to Luther and informed Muerner of it, in his second letter, in which, moreover, he warns him not to preach resistance against princes with carnal weapons. "For if thou must suffer on account of thy doctrines know indeed that it cannot be otherwise. Christ must still suffer in his members. But he will strengthen them and keep them firm unto the end. God grant his grace to thee and us. For our parsons are also fierce and wrathful toward us, and call us villains in the open pulpit and Satannas in angelos lucis convertos (wicked spirits in the garb of angels of light). In time we will see this persecution pass over us. Therefore pray God for me."[5]
In accordance with this view, Grebel and his friends prudently avoided stirring up any formal rebellion. And there is nothing at all to show that they had any direct share in the political movements, which we have already narrated, although their doctrines concerning the fraternal communion of Christians and the unscripturalness of tithes and rents, as they uttered them in general terms, could not but exert an indirect influence upon them. But in these discourses they always added exhortations to a resistance merely passive. By this means they attracted a crowd of followers, persons of excitable feelings and women especially, just in proportion as the doctrine of martyrdom stood high in the Catholic church. Indeed it often seemed as if persecution was only delayed too long for these people. Grebel thus wrote to Vadianus: "They talk of disturbers. They can be known by their fruits--decrees of exile and executions by the sword. I do not think the persecution will be delayed." But neither Zwingli nor the government thought of such a proceeding. They freely confessed that this would only aggravate the evil.
First then, because already, at sundry times, whole troops of these deluded creatures from Zollikon and the neighboring country, had come into the city, clad in sackcloth and ashes, and girt about with ropes, and cried out in the public squares: "Wo to Zurich!" and because a so-called confession of one of their number, a former monk, who usually went by the name of George Blaurock (Bluecoat) and whom his disciples hailed as a second Paul, was spread far and wide and made a great noise, the government ordered a conference to be held with them at the council-house. The following are the literal contents of Blaurock's Confession: "I am a door. He who enters by me will find pasture, but he who enters elsewhere, is a thief and a murderer, as it is written: I am a good shepherd; a good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep; so I also give my body and life and soul for my sheep, my body to the tower and my life to the sword, or fire, or the wine-press, where it will be pressed out of the flesh as the blood of Christ on the cross. I am a beginner of baptism and the bread of the Lord, along with my chosen brethren, Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz. Therefore, the Pope with all his followers is a thief and a murderer; in like manner, Luther with all his followers is a thief and a murderer; Zwingli also and Leo Judæ with all their followers are thieves and murderers, until they make this same confession also. I have asked my gracious Lords of Zurich, and still ask them, for leave to dispute with Ulrich Zwingli and Leo Judæ; I may not obtain it, but yet I await the hour, which my Heavenly Father has ordained therefor."
This hour came on the 17th of January, 1525. Bullinger, who was personally present, gives a description, but only a brief one, of the event. The Great Council, the scholars and the clergy were there; Manz, Grebel, Blaurock, Rœubli, Ludwig Hætzer, of whose work against images we have before spoken, were the chief antagonists of Zwingli. The latter began with an acknowledgment, that for some years he had himself been of the opinion, that it were better to postpone the baptism of infants to a more advanced age, but, after mature reflection, had reached a different conviction, which he thought sustained by the true sense of the Holy Scriptures, and then he unfolded this in an extended conversation with the Anabaptists. Whoever desires a more thorough knowledge of his views on this point will find them in his work on "Baptism, Re-baptism and Infant Baptism."[6] His main arguments for the latter were the following: Baptism is the external sign of admission into the society of Christians. To have received it once is sufficient. Adults were baptised by the Apostles, because they who first joined the church were of full age. The Holy Scriptures contain indeed no example of infant-baptism; but then just as little can be proven from them, that it was not practised. Mention of it occurs in the very oldest church-fathers. It took the place of circumcision, which had been commanded in the Old Testament, and strengthened the obligations of Christian parents, whilst it became to the children themselves a pledge and perpetual token of fidelity to Him who lovingly bade little children even to be brought to Him.
Light triumphed over darkness, science over sophistry, calmness over passion and stubbornness, the church over the sect, and the friend of reason and order over the demagogues. But it was a victory known only to the higher and educated classes; the people remained, and now the fanatics appealed to them, giving out everywhere, that Zwingli had not been able to withstand them. They held firmly to the letter, that resort of all intriguers and wranglers. Meanwhile, the Council resolved, the next day, that all children should be baptised within a week, that they, who would not permit it, should be banished from the canton; and that the congregation in Zollikon should restore the baptismal font. Grebel and Manz were enjoined to keep the peace. There was to be no more controversy about baptism, but, if desired, other articles of faith might be discussed. Rœubli, Brœdlein and Ludwig Hætzer received an order to leave the district within eight days.
But now resistance began with appeals to the Scripture, that we ought to obey God rather than men. Rœubli, Brœdlein and Hætzer left the canton; but the first kept up an exciting correspondence with his followers, from Waldshut, whither he had betaken himself, and Brœdlein, from Hallan. The latter wrote: "John, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to preach the Gospel, to the pious Christians, called of God, in the Christian congregation at Zollikon. Ye know, dear brethren, how I proclaimed to you the Word of God faithfully, clearly, simply, and did not deal with it as treacherous landlords, who pour water into the wine; ye know, how I have had courage, to live among you, to labor with my own hands and burden no one; ye know also, that for the truth's sake I have been driven from you by the will of God; finally, ye know, how faithfully I have warned you not to fall away from grace. This very day I call heaven and earth to witness that I taught you the truth. Abide in it, and ye are God's, and He is yours, and ye are blessed. Fall away from it, and ye are children of wrath, and God is far from you; ye are wretched orphans, and will flee before the moth. O how ardent and joyful have I been, since I came from you! Verily, I have not wept, but sung. O how glad I will be, if God suffers me to return to you again! When I had gone some distance, Christ came to us; yea, Christ in the person of his disciple; for a pious brother of Bern, Christian by name, traveled with us as far as Kloten, and left us the next day. Verily, verily, I often slipped on the road, but did not fall. Verily, verily, when we got over Eglisau, I and Wilhelm (Rœubli) despaired of our lives. I thought God had forsaken us. We lost the right path, and wandered about all that day, even among sticks and bushes. But God had thus willed it. Shortly we came to pious people and at last to Hallan. I left my wife and children there, and we went over to Schaffhausen. Verily, we found there our dear brother, Conrad Grebel. We visited Doctor Sebastian (Hofmeister) and took supper with him. Verily, he is of one accord with us in the matter of baptism. Would to God, it stood better with him in other things. We returned again to Hallan. The day after, Wilhelm went to Waldshut. On the next Sunday after Candlemas, I preached in Hallan and found a great harvest there, but few reapers. The people earnestly desired to hear me, and to this very day desire it. The clergy are as they may be. Antichrist still rules powerfully among the people. Pray God to enlighten them. Dear brethren, abide in faith, love and hope. Let no one terrify you. He who preaches to you any other Gospel, than I have preached, let him be accursed. Greet one another with the kiss of peace. Beware of every brother, who acts disorderly and not according to that, which he and you have learned. Beware of false prophets, who preach for pay. Shun them. Exhort ye one another and continue in the doctrine, which ye have received. The peace of God be with you all!"
That a letter of this sort--that the incessant exhortation and preaching of the leaders of the fanatics, who remained behind, bore legitimate fruit, was soon apparent from a succession of extravagant scenes in all parts of the canton. In entire districts the women particularly rose up. Troops of them streamed together, if any of these apostles came into the neighborhood, and begged from them re-baptism, or a sermon. The edicts of the government were praised by some, but scorned by others; even the clergy assailed them and strife sprang up in the churches. We have a lively picture of a scene of this kind in a letter from the Commander Schmied. "In the action taken"--he writes--"before the congregation at Eck, on account of your edict. My Lords, Pastor Bodmer, of Esslingen, called for Christian excommunication, i.e. the overthrow and rejection of your authority in the matter of baptism. Thereupon Master Laurence told him, that he and his followers had hitherto prevented Christian excommunication. Then Pastor Bodmer walked up and said to Master Laurence: You lie like a vagabond and knave, and if he abused him as a Baptist, he did not speak like a gentleman. Sir Burgomaster! That such a worthy and Christian man as Master Laurence should be called a vagabond and knave before his own church, and that by a Baptist, as was certainly done, is to me intolerable, and I ask that he may be helped to his just rights, so that such things occur not again. There was such an uproar in the church--they all rose up, joined together, pressed forward and crowded so knavishly through each other, that Master Laurence could not observe who did it. Then the subvogt commanded peace. Such an outbreak did this Baptist produce."
This, and reports of a similar character, which were sent in from the canton, induced the government to place Grebel, Manz, and some dozen of the most stiff-necked rebels of respectable education in the monastery of the Augustines, where Zwingli and the two other people's priests of the city received orders to visit them frequently. It was hoped they would be finally set right. But what a triumph it was for them, when they succeeded in puzzling Zwingli with one of his own assertions! He had said that no one, according to the New Testament, had been baptised a second time. Did he not know that Paul rebaptised those twelve in Ephesus, who had already been baptised by John?[7] The report of this victory over the hitherto invincible champion spread through the canton with amazing rapidity. "He is fallen," so they cried, "the false prophet, the great dragon; the Spirit of the Lord is with us. The Gospel will now be everywhere brought to light. Away with taxes! Away with the sword! No Christian will wish to be a ruler! We are all brethren. Sell your goods, lay all together on one heap. Let there be no poor any longer and no rich!" A second conference before a select assembly had now but little influence. The matter must be decided before the people, and Zwingli began to arm himself for the work. Meanwhile, he grappled with the subject in his sermons. He showed the difference between the baptism of John and that of Paul, brought out the antagonism between the letter and the spirit, and unfolded the consequences of the doctrines of the deluded fanatics, in such a clear, lively and convincing manner, that a storm of applause resounded through the church at the close of one of these sermons. The city was won.
But the canton yet remained. "Zwingli has the advantage in the protection of the government and the city," they cried. "Those, who are best able to contend with him, have been exiled, or not permitted to appear. Had it been otherwise, he must have yielded." Many honest, well-meaning people believed this; and the following petition, sent into the government, seems to have sprung from such a belief: "Honorable, wise, gracious Lords, we are indeed free to confess, that you have trouble and labor on our account, and on the other hand, that we are daily involved in great anxiety. Now, we are willing to suffer, and call upon God to help you and us to peace, which can indeed be brought about, if Your Worships propose a public conference, and invite other people to it; let them be those, who have been cast out because of this business, and others also. Then, whatever is established from the Word of God, to that we pledge you our bodies and our lives, our honor and our goods. But if indeed you wish an answer from us, it can be nothing else, than the public confession, that we have not grace from God to talk with Master Ulric, so that he can understand us, or ability to speak straight from the heart.