The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli

by Johann Jakob Hottinger

"Item, because the common people have been greatly disturbed in their faith by the printers, and the books published by Luther or Zwingli and their followers, it is our will, that no one shall print or keep such books for sale in our cities, cantons and territories; and, when they are seized on a colporteur, he shall be heavily punished; and whoever has such books for sale and takes them to a merchant, the merchant shall tear them to pieces, or throw them into the mire, and not be accountable therefor. But such works as the Old and New Testament, the Holy Gospels, the Bible and other Christian books of the twelve Apostles and Saints, their lives and doctrines, may be bought and sold. Item, whereas it is very plain that the poor common man who has been everywhere subjected to restrictions of a hard and severe character, by clerical prelates and convents, as well as by noble and plebeian judges, in their restraints on marriage, their lowering of prices, their rents and other feudal claims and privileges, and especially among our bailiwicks and dependencies, which now highly grieves and surprises us Confederates, and because, according to the terms of the federal compact no one canton can break off from the others in its rights, claims and privileges, and as in our bailiwicks collectively abuses and grievances have been very much practised against the common people, by the monasteries, nobles and judges, therefore, be it hereby resolved, that we take measures to alleviate and pass judgment therein, so that the poor common man may not be burdened by the lowering of prices, and heavy ground-rents, and so severely bound, but that favor and a remedy may be discovered. Item, in regard to the restraints on marriage, that is, when a man takes a wife, and a woman a husband, beyond the jurisdiction of his feudal lord, and the lord undertakes to punish him therefor, it is our will and ordinance, that no one be so punished, seeing that marriage is a sacrament, and every one should be free in such a case. But whoever desires a partner, and is able to pay a ransom, and procure his or her liberty, it shall not be refused, but granted for a reasonable sum of money. Should the lord be too severe, it shall be the duty of the magistrate, in every place and corner, where it occurs, to mediate therein and settle it according to equitable principles. Item, it shall be the bounden duty of every convent to hand in to the authorities a faithful account of its revenue, outlay, possessions and all its business. Item, although the clergy have hitherto been free and exempt from all burdens and incumbrances, and have so overawed the secular authorities with the ban of excommunication, that they never dared to lay upon them taxes, fines, school-money, customs, tolls, licenses, fees and other burdens, yet as there is no foundation for this custom in the Holy Scriptures, it having been introduced among simple Christian people by spiritual laws of their own invention, so that they might not be loaded with the same burdens; therefore, it is the will and purpose of our Lords and rulers, that all priests, whether secular or belonging to the monastic orders, shall share in all these, so that the common people may continue obedient to the civil authorities, according to the Christian rule; none of them shall oppose this, and it shall also be sent everywhere in the city and canton. And, finally, we Confederates reserve the right to add to, to take from, and to alter the articles here drawn up, if, in the meantime, anything better be discovered, even as our Confederacy stands responsible toward God and the world, and may be praiseworthy, useful and honorable."

This long document, which Bullinger alone has preserved entire, we here present with slight abbreviation, because it exhibits, in a manner more lively than any description could, the position in the state then held by the church, wherever the Reformation had not yet taken deep root. Great defects were acknowledged by all the governments, and the will was at hand to apply the remedy. But points of faith must be left untouched. Hence, these were summed up in the introduction. On the contrary, no special reverence is shown for the Pope and the higher position assumed by the clergy; indeed, in several essential particulars, a decided purpose is expressed to hold them in check, and if necessary even to resist them. There is room to conjecture, that if these articles had been carried into practice, they would have exerted a powerful influence against the Reformation, so far, perhaps, as to have confined it to Zurich, and even in the end to have suppressed it here.

But the impossibility of this soon appeared. The Great Councils of Bern, Solothurn and especially Basel durst no longer venture to enforce the general enactments against the married clergy, for the maintenance of rules of fasting and for the preservation of purgatory among the doctrines of faith, whilst on the other side, wherever they still had firm footing, the priesthood opposed all the articles, which would set limits to their greediness and love of power. Hence the general resolutions were not carried out, and only showed the more strongly the inward weakness of the Papacy.

But already, before this time, the first inconsistency, to which Zwingli himself was obliged to submit, came to the aid of his opponents. He had declared that the Gospel was able to endure any trial; that to prove the right and utter the results of his examination should be free to every one, and as he claimed this right in full measure for himself, he, for his part, denied it to no other man. Yet the State did this, and Zwingli fell in with the measure. As early as January, 1523, the following ordinance was published: "Masters Ulric Zwingli and Henry Utiger of the Canons, and Master Henry Walder and Master Binder of the Councils, are appointed to inspect everything which shall be printed in the city of Zurich, and the printer shall be informed and command given him, to undertake to print nothing without their knowledge and approval." Thus, the censorship of the press, which, till now, had only been exercised by the bishops and the Pope, was introduced by the State, by a republican state, and at a time when this state was subjecting the exclusive, established faith, to every kind of investigation. Whence this inconsistency? It did not spring from the Reformer, but only from the unavoidable necessity of his age, in which the capability of judging had not yet penetrated the mass of the people.^[6]

This was immediately perceived and made use of by the Papacy. Her skillful orators did not in the least blame the censorship of the press in Zurich, but thought it very judicious; but, "why then," asked they, "do you attack us for restrictions and watchfulness, when you yourselves cannot do without them? To-day you declare faith shall be free, that it can sustain any trial, and to-morrow suppress the writings of those who will not prove it in your way. Truly, like us, you need an authoritative creed. Only with us the old Church gives the command, with you the new Zwingli. This is very far from being a sufficient reason to induce us to go over to your party." What adequate reply can be made? In fact the time had not yet come, when the Reformation could stand by its own strength; the distinguished man alone sustained it. In this, lies the reason why Zwingli was indispensable to Zurich--in this the secret of his power in the State as well as the Church.

Also aware of this, the defenders of the Old Order were more and more convinced, that its maintenance or new establishment in the Confederacy, could only become possible, if they succeeded in putting Zwingli to silence, and for the attainment of this end they mustered all their powers. Hence, an offer from Doctor Eck, of Ingolstadt, known through his earlier famous disputation with Luther, and mentioned before in the beginning of this work, to come personally to Switzerland and do battle with the Reformer, was very welcome to the leaders of this party. As soon as Zwingli heard of it, he wrote to this champion and invited him to Zurich: here he could attack him and point out to his hearers, who needed it most, the errors of their teacher. "It is time," he concludes, "for me to leave off, if I have been a false prophet. But rather would I find out a way, if there be time, to prevent thee from deceiving the poor people with thy imposture. May God have pity on thee, take away thy stony heart and give thee one so warm, that one can write to thee with joy!" The Council of Zurich also sent an invitation to Eck, along with a letter of safe-conduct, pledging him a safe passage through the canton, coming and going. Eck declined it with the remark, that he must appear wherever the diet would appoint. The latter, after manifold negotiations with the bishops, after a final weighing of the different views of the governments themselves, resolved, in March of the year 1526, to accept the offer of Eck, to whom the general-vicar Faber had joined himself, and assemble a religious conference at Baden, in the middle of October. To these preparatory consultations and to the sessions of the diet Zurich had not been invited for a long time. In vain had she complained of it. But now she received a cold letter, almost hostile in its tone, from her sister-confederates, of which the following are the essential contents: "It cannot be concealed from you, that for a good while there has been much talk of a disputation. Transactions of this sort have not at all been displeasing and repugnant to your feelings heretofore. Well! Now we are to act for a final restoration of peace. Require Zwingli and his associates to appear here along with your deputies, and thus show yourselves as those, who would willingly suffer discord, ill-will and disturbance to be put away, and themselves be taught what is better." It is easy to imagine, that, on such an invitation, Zurich found the matter worthy of more mature consideration before she could accept.

The government had undoubtedly begun and proceeded, without heeding the frequent prayers and warnings of her Confederates, in a thorough work of reformation within the limits of her own canton; beyond these she had neither exercised, nor sought to exercise, a direct ecclesiastical influence. What she had done, was in strict accordance with her rights; no law of the Confederation had been violated by her. And yet the confederates continued to assume more and more the attitude of judges over her. When the deputies from the Zurich Council appeared in the midst of the diet, at the close of the discussion in regard to the conference at Baden, they were excluded, called in again, if they thought fit to come, not asked for their opinion, and simply informed of what had been determined without their assistance, and what they were now expected to carry into execution. In the same form, a knowledge of these decrees was a second time communicated to the government. The doctrines of Zwingli were styled heretical beforehand, and he was charged with being the author of sedition; then it was resolved: "It is not our will that any changes be made in the faith, and, as dutiful members, we have no thought of sundering ourselves from the Holy Church; but in order that Zwingli may be obliged to leave off his seditious teachings in our Confederacy, and the common people in some measure redeemed from error and rendered peaceful, we make arrangements for the disputation."

After such a declaration, what was the part demanded of the free state of Zurich? That she should appear in the circle of her confederate sisters in the attitude of a poor sinner; take back whatever she had established after mature trial; seize the Reformer and arraign him before an inquisition, by which he had already been prejudged as a heretic. And then what anxiety, what memories connected themselves with Baden, the place of the conference? It stood in close dependence on the most embittered cantons. The majority of its own citizens were hostile to the Reformation. Here, a short time before, the blood of the men of Stammheim and Burkhard Ruetiman had been shed by an unrighteous sentence, out of mere religious hatred and in violation of pledges; from thence, the same year, Nicolas Hottinger, of whom we have already spoken, had been delivered up to Luzern, to fall by the sword, in spite of all the intercessions of the Zurich government. The principles of the Romish Church in regard to those, whom she esteemed heretics, were well known. It had been openly declared by several, and believed by many, that they were not bound to keep faith with such persons. Just about this time, (December 11, A. D. 1525), Pope Clement VII., to whom the Zurichers had sent the Secretary Am Gruet, to collect the arrears due for military services, wrote thus: "If you do not forsake your new, ungodly errors, how can you expect us to satisfy these claims, lawful as they may be, without going counter to righteousness and the fear of God, since that cannot be justly allowed to heretics, which they have inherited from their forefathers?" In Freiburg, Zwingli's writings were burnt, and his effigy in Luzern. Several states had given orders to seize him, wherever he could be found. His brother-in-law, Leonard Tremp, wrote to him from Bern: "As you value your life, take care you go not to Baden; for no safe-conduct will be observed in your case; that I know." Can the government of Zurich be blamed for not wantonly exposing the man, in whose existence the entire development of its political and religious life was closely bound up?

And yet, when we see how the Messiah, whose Gospel the Reformer proclaimed, delivered himself up to the unjust judges; when we read his declaration: "Whoso loveth his life shall lose it;" when we hear Martin Luther say, as he began his journey to Worms; "And, if there were as many devils there, as tiles on the houses, I will yet go," and see him step forth courageously before the wrathful monarch and the empire;--indeed we might almost wish that Zwingli had not declined the challenge to battle, nor given his enemies occasion to triumph, and cry out to all the world that he did not dare to defend his own cause. Œcolampadius, who, sent by his government, had appeared there with unflinching courage, wrote to him from Baden: "Elsewhere than here, on the field of battle, we cannot meet these our opponents with befitting energy. Mere writing is not sufficient. Thou wilt expose thyself to danger, as is the case with us all. Yet perhaps thou knowest more than I. Do as thou thinkest best for the Gospel of Christ, to whom our life, as much or as little of it as still remains, alone belongs."

Not for one moment did Zwingli falter in the path, which he had marked out for himself. Though his faith continued firm and strong till the hour of his death, still there lay also in his character a spirit of worldly prudence, which rendered intolerable the thought of becoming a sacrifice to the craft of his opponents, who, instead of honoring his courage, would rather perhaps have laughed at him as a credulous dupe, in their joy over the success of their unworthy plan. The author of this work will neither justify, nor blame him on this account. His duty is, to present a faithful picture of the great man, leaving the reader to form his own judgment. But let us hear a few passages touching this point, from a long letter of his to the government of Bern, which had urged Zurich to accept the invitation to take part in the Conference: "I beseech you, wise and pious Lords, in the most pressing manner, to have my answer to your letter, which was sent to my Lords, but had reference to myself, read aloud and weighed with earnest and mature consideration; for I am not all opposed to, but in favor of a disputation. It is only the place that I cannot abide, and these are my reasons: No place stands open to me, since the cantons of Luzern, Uri, Schwytz, Unterwalden and Zug have the supremacy; for the aforenamed cantons have called me a heretic, summoned me to appear before them, rejected my doctrines, burnt my books and reviled me without any hearing whatever. It is a manifest pre-judgment. They themselves confess, that the disputation was only planned, in order to silence Zwingli. This is also a pre-judgment. As the aforenamed cantons have commanded me to be taken prisoner, how could I trust their safe-conduct? In the safe-conduct itself there is a proviso, that every one must behave agreeably to that safe-conduct; a common article where there is no danger; but it would not be enough for me at Baden; for just as soon as I would say: 'The Pope is Antichrist'--just so soon would they cry out against me, that I had forfeited my safe-conduct. Then, the Five Cantons, along with Faber and Eck, have made arrangements beforehand, behind our backs, in regard to the disputation, which ought to be impartial; and they have permitted the most scandalous writings of Faber and Eck against me to be sold freely, nay, to be hawked about at the Diet, whilst they would neither hear nor look at my answers. For these and other reasons, I would give a friendly caution to my gracious, loving Lords, to believe no one, who pretends that I wish to avoid the disputation. I do not; but only the place. Besides, there are three most excellent articles altogether omitted in the safe-conduct, viz: that the Bible alone should be the source and ground of argument; that no judge should be placed over God's Word; and finally, that the controversy should be carried on freely, and without interruption, on all points in dispute. But, indeed, there is no need to speak of safe-conduct or articles, whilst they will hold the disputation at Baden. I will not baden (bathe)."