HULDREICH ZWINGLI.* No biographer could be more entirely free than
is Professor Jackson from the besetting sins of his class. He frankly owns that his study of Zwingli records has " greatly increased his respect for the man." That is well; a good biography could hardly be written under other conditions. But he is abso- lutely candid and impartial. Zwingli was not by any means a perfect character, and Professor Jackson does not attempt to bide or extenuate his faults. He makes us see him as he was, warts and all.
The popular impression of the Zurich Reformer is that he was a hot-headed person, carried away by sudden impulse, and an advocate of violent change. He was, in truth, nothing of the kind. On the contrary, his development was more gradual than is usual in the leaders of great movements. A leader he certainly was, but not because he was always in advance of his party. He was born on January 1st, 1484, at Wildhaus, in St. Gall (a few weeks after Martin Luther), his father being what maybe called a substantial farmer. Huldreich (commonly softened into Ulrich) was the third of eight brothers, five of whom followed the paternal occupation, with an occa- sional turn at soldiering (for pay). James, the seventh, became a monk, and died, probably of the plague, in 1517 ; Andrew, the youngest, fell a victim to this disease while still a lad. It is startling to see how often the plague comes into the family history. William, Zwingli's eldest son, died of it ; so did his daughter Regula, and Anna (daughter of Ballinger), wife of his son Ulrich. The young Zwingli early showed a taste for letters, and was put under the charge of his uncle Bartholomew, who was evidently the scholar of the family, and, happily, a broad-minded man. He carried on his studies at Berne, and afterwards at Vienna and at Basel. In the latter University he became, for a time, a teacher of the classics. Zwingli bad a great deal of the Humanist in him. He actually found time, amidst all the storm and stress of his life at Zurich, to publish an edition of Pinclar. He had, indeed, a very alert intelligence. In one of his later works, on Final Causes, as we may put it, we find the curious story of how the rat transforms himself into a cart by turning on his back so that he may be dragged off by his companions with some coveted possession held between his feet. At the age of twenty-six he took Orders, having received a call to Glarus, where he remained for ten years, still keeping up, amidst his duties as parish priest, his studies and his work as a teacher. Of external events the most important was his service as chaplain with the Glarus contingent of Swiss mercenaries. He was present at the bloody battle of Ravenna in 1512, and at Novara in the following year. Leo X. was struck by his personality, and sought to attach him to his service by a pension of fifty gulden. Zwingli came to feel that this mercenary soldiering was a bad business, and did his best to stop it. In the matter of the Papal pension he does not come out *ith clean bands. He kept it after he had taken up a position of antagonism to the Papacy. " They would not stop it," he said in his own defence; but he did not deny that be accepted the money. In 1516 he was appointed preacher at Einsiedeln, where there was, and still is, a famous chapel of the Virgin. This was a great compliment to his powers as a preacher, as only men of repute were set to address the crowds of devout pilgrims who visited this shrine. In 1519 he was appointed to the post which he filled for the rest of his life, " people's priest " of the Great Minster of Zurich. Up to this time he had stood on the old ways, • Huldreich Zwingli. ale Reformer of German Switzerland. By Samna' Macaulay Jackson. Loudon : G. P. Putnam's Sons. [66.1
and had certainly no thought of breaking with Rome. He treated social and political topics with unusual freedom, and in his exposition of Scripture he had shaken himself free from patristic trammels. But he was not a Reformer. He was even content to live in the left-handed marriage that was thought to be permissible, if not laudable, in a celibate clergy. So far he did not seem likely to turn the world upside down. In 1519 he came into collision with one Bernhardin Samson, who was hawking indulgences,—he had seen the man before at Einsiedeln. The Diet supported him, and even appealed to the Pope, who promptly disowned his agent. " If you had rather that Brother Bernhardin return to Italy than remain with you, send him off without ceremony." And they did so send him off. Leo had not been so complaisant in Germany, but he had very good reasons for keeping on good terms with the Swiss. Besides, by this time it had become evident that the popular interpretation of indulgences would have to be disavowed. In 1520 the Pope launched his Bull of Excom- munication against Luther. Zwingli did his best to delay it; his attitude was not yet so decided but that be could do this with some chance of success. There was no dramatically sudden change in him. He moved, or was moved, on step by step. In 1522 there was a revolt in Zurich against fasting. It had Zwingli's countenance, though, characteristically enough, be observed personally the usual restrictions. The Council of the city maintained the old order, but with an evident desire for compromise. The marriage of the clergy was the next matter to come into debate ; then the practice of adoration of the saints was questioned. In the same year Zwingli resigned his post as "people's priest," as involving duties which he could not conscientiously perform. If one has to fix the moment for his breach with Rome it must be this. In 1523 the City Council held the first of many disputations ; it seems to have retained a boundless faith in these instruments of reconciliation. Eck and Zwingli were the chief disputants, and both, of course, claimed the victory. Zurich, however, was practically per- suaded. The old order rapidly disappeared, though its great leader moved slowly, still keeping the vestments and cross in 1523, and preserving the images in the Great Minster, though he denounced their use as idolatrous.
As soon as something like uniformity had been attained other troubles began. There were threats of a rising of peasants, though it was nothing like the trouble with which Luther had to do, and there was the Anabaptist schism. Zwingli took up at first an attitude of moderation on this matter. He saw the disadvantage of putting children into a position of high Christian privilege, if " they are not as well religiously instructed after baptism as the children of the ancients were before baptism." The City Council employed its panacea of a disputation. The Anabaptists were said to be defeated, and the knot was cut in a summary fashion. All were to have their children baptised within the next week; failing this, they were to be banished. And banished they were. "Anabaptists," indeed, they had not hitherto been; but now they carried out their tenets to the logical end, and rebaptised. Another disputation was held,—of course, to no purpose. Two of the leaders were burnt; another was drowned in the Lake of Zurich. This deplorable deed gives
a sinister force to Zwingli's favourite nickname for these people — " Catabaptists " he called them. KIXTCOXTTgElY
means " to drown." The Reformer does not show to advantage in this matter. But the tolerant Reformer was not to be found in that age, and, indeed, has not been very common since.
But if the Anabaptists were odious to the Zwinglians, these, in their turn, were scarcely better loved by the Lutherans ; and the famous " Colloquy of Marburg " failed to bring about a reconciliation. The disputants parted, to all appearance, worse disposed to each other than when they met. " They are
not only liars but the very incarnation of lying," are the words
which Luther uses of Zwingli and Carlstadt. The Land- grave, who was not familiar with these theological amenities, was shocked, and did his best to persuade the opponents "to have regard to the Republic of Christ and put strife away." The Lutherans were so far moved as to express
their willingness to regard Zwingli's following as "friends, but not as brethren and members of the Church of Christ," a not very logical conclusion. Here, certainly, Zwingli, " begging with tears in his eyes" to be recognised as a brother, shows to more advantage. And in the last scene of all he shows to advantage still. There had been trouble between Zurich and the Cantons which held by the old faith. These—the ", Five Cantons"— had allied themselves with Austria, while a Zuricher had been put to death in Schwyz on account of his religion. In the first war the Five Cantons were overawed by the forces of their antagonists, who were thirty thousand strong, and yielded all demands. But they were only biding their time. In October, 1531, they declared war, and found Zurich isolated and unprepared. Common prudence would have dictated to the Zurichers to remain behind their walls, but they elected to march against the enemy, and Zwingli went with them, not to fight, but to encourage his flock. They were hopelessly overmatched from the first. Zwingli was wounded, and fell by the roadside. There he was slain by an officer in the victorious army. No one, happily, knew who he was. When his remains were recognised they were treated with the most brutal indignities. Of course, the words " They that take the sword shall perish by the sword" have been freely applied to him. But it must be remembered that it had been the im- memorial custom in Zurich that the chief pastor should carry the city banner. We do not envy any one who can think the worse of Huldreich Zwingli for the manner of his death.
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