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In 1525 Zwingle published his principal work, the Commentary on True and False Religion," which was dedicated to Francis I.; and, about the same time, a treatise on original sin. In these and other writings he set forth his theological system. In most points he coincides with the usual Protestant doctrine. But, as will be explained, he departed farther from the old system in his conception of the sacraments; he ascribed to them a less important function; and he considered original sin a disorder rather than a state involving guilt.1 It is remarkable that Zwingle in his philosophy was a predestinarian of an extreme type, and anticipated Calvinism in avowing the supralapsarian tenet; in this particular going beyond Augustine. But he held that Christ has redeemed the entire race, which has been lost in Adam; and that infants, not only such as are unbaptized in Christian lands, but the offspring of the heathen, also, are all saved. Moreover, he did not accept the prevailing belief in the universal condemnation of the heathen. The passages of Scripture which seem to assert this he regarded as intended to apply only to such as hear the Gospel and willfully reject it. The divine election and the illumination of the Spirit are not confined, he thought, within the circle of revealed religion, or to those who receive the Word and sacraments. The virtues of heathen sages and heroes are due to divine grace. By grace they were led to exercise faith in God. A Socrates, he says, was more pious and holy than all Dominicans and Franciscans. On the catalogue of saints with the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament he associates, besides Socrates, the names of the Scipios, Camillus, the Catos, Numa, Aristides, Seneca, Pindar, even Theseus and Hercules.2 The

1 His opinion on this subject varied somewhat at different times. See Zeller, Das theol. Syst. Zwinglis dargestellt (Abdruck aus Jahrg. 1853, Theol. Jahrb.) p. 51 seq.

2 Fidei Expositio, Opera, iv. 65. "Non fuit vir bonus, non erit mens sancta, non fidelis anima, ab ipso mundi exordio usque ad ejus consummationem, quem non sis isthic cum Deo visurus."

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influence of Zwingle's humanistic culture is obvious in this portion of his teaching. "He had busied himself," says Neander, "with the study of antiquity, for which he had a predilection, and had not the right criterion for distinguishing the ethical standing-point of Christianity from that of the ancients." 1

From Zurich the Reformation spread. In Basel it had for a leader Ecolampadius, who had belonged to the school of Erasmus, was an erudite scholar of mild temper, and in his general tone resembled Melancthon. In that city it gained the upper hand in 1529. In Berne it was established after a great public disputation, at which Zwingle was present, in 1528. The same change took place in St. Gall and Schaffhausen.

This ecclesiastical revolution was at the same time a political one. There was a contest between the republican and reforming party on the one hand, who were bent on purifying the country from the effects of foreign influence, from the corruption of morals and of patriotism which had resulted from that source, and an oligarchy, on the other, who clung to their pensions, and to the system of mercenary service with which their power was connected. The party of Zwingle were contending for a social and national reform, on a religious foundation. They aimed to make the Gospel not only a source of light and life to the individual, but a renovating power in the body politic, for effecting the reform of the social life and of the civil organization of the country.

We have now to consider the relation of the Lutheran and Zwinglian movements to one another. There were

1 Dogmengeschichte, ii. 263. On this topic Neander has written an able discussion: Über das Verhältniss d. hellenischen Ethik zur Christlichen; Wissenchaftl. Abhandlungen, p. 140. It had not been uncommon for the strictest Roman Catholics to believe in the salvation of Aristotle. Of Zwingle, Henri Martin says (Histoire de France, viii. 156): "On peut considérer l'œuvre de Zuingli comme le plus puissant effort qui été fait pour sanctifier la Renaissance et l'unir à la Réforme en Jésus Christ."

great differences between the two leaders. Luther had, so to speak, lived into the system of the Latin Church to a degree that was not true in the case of Zwingle. Out of profound agitation, through long mental struggles, in which he received little aid or direction from abroad, Luther had come out of the old system. It was a process of personal experience with which his intellectual enlightenment kept pace. One truth, that of salvation by faith, in contrast with salvation by the merit of works, stood prominently before the eyes of Luther. The method of forgiveness, of reconciliation with God, had been with him, from his early youth, the one engrossing problem. The relation of the individual to God had absorbed his thoughts and moved his sensibilities to the lowest depths. The renunciation of the authority of the Church was an act to which nothing would have driven him but the force of his convictions respecting the central truth of justification by faith alone. The course of Zwingle's personal development had been different. Of cheerful temper and fond of his classics, he had felt no inclination to the monastic life. He came out of the Erasmian school. authority of the Church never had a very strong hold upon him, even before he explicitly questioned the validity of it. As he studied the Scriptures and felt their power, he easily gave to them the allegiance of his mind and heart. It cost him little inward effort to cast off whatever in,the doctrinal or ecclesiastical system of the Latin Church appeared to him at variance with the Bible or with common sense. In his mind there was no hard conflict with an established prejudice. It would be very unjust to deny to Zwingle religious earnestness; but the course of his inward life was such that, although he heartily accepted the principle of justification by faith, he had not the same vivid idea of its transcendent importance which Luther had. Zwingle, a bold and independent student, took the Bible for his chart, and was de

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terred by no scruples of latent reverence from abruptly discarding usages which the Bible did not sanction. While Luther was disposed to leave untouched what the Bible did not prohibit, Zwingle was more inclined to reject what the Bible did not enjoin. Closely related to this difference in personal character, is the very important diversity in the aims of the two reformers. Luther was practical, in one sense of the term; he sympathized with the homely feelings, as he was master of the homely language of the people. No man knew better how to reach their hearts. He was a German who was inspired with a national sentiment, and indignantly resented the wrongs inflicted upon his country. But his aim was throughout a distinctly religious one. He drew a sharp line between the function which he conceived to belong to him, as a preacher and theologian, and the sphere of political action. Absorbed in the truth which he considered the life and soul of the Gospel, and intent upon propagating it, he had no special aptitude for the organization of the Church; much less did he meddle with the affairs of civil government, except in the character of å minister, to enjoin obedience to established authority. Zwingle's aim and work were so diverse, his turn of mind and his circumstances being so different, that Luther and the other Saxon theologians were slow in understanding him and in doing justice to him.1 Zwingle was a patriot and a social reformer. The salvation of his country from misgovernment and immorality was an end, inseparable, in his mind, from the effort to bring individuals to the practical acceptance of the Gospel.2 The Swiss people must be lifted up from their degeneracy; and the instrument of

1 There is an excellent essay by Hundeshagen, Zur Characteristik Ulrich Zwinglis u. seines Reformationswerkes unter Vergleichung mit Luther und Calvin. Studien u. Kritiken, 1862. 4.

2 Of his attack upon the system of pensions, his friend Myconius says: "Hunc videbat tunc demum doctrinæ cœlesti locum futurum, ubi fons malorum esset exhaustus omnium."-Vita Zwinglii, iv.

doing this was the truth of the Bible, to be applied not only to the individual in his personal relations to God, but also to correct abuses in the social and civil life of the nation. These grew out of selfishness, and there was no cure for that save in the Word of God. After Zwingle renounced the Pope's pension, and declined his flattering offer to make it larger, and took his stand against foreign influence, come from what quarter it might, which attained its ends at the cost of national corruption, he resembled in his position, in his mingled patriotism and piety, the old Hebrew prophets. "The Cardinal of Sitten," he said, "with right wears a red hat and cloak; you have only to wring them and you will behold the blood of your nearest kinsmen dripping from them!" He would have the Swiss abstain from all these dishonorable, pernicious alliances.

The question of priority as to time, between Luther's movement and that of Zwingle, has often been discussed. Zwingle asserted with truth that his opinions concerning the authority of the Scriptures and the method of salvation, were formed independently of the influence of Luther. It is true that, independently of Luther, Zwingle, as early as 1518, preached against the sale of indulgences. But the expressions of Zwingle on these topics were such as might be heard elsewhere from other good men. In this matter he had the support of the Bishop of Constance, and did not incur the displeasure of Leo X., who had, perhaps, learned moderation from the occurrences in Saxony. The great point in Luther's case was his collision with the authority of the Church. It is justly claimed for Luther that he broke the path in this momentous and perilous conflict. When Luther was put under the ban of the Church, Zwingle was still the recipient of a pension from the Pope. When Luther at Worms, in the face of the German Empire, refused to submit to the authority of Pope or Council, Zwingle had not yet been