THE PEASANTS' WAR.

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against it, this effect was diminished by the outspoken, strenuous opposition which Luther had made to the illfated enterprise. The Reformation is not responsible for the Peasants' War. It would have taken place if the Protestant doctrines had not been preached; and it was caused by inveterate abuses for which the ecclesiastical princes in Germany, by their extortions and tyranny, were chiefly accountable.

CHAPTER V.

THE GERMAN REFORMATION TO THE PEACE OF AUGS

burg, 1555: zWINGLE AND THE SWISS (GERMAN)

REFORMATION.

At the time when Luther was beginning to attract the attention of Europe, another reformatory movement, of a type somewhat peculiar, was springing up on a more contracted theatre. In the fifteenth century, the Swiss, whose military strength had been developed in their long and victorious struggle for independence, and who had done much to revolutionize the art of war by showing that infantry might be more than a match for cavalry, were employed in large numbers, as mercenary soldiers, in Italy. The Pope and the French King were the chief competitors in efforts to secure these valuable auxiliaries. The means by which this was accomplished were demoralizing in their influence upon the country. The foreign potentates purchased, by bribes and pensions, the coöperation of influential persons among the Swiss, and thus corrupted the spirit of patriotism. The patronage of the Church was used in an unprincipled manner, for the furtherance of this worldly interest of the Pope. Ecclesiastical discipline was sacrificed, preferments and indulgences lavishly bestowed, in order that the hardy peasantry might be enticed from their homes to fight his battles in the Italian peninsula. These brought home from their campaigns vicious and lawless habits. At the same time, in consequence of what they witnessed in

ZWINGLE'S EDUCATION.

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Italy, much of their reverence for the rulers of the Church was dispelled. The corrupt administration of the Church had a like effect on their countrymen who remained at home. Thus there was a combination of agencies which operated to debase the morals of the Swiss people, at the same time that their superstitious awe for ecclesiastical superiors was vanishing. The influence of the literary culture of the age, also, made itself felt in Switzerland. High schools had sprung up in various cities. A circle of men who were interested in classical literature and were gradually acquiring more enlightened ideas in religion, had their centre in Basel, where Erasmus took up his abode in 1516 and became their acknowledged head.1

Ulrich Zwingle, the founder of Protestantism in Switzerland, was born on the 1st of January, 1484, in Wildhaus, an obscure town situated high on the mountains which overlook the valley of Toggenburg. He was only a few weeks younger than Luther. The father of Zwingle was the principal magistrate of the town.2 Young Zwingle spent his boyhood at home, until he was sent to school first at Basel, and then at Berne. Brightminded and eager for knowledge, he was also early distinguished for his love of truth, which never ceased to be one of the marked virtues of his character. Like Luther, he had an extraordinary talent for music. afterwards to play on various instruments. associates at the University of Vienna, where he was first placed, was the famous Eck; and at Basel, to which place he was transferred, Capito and Leo Juda, who were to be his confederates in the work of reform, were among his fellow-students. Here his principal teacher was Thomas Wyttenbach, a man of liberal tendencies, as well as of devout character, who predicted the downfall of

He learned
Among his

1 There was a literary public. See Ranke, Deutsch. Gsch., ii. 40, 41.

2 See the account of Zwingle's family in the excellent biography of J. C. Mörikofer, Ulrich Zwingli nach den urkundlichen Quellen, 2 vols. (1867).

the scholastic theology, and imparted impulses to his pupils which eventually carried them beyond his own position. Zwingle was a zealous student of the Latin classics, and after becoming a pastor at Glarus, he prosecuted the reading of the Roman authors, partly for the truth which he loved to seek in them, and partly to make himself an orator. He entered, also, with diligence upon the study of Greek. He carefully copied with his own hand the epistles of Paul in the original, that he might have them in a portable volume and commit them to memory. More and more he devoted himself to the examination of the Bible and deferred to its authority. He read the Fathers, as counselors, not as authoritative guides. He was obliged to leave Glarus, on account of his bold opposition to the system of pensions and of mercenary service under the French. Zwingle was a He listened by

thorough patriot from his early boyhood. the hearthstone to tales of gallant work done by his relatives and townsmen in the recent war against Charles of Burgundy. As he grew older he witnessed the deleterious effect of the French influence, to which we have adverted. He saw, moreover, the low condition of morals among the clergy, and became more alive to the deplorable state of things from the bitter compunction which his own compliance with temptation in a single instance, cost him.1 At first he did not look upon military service which was rendered at the call of the Pope, the Head of the Church, with the same disapprobation which he felt in regard to the French. He even accompanied his parishioners to war, and was present on the field of Marignano. He, moreover, thought it no wrong to receive a pension from the Pope, which was first given him for the purchase of books. But his public opposition at

1 Leben und Ausgewählte Schriften d. Väter u. Begründer d. Ref. Kirche: Christoffel, Huldreich Zwingle, Leben u. Ausgewählte Schriften, i. 10; Opera Zwinglii, viii. 54 seq.

ZWINGLE OPPOSES THE SALE OF INDULGENCES.

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Glarus to the French party, which was strong there, obliged him to leave and to take up his abode at a smaller place, Einsiedeln, where he took the office of pastor and preacher in the Church of the Virgo Eremitana - Virgin of the Hermitage. This was in 1516. Here was a cloister as well as a church, with a store of legends. It was the chief resort of pilgrims from all the adjacent region. Indulgences were liberally bestowed, and a picture of Mary, of peculiar sanctity, attracted crowds of devotees. Zwingle, without directly assailing the worship of the Virgin, preached to the throng of visitors the doctrine of salvation by Christ, and of his mercy and sufficiency as a Saviour, which had been more and more impressed on his mind by the investigation of the Scriptures. The people felt that they were hearing new truth, and a striking effect was produced on many. He had now fully made up his mind to go to the Word of God as the ultimate authority, in preference to the dogmas of men. To individuals, to his friend Capito and to Cardinal Sitten, he stated that he found in the Scriptures no foundation for the rule of the Papacy.1 He even said to Capito, in 1517, that he thought the Papacy must fall. In 1518, he preached against one Samson, who, like Tetzel, was a peddler of indulgences, so that the traffic was stopped in the Canton of Schweitz, and Samson obliged to decamp. In 1519, owing very much to the influence of leading opponents of the French party, Zwingle was transferred to the Cathedral Church of Zurich, then a city of about seven thousand inhabitants. Here he carried out his purpose, which he announced at the outset, of expounding the Bible to his hearers, and of inculcating the truth which he found there. In this way, in sermons which were heard by a multitude with eager interest, he went through the Gospel of Matthew. He explained, also, the epistles of Paul; and for

1 Christoffel, i. 24.

.