fear that some would have less respect for Paul, as he was not one of the twelve, he showed the identity of Peter's doctrine by an exposition of his epistles. He had great power as a preacher: one of his hearers said that it seemed to him that Zwingle held him by the hair of his head. When Samson appeared with his indulgences (in 1519), he again denounced him and his trade, and was supported in his opposition by the Bishop of Constance, to whom Samson had neglected to exhibit his credentials; so that the friar was denied permission to vend his wares in Zurich. Zwingle was a man of robust health, cheerful countenance and kindly manners, affable with all classes; a man of indefatigable industry, yet enjoying domestic life to the full - he was married in 1524 — and fond of spending an evening at the inn, in familiar conversation with magistrates or leading citizens, or with strangers who happened to be present.1 Upright, humble before God, but fearless before men, devoted to the work of a preacher and pastor, but taking an active part in whatever concerned the well-being of his country, Zwingle acquired by degrees, though not without opposition and occasional exposure to extreme danger, a controlling influence in Zurich. A turning point in his career was the public disputation, which was held at his own request, under the auspices of the government of Zurich, on the 29th of January, 1523, in the great Council Hall, where he had proposed to defend himself against all who chose to bring against him charges of heresy. He had really won the battle beforehand, in persuading the Council to take the part of judges, and to have all questions decided by reference to the Scriptures alone. In an open space, in the midst of an assembly of more than six hundred men, he sat by a table, on which he

1 "Seriis et jocos miscuit et ludos: nam ingenio amoenus, et ore jucundus supra quam dici possit, erat. Dein musices omnis generis instrumenta perdidicit et exercuit, non nisi ut ingenio seriis illis defatigato et recreari et ad ea paratior redire posset." Myconius, Vita Huld. Zwinglii, iii.

ZWINGLE'S THEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES.

141 had placed the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures and the Latin version. His triumphant maintenance of his opinions against his feeble assailants, resulted in an injunction from the Council to persevere in preaching from the Scriptures alone, and a like command to all the clergy to teach nothing which the Scriptures do not warrant. In this conference he defended sixty-seven propositions which were leveled against the system of the Roman Catholic Church. The authority of the Gospel is substituted for the authority of the Church; the Church is declared to be the communion of the faithful, who have no head but Christ; salvation is through faith in Him as the only priest and intercessor; the Papacy and the mass, invocation of saints, justification by works, fasts, festivals, pilgrimages, monastic orders and the priesthood, auricular confession, absolution, indulgences, penances, purgatory, and indeed all the characteristic peculiarities of the Roman Catholic creed and cultus are rejected. Jurisdiction over the authorities of the Church is claimed for the civil magistrates. Again, in another disputation, before a much more numerous audience, on the 26th of October following, he obtained a decree of the Council against the use of images and the sacrifice of the mass. After a severe contest, he established the principle that the fasts of the Church are optional, not obligatory. In all the changes of this sort, radical as they were, extending even to the disuse of the organ in the minster, Zwingle proceeded temperately, with the same regard to weak consciences which Luther had shown, and taking care that everything should be done in an orderly manner, and by public authority. Like Luther, he had a contest to sustain with Anabaptist enthusiasts. Zurich, separated from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Constance, became a Church, at the head of which were the magistrates, who were proper representatives, in Zwingle's view, of the body of the congregation (1524).

1 Zwingle, Opera, vii. Herzog, Real-Encycl., art. "Zwingli,” xviii. 716.

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. 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."

THE REFORMATION SPREADS FROM ZURICH.

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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. The 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