CHAPTER SECOND (continued 2)

In the latter, who was at an earlier period Zwingli's friend, we now find his most bitter and decided enemy. John Heigerlin, son of a smith in the village of Leutkirch, had, according to the prevailing custom, assumed the Latin name of Faber (Smith). To the clerical estate, to which he devoted himself, after completing his studies in Vienna, he brought talent of no common order, and ambition to turn it to the best account. First a popular preacher in Linden, and esteemed likewise as an author, he afterwards accepted a call from the Bishop of Constance, who, as well as the Diocesan of Basle, wished to have him in his service. At the same time the degree of Doctor of the Common Law was conferred on him by the University of Freiburg. With all the better minds of the age he took a lively interest in the awakening of science, which immediately preceded the Reformation. He it was, who chiefly prevailed on the Bishop to declare against the wretched trade in indulgences, and encouraged Zwingli in his battle against it. Every improvement was altogether right in his eyes, if it only proceeded from the priesthood; every light, so long as it remained under its patronage. But nothing is more foreign to the spirit of caste than the fundamental idea of the Gospel, and between Christianity as represented by it and priestdom (by no means to be confounded with churchdom) the antagonism is irreconcilable. Hence all priestdom is in absolute need of supplements to the Gospel; it must have tradition; it cannot give it up without self-destruction. This is not the place to pursue this observation further; but it could not be wholly overlooked, because thus only are we able to account for the sudden change of feeling in a man liberal in other respects. As late as May 1521, he had ridiculed Doctor Eck, Luther's opponent, and accused him of traveling to Rome to offer his services to the Pope against Luther, and yet at the end of the very same year, he himself took the very same road. The extensive circulation of Luther's writings had stirred him up, because by this means religious questions were dragged down to the circle of the people, skillful and unskillful speakers arose among them, individual princes and governments sought to extricate themselves from the fetters of the spiritual power, and against all ordinances of the church, which were not clearly warranted by the Holy Scriptures, a growing indifference prevailed. He himself also wrote from Rome against Luther. "You cunningly strive"--he says in his book--"to subject the spiritual to the worldly, but the Lord will not suffer his anointed (Christos suos) to go to the ground." He came back to Constance completely transformed, and his influence was very soon observable here.

In the abduction of the pastor of Fislispach he had a hand, and the pastoral letter of the Bishop, to which we have alluded, as well as the address to the Zurich chapter of canons had, according to the universal opinion, proceeded from him. We saw that Zwingli put off answering the letter. He took some time for it. But then an ample vindication appeared. "May your Highness, illustrious Chief Shepherd"---he thus begins--"pardon, if I trouble you with this paper in your manifold labors. The Lord procure it a hearing! For six years I have preached the Gospel, and am now represented to thee not as a dutiful guardian, but as a robber and destroyer in the sheep-fold. By their continual, unwearied outcries they have prevailed on you to send an admonition, as illiterate as it is unbecoming, to the chapter of our convent. Thou wouldst have done nothing of the kind of thine accord; thou couldst not have written, of thyself, anything so vain and boasting; thou wouldst also have made known thy thoughts to us in the German language. Therefore I send thee this epistle called Archeteles, because I hope it is the beginning and end of my quarrel with thy counsellors." After this somewhat diffuse introduction follow the sixty-nine points of complaint, again printed, and an answer appended to each one separately. As he proceeds in the letter we see his courage and assurance increase; the style becomes bolder, his judgment more decided, and the interwoven sallies of wit more cutting, till here again in a feeling of triumph, and prompted by the lugubrious tone of the last point of the Bishop, he gives a mock-review of it somewhat in the manner of the litany:

That we may remain in the unity of our Holy Mother, the Church;--for this we beseech thee, O Lord, hear us.

That we may obey our Superiors, i.e. the pious governments;--for this we beseech Thee, hear us.

That Thou wilt teach the false bishops humility enough not to think themselves supreme lords but co-pastors, according to the word of Peter; for this we beseech Thee.

That Thou wilt enlighten them with thy light, first to acknowledge Thy true Church itself;--for this we beseech Thee, hear us.

That Thou wilt open for them the fountains of living water;--for this we beseech Thee, hear us.

From the troubled fountains, which they have dug, out of which no wholesome water flows;--set us free, O Lord.

From the intolerable burdens, which they have piled upon the shoulders of christians;--deliver us, O Lord.

Command them to bear and to do what they require from others.

And if they cannot be brought by other means to make Thy yoke easy to us and Thy burden light--force them to it, O Lord.

From his continued good-will toward Erasmus, Zwingli had sent him a copy of this production. But the tone of it did not please the elder and more considerate friend, although he himself in former years had made sparing use neither of ridicule nor censure. "I adjure thee"--he wrote--"by the honor of the Gospel, to which, as I know, thou hast consecrated thy whole heart, as we are all bound to do, that thou wilt treat serious things in a serious manner, and not forget evangelical modesty and prudence. Take counsel first from thy learned friends, before thou makest anything public. I fear thy apology will bring thee into great danger and be prejudicial to the Gospel." Though Zwingli felt the warning and returned thanks, it was not able to change his mind. For directly after the appearance of the Latin Archeteles he lent a helping hand in the publication of an address designed for the people, which was still more rough in its language. It consisted of comments on the above-quoted pastoral letter of the Bishop, and was edited anonymously and scattered everywhere by the Franciscan, Sebastian Meier of Bern, and his friends. A single passage, and that not one of the most severe, may serve to show its spirit:

"Dost thou see, dear Christian, where the shoe pinches them? They complain that Paul is preached. He pictures them so near to the life, and points out the office of the true bishop. When we preach up this, then a sheep can see, that those horned idols are not bishops but carnival-spectres, and such as the children make on St. Claus' day. Would to God they were as harmless! Why has it not vexed them that Aristotle, Cicero, fables, examples, Scotus, Thomas and silly stories are preached? I will tell thee. It does not injure them in their pomp. But Paul, who is now by common consent preached in many places, is consistent with himself, and pierces them in their princely splendor, voluptuous wantonness, and insatiable avarice. Hence they complain. Dear younkers, because you deal thus with facts and Paul teaches the contrary, what shape will you take, if we preach St. Peter? He snatches off your hoods and shows as well as St. Paul what horned cattle you are."

It is easy to see that writings like these must have made the breach incurable, and we durst suppose, that Zwingli himself perceived the possibility of it, and in such an event was clear in his resolves. The end of the subordinate relation of Zurich to the Bishop, as well as the beginning of a changed order, was closely connected with the Archeteles. For the origin and founding of this new church-government we pass on to the following chapter.

FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER SECOND:

Footnote ¹ [Instead of putting these altered versions into our own language, we give the poems as found in the English translation of Merle D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation, because the German of Zwingli has there been followed, and their original form and spirit better preserved.--Trans.]

Footnote ² This was the only means, as a letter, sent by Francis Zink from Einsiedeln to the government of Zurich, clearly shows, of keeping him in the city; for it was impossible any longer to pay the two assistants, whom he was bound to maintain, out of his own salary, without the pension of the Pope; nevertheless, in order to gain perfect freedom of speech, instead of accepting the doubling of the Romish allowance just then promised, he declined receiving from the legate what had hitherto been paid. Under these circumstances his friend Henry Engelhart came to his assistance, since, he having also a benefice in the church of Notre Dame (Frauen-Muenster), resigned his post in the cathedral, in Zwingli's favor.

Footnote ³ To avoid repetition in the answers, we will hereafter give those only, which contain something new, or characteristic.

Footnote ⁴ Only the first and shorter part of Zwingli's Latin letter is here translated; the second and larger, which, based on numerous passages of Scripture, contains Zwingli's vindication and belongs more to theology than history, will be quoted again merely in its leading features.

Footnote ⁵ Thus, for example, after some cutting expressions, he uses the words:

"Very learned Father, Full and plump, Open the swollen syllogism. Or the foul hoof Must give way."

Footnote ⁶ Obscure teachers of a former age.