History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume II Part 54

[884] Venit puer, quam misisti, inter prandendum.... (Ibid., p. 209.)

[Sidenote: STATE OF MATTERS AT LUCERNE.]

Thus the crisis approached in Lucerne: the sh.e.l.l had fallen, and could not but burst. The guests read the pet.i.tions. "May G.o.d bless this beginning,"[885] said Oswald, looking up to heaven, and then added, "This prayer must, from this moment, be the constant occupation of our hearts." The pet.i.tions were forthwith circulated, perhaps with more ardour than Zuinglius had requested. But the moment was singular.

Eleven individuals, the flower of the clergy, had placed themselves in the breach: it was necessary to enlighten men's minds, to fix the irresolute, and gain over the most influential members of the Diet.

[885] Deus cpta fortunet! (Ibid., p. 210.)

Oswald, in the midst of this labour, did not forget his friend. The young messenger had told him of the attacks which Zuinglius had to endure from the monks at Zurich. Writing him the same day, he says, "The truth of the Holy Spirit is invincible. Armed with the s.h.i.+eld of the Holy Scriptures you have remained conqueror, not in one combat only, nor in two, but in three, and the fourth is now commencing....

Seize those powerful weapons which are harder than diamond! Christ, in order to protect his people, has need only of his Word. Your struggles give indomitable courage to all who have devoted themselves to Jesus Christ."[886]

[886] Is permaneas, qui es, in Christo Jesu.... (Zw. Ep. p. 210.)

At Lucerne, the pet.i.tions did not produce the result antic.i.p.ated. Some pious men approved of them, but these were few in number. Several, fearing to compromise themselves, were unwilling either to praise or blame.[887] "These folks," said others, "will never bring this affair to a good end!" All the priests murmured, grumbled, and muttered between their teeth. As to the people, they were loud against the gospel. A rage for war was awakened in Lucerne after the b.l.o.o.d.y defeat of Bicoque, and engrossed all thoughts.[888] Oswald, who was an attentive observer of these different impressions, felt his courage shaken. The evangelical future which he had antic.i.p.ated for Lucerne and Switzerland seemed to vanish. "Our people," said he, uttering a deep sigh, "are blind to the things of heaven. In regard to the glory of Christ, there is no hope of the Swiss."[889]

[887] Boni qui pauci sunt, commendant libellos vestros; alli non laudant nec vituperant. (Ibid., p. 210.)

[888] Belli furor occupat omnia. (Ibid.)

[889] Nihil ob id apud Helvetios agendum de lis rebus quae Christi gloriam possunt augere. (Ibid.)

[Sidenote: KILCHMEYER. HALLER. MEYER.]

Wrath prevailed, especially in the Council and the Diet. The pope, France, England, and the empire, all around Switzerland, was in agitation after the defeat of Bicoque, and the evacuation of Lombardy by the French under Lautrec. Were not political interests at that moment complicated enough before these eleven men came with their pet.i.tions to mingle religious questions with them? The deputies of Zurich alone were favourably disposed to the gospel. Canon Xylotect, afraid for his own life and that of his wife, (he had married into one of the first families in the country,) had refused, with tears of regret, to repair to Einsidlen and sign the addresses. Canon Kilchmeyer had shown greater courage. He, too, had everything to fear. "Condemnation threatens me," he writes to Zuinglius, on the 13th August; "I await it without fear...." As he was writing these words, an officer of the council entered the room, and cited him to appear next day.[890] "If they put me in irons," said he, continuing his letter, "I claim your help; but it will be easier to transport a rock from our Alps than to move me a finger's breadth from the word of Jesus Christ." The regard which was deemed due to his family, and the resolution which they had taken to let the storm fall upon Oswald, saved the canon.

[890] Tu vero audi. Haec dum scriberem, irruit praeco, a Senatoribus missus... (Zw. Ep. 213.)

Berthold Haller, probably because he was not a Swiss, had not signed the pet.i.tions. But full of courage, he, like Zuinglius, expounded the gospel according to Matthew. A vast crowd filled the cathedral of Berne. The word of G.o.d operated more powerfully on the people than Manuel's dramas. Haller was summoned to the Town House; the people accompanied their good-natured pastor, and remained around the spot.

The council was divided. "This concerns the bishop," said the leading men. "The preacher must be handed over to my lord of Lausanne." The friends of Haller trembled at these words, and told him to withdraw as quickly as possible. The people flocked round, and accompanied him to his house, where a great number of burghers remained in arms prepared to make a rampart of their bodies in defence of their humble pastor.

The bishop and council were overawed by this energetic demonstration, and Haller was saved. Haller was not the only combatant at Berne.

Sebastian Meyer at this time refuted the pastoral letter of the Bishop of Constance, and in particular the formidable charge, "that the gospellers teach a new doctrine, but that the old doctrine is the true." "To be wrong for two thousand years," said Meyer, "is not to be right for a single hour; otherwise the heathen ought to have adhered to their belief. If the most ancient doctrines must carry the day, fifteen hundred years are more than five hundred years, and the gospel is more ancient than the ordinances of the pope."[891]

[891] Simmi. Samml. vi.

[Sidenote: MYCONIUS PERSECUTED.]

At this period the magistrates of Friburg intercepted letters addressed to Haller and Meyer by a canon of Friburg, named John Hollard, a native of Orb. They imprisoned, then deposed, and at last banished him. John Vannius, a chorister in the cathedral, shortly after embraced the evangelical doctrine; for in the Christian warfare one soldier no sooner falls than another takes his place. "How could the muddy water of the Tiber," said Vannius, "subsist beside the pure water which Luther has drawn from the spring of St. Paul." But the chorister's mouth was also closed. Myconius wrote to Zuinglius, "Scarcely will you find in Switzerland men more averse to the gospel than the Friburghers."[892]

[892] Hoc audio vix alios esse per Helvetiam, qui pejus velint sanae doctrinae. (Zw. Ep. p. 226.)

Lucerne ought to have been stated as an exception. This Myconius knew.

He had not signed the famous pet.i.tions, but his friends had if he had not, and a victim was required. The ancient literature of Greece and Rome began, thanks to him, to shed some light in Lucerne; numbers arrived from different quarters to attend the learned professor, and the friends of peace were charmed with sounds sweeter than those of halberds, swords, and cuira.s.ses, which alone had hitherto resounded in the warlike city. Oswald had sacrificed everything for his country. He had quitted Zurich and Zuinglius; he had lost his health; his wife was pining;[893] his son was in childhood; if even Lucerne rejected him he could nowhere hope for an asylum. But no matter; factions have no pity, and the thing which ought to excite their compa.s.sion stimulates their rage. Herbenstein, burgomaster of Lucerne, an old and valiant warrior who had gained a distinguished name in the wars of Suabia and Burgundy, followed up the deposition of the teacher, and wished to banish, from the canton, with himself, his Greek, his Latin, and his gospel. He succeeded. On coming out of the Council, after the sederunt at which Myconius had been deposed, Herbenstein met the Zurich deputy, Berguer. "We are sending you back your schoolmaster," said he to him ironically, "get a good lodging for him." "We won't let him sleep in the open air,"[894] immediately replied the courageous deputy. But Berguer promised more than he could perform.

[893] Conjux infirma. (Ibid. p. 192.)

[894] Veniat! efficiemus enim ne dormiendum sit ei sub dio. (Ibid., p.

216.) Let him come, we will see to it that he do not sleep in the open air.

[Sidenote: OSWALD PERSECUTED.]

The news given by the burgomaster were but too true, and were soon intimated to the unhappy Myconius. He is deposed and banished, and the only crime laid to his charge is that of being a disciple of Luther.[895] He looks all around but nowhere finds a shelter. He sees his wife, his son, and himself, all three feeble and sickly, exiled from their country, and Switzerland, all around agitated by a whirlwind, which breaks and destroys every thing that stands in its way. "Here," said he then to Zuinglius, "is poor Myconius banished by the council of Lucerne.[896]... Whither shall I go? I know not....

a.s.sailed yourself by these furious storms how could you shelter me? I cry then in my distress to that G.o.d who is the first in whom I hope, who is ever bountiful, ever kind, and who never calls upon any to seek his face in vain. May He supply my wants!"

[895] Nil exprobrarunt nisi quod sim Luthera.n.u.s. (Ibid.)

[896] Expellitur ecce miser Myconius a Senatu Lucernano. (Ibid., p.

215.)

Thus spoke Oswald, and he was not obliged to wait long for a word of consolation. There was one in Switzerland inured to the battles of the faith. Zuinglius drew near to his friend, and comforting him, thus expressed himself, "The blows by which men attempt to overthrow the house of G.o.d are so violent, and the a.s.saults which they make upon it so frequent that not only do the wind and rain beat upon it, as our Saviour predicted, (Matt. vii, 27,) but the hail and the thunder.[897]

Had I not perceived the Lord guiding the s.h.i.+p I should, long ere now, have cast the helm into the sea, but I see him amid the tempest, strengthening the tackling, arranging the yards, stretching the sails, what do I say? commanding the very winds.... Should I not then be a coward unworthy of the name of a man if I abandoned my post and fled to a shameful death? I confide entirely in his sovereign goodness. Let him govern, transport, hasten, r.e.t.a.r.d, precipitate, arrest, break down, let him even plunge us to the bottom of the abyss, we fear nothing.[898] We are vessels which belong to him. He can use us as he pleases, for honour or disgrace." After words thus full of faith Zuinglius continues. "As to your case this is my opinion. Present yourself before the council, and there deliver an address worthy of Christ and of yourself, that is to say, proper to touch and not to irritate men's hearts. Deny that you are a disciple of Luther, declare that you are a disciple of Jesus Christ. Let your pupils surround you, and let them speak, and if all this does not succeed, come to your friend, come to Zuinglius, and consider our home as your own fireside."

[897] Nec ventos esse, nec imbres, sed grandines et fulmina. (Zw. Ep.

p. 217.)

[898] Regat, vehat, festinet, maneat, acceleret, moretur, mergat!...

(Ibid.)

[Sidenote: OSWALD PERSECUTED.]

Oswald, strengthened by these words, followed the n.o.ble counsel of the Reformer, but all his efforts were useless. The witness to the truth behoved to quit his country. His enemies in Lucerne were so loud against him, that the magistrates would not allow any one to give him an asylum. Broken-hearted at the sight of so much enmity, the confessor of Jesus Christ exclaimed, "All that now remains for me is to beg from door to door to sustain my miserable life."[899] Shortly after, the friend and most powerful a.s.sistant of Zuinglius, the first man in Switzerland who had united literary instruction with the love of the gospel, the reformer of Lucerne, and at a later period one of the leaders of the Helvetic church, was obliged, with his sickly wife and little boy, to quit this ungrateful city, where, out of all his family, the only one who had received the gospel was a sister. He crossed its ancient bridges, and bade adieu to those mountains which seem to rise from the bosom of the lake of Waldstetten up to the clouds. Canons Xylotect and Kilchmeyer, the only friends whom the Reformation yet numbered among his countrymen, followed shortly after.

And, at the moment when this poor man, with two feeble companions, whose existence depended on him, with his eye turned towards its lake, and shedding tears for his deluded country, took leave of those sublime scenes which had surrounded his cradle, the gospel itself took leave of Lucerne, and Rome reigns in it to this day.

[899] Ostiatim quaerere quod edam. (Ibid., p. 245.)

Shortly after the Diet itself, which was a.s.sembled at Baden, stung by the pet.i.tions of Einsidlen, (which, being printed, produced a great sensation,) and urged by the Bishop of Constance to strike a blow at innovations, had recourse to measures of persecution, ordered the authorities of the villages to bring before it all priests and laymen who should speak against the faith, seized, in its impatience, on the evangelist, who happened to be nearest at hand, Urban Weiss, pastor of Filis.p.a.ch, who had been previously released on caution, made him be brought to Constance, and then gave him up to the bishop, by whom he was long kept in prison. "Thus," says the Chronicle of Bullinger, "the persecution of the gospel by the confederates commenced, and that at the instigation of the clergy, who have at all times delivered Jesus Christ to Herod and Pilate."[900]

[900] Uss anstifften der geistlecten, Die zu allen Zyten Christum Pilato und Herodi vurstellen. (MS.)

[Sidenote: ZUINGLIUS TO HIS BROTHERS.]

Zuinglius was not to escape his share of trial. Blows to which he was most sensible were then struck at him. The rumour of his doctrines and his contests had pa.s.sed Santis, penetrated the Tockenburg, and reached the heights of Wildhaus. The pastoral family from whom the Reformer had sprung were moved. Of the four brothers of Zuinglius, some had continued peacefully to occupy themselves with their mountain toils, whilst others, to the great grief of their brother, had quitted their flocks and served foreign princes. All were alarmed at the news which rumour brought as far as their chalets. They already saw their brother seized, dragged perhaps to Constance to his bishop, and a pile erected for him at the same place which had consumed the body of John Huss.

These proud shepherds could not bear the idea of being called the brother of a heretic. They wrote to Ulric, describing their sorrow and their fears. Zuinglius replied, "So long as G.o.d permits, I will perform the task which he has entrusted to me, without fearing the world and its proud tyrants. I know the worst that can happen to me.

There is no danger, no misfortune which I have not long carefully weighed. My own strength is mere nothingness, and I know the power of my enemies, but I know also that I can do everything through Christ strengthening me. Were I silent, some other would be constrained to do what G.o.d now does by me, and I would be punished by G.o.d. Cast far from you all your anxiety, my dear brothers. If I have a fear, it is that I have been gentler and more easily persuaded than is suitable for this age.[901] What shame, you say, will be cast on all our family if you are burnt, or put to death in some other way![902] O, dearly beloved brethren! the gospel derives from the blood of Christ this wondrous nature, that the most violent persecutions far from arresting, only hasten its progress. Those only are true soldiers of Christ who fear not to bear in their body the wounds of their Master. All my labours have no other end than to make men know the treasures of happiness which Christ has acquired for us, in order that all may flee to the Father through the death of his Son. If his doctrine offends you, your anger cannot stop me. You are my brothers, yes, my own brothers, the sons of my father, and the offspring of the same mother ... but if you were not my brethren in Christ, and in the work of faith, my grief would be so extreme that nothing could equal it. Adieu. I will never cease to be your true brother, provided you do not yourselves cease to be the brethren of Jesus Christ."[903]

[901] Plus enim metuo ne forte lenior, mitiorque fuerim. De semper casta Virgine Maria. (Zw. Op.i. p. 104.)

[902] Si vel igni vel alio quodam supplicii genere tollaris e medio.

(Ibid.)

[903] Frater vester germa.n.u.s nunquan desinam, si modo vos fratres Christi esse perrexeritis. (Ibid., p. 107.)

[Sidenote: PRAYER OF ZUINGLIUS.]

The confederates seemed to rise against the gospel as one man. The pet.i.tions of Einsidlen had been the signal. Zuinglius, concerned for the lot of his dear Myconius, saw in this misfortune only the beginning of calamity. Enemies in Zurich: enemies abroad--a man's own relatives becoming his enemies,--a furious opposition on the part of monks and priests,--violent measures of the Diet and the councils,--rude, perhaps b.l.o.o.d.y, a.s.saults on the part of the partisans of foreign service,--the highest valleys of Switzerland, the cradle of the confederation, sending forth phalanxes of invincible soldiers to save Rome, and, at the sacrifice of life, annihilating the growing faith of the sons of the Reformation--such was the prospect at which the penetrating mind of the Reformer shuddered when he beheld it in the distance. What a prospect! Was not the work, scarcely well begun, on the point of being destroyed? Zuinglius, thoughtful and agitated, spread all his anguish before his G.o.d. "O Jesus," said he, "you see how wicked men and blasphemers stun the ears of thy people with their cries.[904] Thou knowest that from my infancy I have hated disputes, and yet in spite of myself thou hast ceased not to urge me on to the combat.... Wherefore, I confidently call upon thee, as thou hast begun so to finish. If in any thing I have built up improperly, beat it down with thy mighty hand. If I have laid some other foundation beside thine let thy powerful arm overthrow it.[905] O most beloved vine, of which the Father is the vine-dresser, and of which we are the branches, forsake not thy offspring.[906] For thou hast promised to be with us, even to the end of the world!"

[904] Vides enim, piissime Jesu, aures eorum septas esse nequissimis susurronibus, sycophantis, lucrionibus.... (Zw. Op. iii, p. 74.) For thou seest, O most beloved Jesus how these ears are beset with whisperers, sycophants, and lovers of lucre.

[905] Si fundamentum aliud praeter te jecero, demoliaris. (Ibid.)