A few weeks after the birth of Luther in a miner’s cabin in Saxony, Ulric Zwingli was born in a herdsman’s cottage among the Alps. Reared amid scenes of natural grandeur, his mind was early impressed with the majesty of God. At the side of his grandmother he listened to the few precious Bible stories she had gleaned from the legends and traditions of the church.
(HF 109.1)
At the age of thirteen he went to Bern, which then possessed the most distinguished school in Switzerland. Here, however, a danger arose. Determined efforts were put forth by the friars to lure him into a monastery. Providentially his father received information of the designs of the friars. He saw that his son’s future usefulness was at stake and directed him to return home.
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The command was obeyed, but the youth could not be long content in his native valley, and he soon resumed his studies, repairing, after a time, to Basel. It was here that Zwingli first heard the gospel of God’s free grace. Wittembach, while studying Greek and Hebrew, had been led to the Holy Scriptures, and thus rays of divine light were shed into the minds of the students under his instruction. He declared that the death of Christ is the sinner’s only ransom. To Zwingli these words were as the first ray of light that precedes the dawn.
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Zwingli was soon called from Basel to enter upon his lifework. His first labor was in an alpine parish. Ordained as a priest, he “devoted himself with his whole soul to the search after divine truth.”
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The more he searched the Scriptures, the clearer appeared the contrast between truth and the heresies of Rome. He submitted himself to the Bible as the Word of God, the only sufficient, infallible rule. He saw that it must be its own interpreter. He sought every help to obtain a correct understanding of its meaning, and he invoked the aid of the Holy Spirit. “I began to ask God for His light,” he afterward wrote, “and the Scriptures began to be much easier to me.”
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The doctrine preached by Zwingli was not received from Luther. It was the doctrine of Christ. “If Luther preaches Christ,” said the Swiss Reformer, “he does what I am doing.... Never has one single word been written by me to Luther, nor by Luther to me. And Why? ... That it might be shown how much the Spirit of God is in unison with itself, since both of us, without any collusion, teach the doctrine of Christ with such uniformity.”
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In 1516 Zwingli was invited to preach in the convent at Einsiedeln. Here he was to exert an influence as a Reformer that would be felt far beyond his native Alps.
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Among the chief attractions of Einsiedeln was an image of the Virgin, said to have the power of working miracles. Above the gateway of the convent was the inscription, “Here a plenary remission of sins may be obtained.” Multitudes came to the shrine of the Virgin from all parts of Switzerland, and even from France and Germany. Zwingli seized the opportunity to proclaim liberty through the gospel to these bondslaves of superstition.
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“Do not imagine,” he said, “that God is in this temple more than in any other part of creation.... Can unprofitable works, long pilgrimages, offerings, images, the invocation of the Virgin or of the saints secure for you the grace of God? ... What efficacy has a glossy cowl, a smooth-shorn head, a long and flowing robe, or gold-embroidered slippers?”“Christ,” he said, “who was once offered upon the cross, is the sacrifice and victim, that had made satisfaction for the sins of believers to all eternity.”
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To many it was a bitter disappointment to be told that their toilsome journey had been in vain. Pardon freely offered through Christ they could not comprehend. They were satisfied with the way Rome had marked out for them. It was easier to trust their salvation to the priests and pope than to seek purity of heart.
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But another class received with gladness the tidings of redemption through Christ, and in faith accepted the Saviour’s blood as their propitiation. These returned home to reveal to others the precious light they had received. The truth was thus carried from town to town, and the number of pilgrims to the Virgin’s shrine greatly lessened. There was a falling off in the offerings, and consequently in the salary of Zwingli, which was drawn from them. But this caused him only joy as he saw that the power of superstition was being broken. The truth was gaining hold upon the hearts of the people.
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After three years Zwingli was called to preach in the cathedral at Zurich, the most important town of the Swiss confederacy. The influence exerted here would be widely felt. The ecclesiastics proceeded to instruct him as to his duties:
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“You will make every exertion to collect the revenues of the chapter without overlooking the least.... You will be diligent in increasing the income arising from the sick, from masses, and in general from every ecclesiastical ordinance.”“As for the administration of the sacraments, the preaching, and the care of the flock, ... you may employ a substitute, and particularly in preaching.”
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Zwingli listened in silence to this charge, and said in reply, “The life of Christ has been too long hidden from the people. I shall preach upon the whole of the Gospel of St. Matthew.... It is to God’s glory, to the praise of His Son, to the real salvation of souls, and to their edification in the true faith, that I shall consecrate my ministry.”
(HF 111.5)
The people flocked in great numbers to listen to his preaching. He began his ministry by opening the Gospels and explaining the life, teachings, and death of Christ. “It is to Christ,” he said, “that I desire to lead you—to Christ, the true source of salvation.” Statesmen, scholars, artisans, and peasants listened to his words. He fearlessly rebuked the evils and corruptions of the times. Many returned from the cathedral praising God. “This man,” they said, “is a preacher of the truth. He will be our Moses, to lead us forth from this Egyptian darkness.”
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After a time opposition arose. The monks assailed him with gibes and sneers; others resorted to insolence and threats. But Zwingli bore all with patience.
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When God is preparing to break the shackles of ignorance and superstition, Satan works with greatest power to enshroud men in darkness and to bind their fetters more firmly. Rome proceeded with renewed energy to open her market throughout Christendom, offering pardon for money. Every sin had its price, and men were granted free license for crime if the treasury of the church was kept well filled. Thus the two movements advanced—Rome licensing sin and making it her source of revenue, the Reformers condemning sin and pointing to Christ as the propitiation and deliverer.
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In Germany the sale of indulgences was conducted by the infamous Tetzel. In Switzerland the traffic was put under the control of Samson, an Italian monk. Samson had already secured immense sums from Germany and Switzerland to fill the papal treasury. Now he traversed Switzerland, despoiling the poor peasants of their scanty earnings and exacting rich gifts from the wealthy. The Reformer immediately set out to oppose him. Such was Zwingli’s success in exposing the friar’s pretensions that he was obliged to leave for other quarters. At Zurich, Zwingli preached zealously against the pardonmongers. When Samson approached the place, he secured an entrance by stratagem. But, sent away without the sale of a single pardon, he soon left Switzerland.
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The plague, or Great Death, swept over Switzerland in the year 1519. Many were led to feel how vain and worthless were the pardons they had purchased; they longed for a surer foundation for their faith. Zwingli at Zurich was smitten down, and the report was widely circulated that he was dead. In that trying hour he looked in faith to the cross of Calvary, trusting in the all-sufficient propitiation for sin. When he came back from the gates of death, it was to preach the gospel with greater fervor than ever before. The people themselves had come from attending the sick and the dying, and they felt, as never before, the value of the gospel.
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Zwingli had arrived at a clearer understanding of its truths and had more fully experienced in himself its renewing power. “Christ,” he said, “... has purchased for us a never-ending redemption.... His passion is ... an eternal sacrifice, and everlastingly effectual to heal; it satisfies the divine justice forever in behalf of all those who rely upon it with firm and unshaken faith.... Wherever there is faith in God, there a zeal exists urging and impelling men to good works.”
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Step by step the Reformation advanced in Zurich. In alarm its enemies aroused to active opposition. Repeated attacks were made upon Zwingli. The teacher of heresy must be silenced. The bishop of Constance dispatched three deputies to the Council of Zurich, accusing Zwingli of endangering the peace and order of society. If the authority of the church were to be set aside, he urged, universal anarchy would result.
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The council declined to take action against Zwingli, and Rome prepared for a fresh attack. The Reformer exclaimed: “Let them come on; I fear them as the beetling cliff fears the waves that thunder at its feet.” The efforts of the ecclesiastics only furthered the cause which they sought to overthrow. The truth continued to spread. In Germany its adherents, cast down by Luther’s disappearance, took heart again as they saw the progress of the gospel in Switzerland. As the Reformation became established in Zurich, its fruits were more fully seen in the suppression of vice and the promotion of order.
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Seeing how little had been accomplished by persecution in suppressing Luther’s work in Germany, the Romanists decided they would hold a disputation with Zwingli. They would make sure of victory by choosing not only the place of combat but the judges that should decide between the disputants. And if they could once get Zwingli in their power, they would take care that he did not escape. This purpose, however, was carefully concealed.
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The disputation was appointed to be held at Baden. But the Council of Zurich, suspecting the designs of the papists and warned by the burning piles kindled in the papal cantons for confessors of the gospel, forbade their pastor to expose himself to this peril. To go to Baden, where the blood of martyrs for the truth had just been shed, was to go to certain death. Oecolampadius and Haller were chosen to represent the Reformers, while the famous Dr. Eck, supported by a host of learned doctors and prelates, was the champion of Rome.
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The secretaries were all chosen by the papists, and others were forbidden to take notes, on pain of death. Notwithstanding, a student in attendance at the disputation made a record each evening of the arguments that day presented. These papers two other students undertook to deliver, with the daily letters of Oecolampadius, to Zwingli at Zurich. The Reformer answered, giving counsel. To elude the vigilance of the guard at the city gates, these messengers brought baskets of poultry on their heads and were permitted to pass without hindrance.
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Zwingli “has labored more,” said Myconius, “by his meditations, his sleepless nights, and the advice which he transmitted to Baden, than he would have done by discussing in person in the midst of his enemies.”
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The Romanists had come to Baden in their richest robes and glittering with jewels. They fared luxuriously, their tables spread with costly delicacies and choice wines. In marked contrast appeared the Reformers, whose frugal fare kept them but short time at table. Oecolampadius’s landlord, taking occasion to watch him in his room, found him always in study or at prayer, and reported that the heretic was at least “very pious.”
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At the conference, “Eck haughtily ascended a pulpit splendidly decorated, while the humble Oecolampadius, meanly clothed, was forced to take his seat in front of his opponent on a rudely carved stool.” Eck’s stentorian voice and unbounded assurance never failed him. The defender of the faith was to be rewarded by a handsome fee. When better arguments failed, he had resort to insults and even oaths.
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Oecolampadius, modest and self-distrustful, had shrunk from the combat. Though gentle and courteous in demeanor, he proved himself able and unflinching. The Reformer adhered steadfastly to the Scriptures. “Custom,” he said, “has no force in our Switzerland, unless it be according to the constitution; now, in matters of faith, the Bible is our constitution.”
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The calm, clear reasoning of the Reformer, so gently and modestly presented, appealed to minds that turned in disgust from Eck’s boastful assumptions.
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The discussion continued eighteen days. The papists claimed the victory. Most of the deputies sided with
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Rome, and the diet pronounced the Reformers vanquished and declared that they, together with Zwingli, were cut off from the church. But the contest resulted in a strong impetus to the Protestant cause. Not long afterward the important cities of Bern and Basel declared for the Reformation.
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