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Updated: June 19, 2025
He only wished to answer the Zurichers briefly and to the point, for he had written, he said, quite enough on the subject against Zwingli and Oecolampadius, and did not want to spoil the last years of his life with arrogant and idle chatter.
Because, moreover, the deputies of the abovenamed communities have made it appear, that these disorders have sprung from the clergy alone and their inconsistent preaching, and they have thus been taught and instructed, and hence have given the whole business into the hands of My Lords; and because they have framed excuses for themselves from the speeches of these clergy, since several of them have spoken and preached more for disorder and strife than brotherly unity, be this answer, after a fair hearing, given to the rebels, that they at once go home and busy themselves in peaceful affairs, and if there are any good-for-nothing people in their own dioceses, who wish to stir up discord, disorder and rebellion, that they drive them off, so that we may not again witness such improper and wanton doings, as lately happened at the monasteries of Tœss and Rueti; then will My Lords, as soon as other business permits, sit upon their articles, and with the help of Master Ulric Zwingli and other learned and sensible men, take counsel, and see what, according to the Divine Word, can be remitted, and what not.
For quite different reasons William Roubli, an outlawed clergyman from Basel, whom Zwingli himself has styled a rash and foolish babbler, and Hans Gunthelm, an impudent deserter, had not only done the same with great parade and loose talk, but had attempted also to induce other families to join them. Gladly did Zwingli's enemies seize this opportunity to lodge complaints before the Council.
On the political arena the difference between his reformation and that of Luther began to grow more and more visible, and so hateful did the former become, that the Landgrave of Hesse even was obliged to come back again toward Luther, and exhort Zwingli to greater prudence and caution, especially after a saying of Erasmus had found its way to the ears of the nobles, that the design was to bring in democracy under the cloak of the Gospel.
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!
But others prophesy that my Lords will not make much out of the disputation, and the last disappointment will be greater than the first. Stand by me, or rather undertake it thyself. I have written toŒcolampadius, but do not know whether he will come; he has answered that he would like Zwingli to support us. Zurich had heard the resolution of the Bernese with great joy.
The states of the Confederacy, favorable to peace, now supplied the place of Schaffhausen, who had taken a decided stand with the cities of the Buergerrecht, by calling in the French embassy. The latter immediately turned to Zwingli himself. "Dear highly esteemed man," they wrote to him, "we have once before expressed our urgent wishes to thee, and thou hast not answered us.
In all directions, with unremitting zeal, by his counsel, by his writings, by his correspondence, Zwingli wrought upon the government of Zurich, which committed to him the drawing up of its opinions, and, as appears from the protocols, usually gave him a voice, during the latter years of his life, in the most important deliberations of a political nature.
Instead of which, to the great surprise of the congregation, he began again to advocate rebaptism. Zwingli, who occupied the second pulpit, on the opposite side, interrupted him at once and brought him to silence.
Not only did Zwingli and Oecolampadius, in their anti-literal and figurative interpretation of the words of institution, endeavour to support it by Scriptural analogies, more or less appropriate, but in the practical objections they raised, which Luther treated as over-curious subtleties of human reason, they were actuated in reality by motives of a religious character.
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