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The Great Controversy
that he had been for four years teaching the gospel in Zurich, “which
was more quiet and peaceful than any other town in the confederacy.”
“Is not, then,” he said, “Christianity the best safeguard of the general
security?”—Wylie, b. 8, ch. 11.
The deputies had admonished the councilors to continue in the
church, out of which, they declared, there was no salvation. Zwingli
responded: “Let not this accusation move you. The foundation of
the church is the same Rock, the same Christ, that gave Peter his
name because he confessed Him faithfully. In every nation whosoever
believes with all his heart in the Lord Jesus is accepted of God. Here,
truly, is the church, out of which no one can be saved.”—D’Aubigne,
London ed., b. 8, ch. 11. As a result of the conference, one of the
bishop’s deputies accepted the reformed faith.
The council declined to take action against Zwingli, and Rome
prepared for a fresh attack. The Reformer, when apprised of the plots
of his enemies, exclaimed: “Let them come on; I fear them as the
beetling cliff fears the waves that thunder at its feet.”—Wylie, b. 8, ch.
11. 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
and harmony. “Peace has her habitation in our town,” wrote Zwingli;
“no quarrel, no hypocrisy, no envy, no strife. Whence can such union
come but from the Lord, and our doctrine, which fills us with the fruits
of peace and piety?”—Ibid., b. 8, ch. 15.
The victories gained by the Reformation stirred the Romanists to
still more determined efforts for its overthrow. Seeing how little had
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been accomplished by persecution in suppressing Luther’s work in
Germany, they decided to meet the reform with its own weapons. They
would hold a disputation with Zwingli, and having the arrangement of
matters, they would make sure of victory by choosing, themselves, not
only the place of the combat, but the judges that should decide between
the disputants. And if they could once get Zwingli into their power,
they would take care that he did not escape them. The leader silenced,
the movement could speedily be crushed. This purpose, however, was
carefully concealed.