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himself with his whole soul to the search after divine truth; for he
was well aware,” says a fellow-reformer, “how much he must know
to whom the flock of Christ is intrusted.” The more he searched the
Scriptures, the clearer appeared the contrast between their truths 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 dared not attempt to explain Scripture to sustain
a preconceived theory or doctrine, but held it his duty to learn what
is its direct and obvious teaching. He sought to avail himself of every
help to obtain a full and correct understanding of its meaning, and he
invoked the aid of the Holy Spirit, which would, he declared, reveal it
to all who sought it in sincerity and with prayer.
“The Scriptures,” said Zwingle, “come from God, not from man.
Even that God who enlightens will give thee to understand that the
speech comes from God. The Word of God ... cannot fail. It is
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bright, it teaches itself, discloses itself, it illumines the soul with all
salvation and grace, comforts it in God, humbles it, so that it loses
and even forfeits itself, and embraces God.” The truth of these words
Zwingle himself had proved. Speaking of his experience at this time,
he afterward wrote: “When I began to give myself wholly up to the
Holy Scriptures, philosophy and theology (scholastic) would always
keep suggesting quarrels to me. At last I came to this, that I thought,
‘Thou must let all that lie, and learn the meaning of God purely out of
his own simple Word.’ Then I began to ask God for his light, and the
Scriptures began to be much easier to me.”
The doctrine preached by Zwingle was not received from Luther. It
was the doctrine of Christ. “If Luther preaches Christ,” said the Swiss
reformer, “he does what I do. He has led to Christ many more souls
than I;—be it so. Yet will I bear no other name than that of Christ,
whose soldier I am, and who alone is my head. Never has a single line
been addressed by me to Luther, or by Luther to me. And why?—That
it might be manifest to all how uniform is the testimony of the Spirit
of God, since we, who have had no communication with each other,
agree so closely in the doctrine of Jesus Christ.”
In 1516 Zwingle was invited to become a preacher in the convent
at Einsiedeln. Here he was to have a closer view of the corruptions of
Rome, and was to exert an influence as a reformer that would be felt far
beyond his native Alps. Among the chief attractions of Einsiedeln was