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peace and good order of society. If the authority of the church were to
be set aside, he urged, universal anarchy would result. Zwingle replied
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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?”
The deputies had admonished the councillors to continue in the
church, out of which, they declared, there was no salvation. Zwingle
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 whoever 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.” As a result of the
conference, one of the bishop’s deputies accepted the reformed faith.
The council declined to take action against Zwingle, 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.” 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 Zwingle;
“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?”
The victories gained by the Reformation stirred the Romanists to
still more determined efforts for its overthrow. Seeing how little had
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 Zwingle, and having the arrangement of
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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 Zwingle into their power,
they would take care that he did not escape them. The leader silenced,