Basic HTML Version
104
From Here to Forever
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.
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.
Sale of Indulgences in Switzerland
In Germany the sale of indulgences was conducted by the infa-
mous 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
[113]
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.
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.