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Light Kindled in Switzerland
105
Zwingli had arrived at a clearer understanding of its truths and
had more fully experienced in himself its renewing power. “Christ,”
he said, “... has purchased for us a never-ending redemption. ... His
passion is ... an eternal sacrifice, and everlastingly effectual to heal;
it satisfies the divine justice forever in behalf of all those who rely
upon it with firm and unshaken faith. ... Wherever there is faith in
God, there a zeal exists urging and impelling men to good works.
Step by step the Reformation advanced in Zurich. In alarm its
enemies aroused to active opposition. Repeated attacks were made
upon Zwingli. The teacher of heresy must be silenced. The bishop
of Constance dispatched three deputies to the Council of Zurich,
accusing Zwingli of endangering the peace and order of society. If
the authority of the church were to be set aside, he urged, universal
anarchy would result.
The council declined to take action against Zwingli, and Rome
[114]
prepared for a fresh attack. The Reformer 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.
Disputation With Romanists
Seeing how little had been accomplished by persecution in sup-
pressing Luther’s work in Germany, the Romanists decided they
would hold a disputation with Zwingli. They would make sure of
victory by choosing not only the place of combat but the judges that
should decide between the disputants. And if they could once get
Zwingli in their power, they would take care that he did not escape.
This purpose, however, was carefully concealed.
The disputation was appointed to be held at Baden. But the
Council of Zurich, suspecting the designs of the papists and warned
by the burning piles kindled in the papal cantons for confessors of
8
Ibid., bk. 8, ch. 9.
9
Wylie, bk. 8, ch. 11.