A History of the Reformation in the 16th
Century
Book 16 - Switzerland - Catastrophe
(1528-1531)
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
16, Chapter 1
As the Reformation advanced, its desire was to advance without
force but with the spiritual weapons of the Word of God and the Spirit
of God. The sword cannot
place men into the kingdom of Christ.
The Spirit of God must do this through regeneration.
However, arms and diplomacy began to infiltrate the Reformation
surrounding Zwingli. He felt that it was important to not only deal with spiritual
questions, but also questions of the state.
He decided it was his lot to help promote alliances and liberty
through the evangelical states.
The Roman Catholics despised the alliances between the states.
The evangelicals set the Catholics that sat on city councils at
check on many fronts. Various
other cantons were forced to consider the evangelical course and
Thurgovia and Rheinthal also voted under some duress to have Gospel
preaching throughout their cities.
In opposition to the alliances being made, Austria made
negotiations with some of the cantons to aid them in turning to the
German monarch for support instead of these alliances.
Zurich held a conference in order to discuss the matter and sent
a representative to the mountain cantons in order to help alleviate the
matter. Zwingli wanted to
give them an ultimatum, but Berne thought that would provoke civil war.
Unfortunately tension mounted and a nearby pastor (Keyser)
traveling with his family was arrested and burnt alive by the Catholic
influences there.
Zwingli spoke out against this and encouraged the people not to
fear to take up arms against such intolerable cruelty.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
16, Chapter 2
Zwingli believed that if he could crush the Catholic mountain
rebellion and alliance with Austria, that there would finally be free
preaching throughout Switzerland. The
discontented evangelicals found solace in Zwingli, the reformer and
political advisor. Though he was summoning the people to be forceful
against their enemies, he thought this was acceptable since he only had
the freedom of the Gospel in mind.
Anthony ab Acker was sent to Baden with an army of five hundred
men and Zurich responded with tumult.
Men everywhere began raising up arms.
Four thousand men gathered under Captain George Beruer at Cappel.
This stirred the councils and they petitioned Zwingli to not go
to war with the Romish cantons, but Zwingli did not want to sit idly by
and watch the Romans amass an army against the Gospel.
Men were amassing in various cantons ready to go to blows with
the Catholics. The first
division of Zurich of two thousand men were ready to march under the
command of William Toming. Before
setting out, Aebli, a landamman of Glaris rode up with news.
Five cantons are ready to march with you, but Aebli believed he
could obtain peace so that the towns would not be overrun with war.
Aebli retuned to Zug and the army stood down, believing Aebli was
an honorable man and spoke sincerely.
If bloodshed could be averted this would the way history should
follow. Aebli’s message
retuned, and the cantons would not find peace, but were ready to fight.
A conference was to be heard between the two armies.
Delegates went hoping to avert the battle.
A treaty was made June 26, 1529, but only liberty of conscience
was gained and not the free preaching of the Gospel that Zwingli hoped
for.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
16, Chapter 3
Although liberty of conscience was breaking forth, that meant
that those of the evangelical persuasion had power to enact reforms in
the cities that still needed reformation.
In Schaffhausen they removed the “God” set in her church and
replaced him with the Bible, ridding them of the Romish mass.
In Zurzack evangelicals marched into the church while a priest
was preaching, and Tufel stopped him.
The priest ran out of the church and the images were torn down in
the church. Tufel’s name
meant “devil” and the Roman Catholics believed the devil has entered
the canton and sparked that aspect of the Reformation there.
The forest cantons also moved towards reformation under the
preaching of Fridolin Brunner. And the villages of Schwanden and Ruti, high mountain
villages, were transformed by the vote of the people against the mass.
Finally in the suburbs of Appenzell in Rhodes, reform took place, but
Catholic dissenters were afraid that it would carry over the Alps into
Italy.
In looking at the Swiss reformation on Italy, nothing could be
more glorious than the translation of the Bible into Italian.
A monk of the Augustinian order named Egidio a Porta struggled
with the Reformation for a long time and believed God told him to
finally approach Zwingli and he would tell him what to do.
Zwingli told him to translate the Bible into Italian and he would
have it published. Egidio accomplished this
at the end of 1526 and he desired the full reformation of Italy.
As much as cantons were reforming slowly, the Catholics were also
gaining cities and members to their cause as well.
Zurich attentively watched the progress of these cantons, and the
two parties widened the breach created even more extensively.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
16, Chapter 4
The Reformation had taken a turn towards political involvement,
and Zwingli could think of nothing other than a Christian State to rise
up. Some people believe
that Zwingli’s political career was the height of his fame, but those
acknowledging the Biblical manner of freedom see this involvement in the
state as his greatest downfall. Zwingli
played the reformer as well as the magistrate.
He even met with Phillip of Hesse, he who was overcome by the
sword at Augsburg, and agreed that this course of action in politics was
the right course for the Swiss reformation.
Berne raised its voice against the idea of a Christian state,
thinking that an alliance with Phillip of Hesse and the evangelical
states would be dangerous. However,
Zwingli viewed the alliance between Charles and Clement as a grave
problem, and unless the Catholic influence was overthrown once and for
all in Switzerland, the Reformation would be over.
Zwingli agitated the various cantons and cities against one
another which caused an uproar all though Switzerland because of his
views politically. Zurich
then made a declaration that one who rejects the emperor would reject
the Pope as well, thus the empire should be rejected.
Zwingli saw Charles as a tyrant, and that the people, as a
unified whole, should oppose him. At Marburg both Zwingli and Phillip of Hesse drew up an
alliance against the emperor.
Zwingli’s preaching shifted to politics.
He did not only desire the free proclamation of the Gospel
through Switzerland, but he desired to see the country transformed
politically as well. This
became the focus of his preaching and influence.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
16, Chapter 5
The authorities of the cantons thought that creating religious
liberty through means of war was dangerous.
Zwingli’s plans for reform in this manner did not go over well
at a Diet held at Arau. Zurich
and Berne simply could not give in to killing their brothers, the
Waldstettes, and then proclaiming the Gospel, for those who died would
have their fates sealed. Zwingli
continued to preach for the reconstruction of the state, but the
Christian in him soon diminished and all that was left was the patriot.
Moved by Zwingli’s preaching, the cities of Zurich, Berne, and
others, decided to shut off supplies to the cantons that were opposing
them. Interestingly enough,
when such discord was streaming through the country, it was not
Switzerland that was an attempted remedy but France and its intervention
in this regard. Zurich
intervened over France in the Five Cantons and told them that if the
free preaching of the Word was allowed, then they would give aid.
France, secretly, though, told them they would come to their aid,
and that they could not allow the free preaching of the Word as Zurich
understood it.
The five Cantons opposed Zurich and Berne, and a Diet held there
stood their ground. Zurich and Berne pressed the cantons to acknowledge that in
persecuting the ministers and burning one at the stake, they were
violating the treaty on the liberty of free conscience that had been
drawn up.
Zwingli
saw that the Reformation was in danger, but what could he do to stop its
destruction? War was the only answer.
He preached in Zurich stating that unless the Council followed
his advice, he would step down as reformer.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
16, Chapter 6
The Five Cantons opposed to the Reformation decided to hold a
Diet at Lucerne and voted for war.
Zurich was asleep and the Waldstettes were strategizing for war
against their patriotic brothers. The
rumor of war broke out over the land, and when it reached Zwingli he did
not believe it. But in four days rumor had it that Zurich would be attacked
by these cantons in a civil war.
Zwingli preached on October 8th for the last time.
A messenger interrupted the sermon and brought news that the
Cantons were indeed assembled and ready to make war the next day.
Zurich and their allies marched into the surrounding town and
entered the deserted churches tearing down the images and idols as they
marched closer to the battle at Lucerne.
The ever-marching Five Cantons frightened the other Swiss allies.
Some smaller regiments were dispatched under various leaders
hoping to meet the enemy while on route.
It seems that Cappel would be the place where the battle met. Zwingli parted with his family knowing he would not return.
He actually preached this many days prior stating that all of
this hardship took place to accomplish his death.
Not only just in Zwingli’s, but in every house there was
lamentation and weeping. There
were not enough men gathered together to fight effectively, and those
who were going to battle knew it. They
should have had four thousand men, but so far, only seven hundred had
gathered to fight in the critical place where the enemy would show his
face.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
16, Chapter 7
Though the Five Cantons were ready to attack Cappel, the city
itself was still in a state of mild confusion.
They had not assembled properly and were attempting to have their
army in order, and the stations of the men were being plotted along with
the artillery stations around the battlefield.
The Five Cantons moved into Zug and they stopped to take an oath
of war there. The small
number of men in Cappel saw the oath bound Cantons marching forward and
prepared to fight them, though outnumbered.
Zwingli, upon his march with the army of Zurich to the location
of Cappel, even prayed to heaven that God would intervene and deliver
those men.
At noon a council at Cappel desired to convene in hopes of peace,
but there was no time for this. At
one o’clock the Cantons fired the first shot against the citizens of
Cappel. Shots were
fired throughout the next two hours, and the army of Zurich, of whom
Zwingli marched, finally came to the aid of her bothers who were already
engaged in battle. The plan
was to send small bands of men at various stages of the battle through
to meet the enemy and stop them in order to overpower their advancement.
The five Cantons did not fully advance but simply continued to
fire shots over into the city and the surrounding forests.
Cappel thought that the full advancement and strike of the Five
Canton army would happen the next day.
However, some impertinent men on the side of Cappel forced the
hand of the Five Cantons and they readied their whole army to advance in
a single blow at that very hour.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
16, Chapter 8
The squirmishes that were taking place in milieu gun fire now
changed. The Five Cantons
fired in union upon the battlements of Cappel and the full advancement
of the enemy’s army move forward to attack.
The army used the woods for cover and slowly advanced firing
against Cappel. The armies
moved forward while at the same time sending in squirmishes to fight and
disrupt the stations and men of Cappel.
John Kammli charged with holding the defense of the standards,
was overtaken when his lines were thinned out.
The most distinguished men of Zurich fell one after the other as
the enemy, swift and sound of military strategy, advanced upon them.
The enemy was victorious at every turn, and they were even
allowing the men they were attacking to surrender at certain points
since their victories were so thorough.
Zwingli was at his post, but was struck by a stone hurled by the
enemy, in the head. He rose again but was struck two others in the legs that
toppled him. “They may
kill the body, but they cannot kill the soul.”
These were Zwingli’s last words.
He fell back in a meadow by a tree and there he lay
incapacitated. Two soldiers were advancing through the field and came upon
Zwingli. Captain Fockinger
saw Zwingli lying there and had heard his last words, recognizing it was
Zwingli. He raised his
sword and cut Zwingli across the neck and killed him shouting “Die
heretic, die.” Zwingli was forty eight years old when he died on the
battlefield.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
16, Chapter 9
Zwingli was dead. Zurich
was in an uproar and the people were panicking.
The Catholics would not overrun the cantons and set up popery
once again, in as many places as they could.
The people feared for the lives of those ministers still alive.
They hid Leo Juda in a town home fearing for his life.
Myconius had found out that Zwingli had been killed and his cry
“Zwingli is no more!” echoed through the city.
The city held a funeral and Leo Juda orated the eulogy.
The moment Ferdinand found out that Zwingli had fallen, he was
overcome with joy and sent news to king Charles of the victory.
The Pope sent more troops to reinforce such a victory at Cappel.
They arrived in Zug and joined with their Catholic brothers.
They overran Cappel and desired to setup the papacy against the
city, and in fact, in all of Christendom.
However, this presumption was just that – presumption.
The Gospel already disseminated throughout the country would not
allow the false hopes the enemy to raise it head for long, and God would
be glorified by the work that was about to take place, even though
Zwingli was dead.
However, humanly speaking, all seemed a bitter catastrophe.
The evangelical army was slowly disbanded.
The Five Cantons called for a council and meeting, and Zurich
attended. They were
instructed to attempt to keep the faith as much as they could.
In the meeting many of the smaller cantons were given over to the
Five, and Zurich pressed for the faith to remain established in its
respective cities. Zurich
had only preserved the faith, but the strength of force was still a
threat upon them. The treaty was finished there and peace seemed to loom in the
air.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
16, Chapter 10
“The restoration of popery immediately commenced in
Switzerland.” The altars,
the idols, the images, and the mass were reestablished in many of the
smaller cantons that had formally threw them off.
The army of the Five Cantons continued secretly to overthrow
small cities and all over the countryside Catholic churches were
reestablished.
Though such Catholic influences were again rearing their head,
the Reformation was more concerned with the death of Zwingli.
Oecolampadius was exceedingly saddened at the loss of his friend,
and spoke highly of him in commemoration of the enduring work he
accomplished on behalf of the Gospel.
At the same time the plague came to Basle and Oecolampadius
caught it. The people
feared for his life. He
called for his children and talked with them about the everlasting
glories of Christ, and that night, he gave up his life.
Zwingli and Oecolampadius were now dead and the church was twice
stricken with grief in a short time.
Even Luther in Germany was moved at their deaths.
He said, “Their death filled me with such intense sorrow, that
I was near dying myself.” If
this was all not enough, Henry Bullinger had been ill treated in
Bremgarten and was forced to flee.
The Reformation was hindered to a great extent for taking the
path of war instead of fighting with the spiritual weapons of the word
and prayer. God intervened
with those who would try to erect a spiritual kingdom by carnal means.
His plan though was not to simply cast down Switzerland, but
raise up others who would later take the torch of Reformation and carry
it further than Zwingli had done.
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