fastnesses, not only forces well disciplined for ecclesiastical warfare, but troops at all times ready to support its cause, or that of its confederates, in the field.

In the midst, however, of the darkness which thus prevailed, the tenets of evangelical religion were not without their witnesses. While the priesthood and the great seminaries of education were bowed beneath the yoke of bondage, some few noble and energetic spirits rose superior to the common fate of the nation. Among these was John Keiserberger, whose labours at Strasbourg paved the way for those triumphs of the gospel, which afterwards rendered that city so eminently conspicuous as a member of the reformed Church. Thomas Wittenbach, who exercised the office of theological professor, first at Tubingen, and then at Basil, pursued a similar career; and notwithstanding the danger which attended such appeals to the truth, disputed openly against indulgences, and the various doctrines and practices which had been invented to diminish the full glory and sufficiency of Christ's atonement.

The power of even a single mind to open wide the channels of inquiry, which nations may have sealed for centuries, was strikingly exhibited in the case of Wittenbach. He occupied a station which others had held, and only contributed to the increase or securer establishment of ignorance and abuse. But by the simple influence of truth, by the mere honesty of purpose which taught him to seek for knowledge, and communicate it freely and openly, he rose above his contemporaries to a height which still renders his name an object of affectionate admiration to the people of God. Under him, both Zuingle and Ecolampadius received their first instruction in theology, and were warned against the prevalent corruptions of the age. Combining in himself the character of a true scholar with that of a divine, venturing to become original, by appealing first and entirely to originality itself, the Word and the Spirit of God, he obtained a command over the minds of his hearers, the most profitable and the most lasting. Leo Juda, another of his scholars, speaks of him as a man accomplished in every kind of learning, and who,

from the profundity of his erudition, was regarded by the most educated minds as a miracle of knowledge. To these acquirements was added a singular acuteness of observation, and he is said to have foreseen and predicted many of the changes which were, in the course of half a century, to alter so completely the religious. condition of his countrymen.

A slight glimmering of the coming dawn might have been seen by those most anxious for reformation, when they turned to the little circle thus formed at the opening of the century. But the light was too uncertain, too unexpected even, to give a fair promise of the day. Many an age had passed away in darkness, in different periods of which there had been the same hopeful appearances. When Zuingle, therefore, began to preach, he had nothing to encourage him but that indescribable impulse of holy feeling, which has the spring of health in it, and gives to the soul a delightful energy, corresponding to that which bears the body along through many a toilsome exercise when full of invigorating health. Endowed with great talents, which early piety ripened and adorned, he was led forward by the most gentle steps to those great undertakings which rendered his life so remarkable. Having been ordained priest by the Bishop of Constance in 1506, he was appointed preacher at Glaris, where he continued ten years.* During this period he laboured with no less diligence as a student, than zeal as a minister of religion. Sensible of the importance of the classical languages, he applied himself perseveringly to the removal of those defects for which the ordinary systems of education afforded no remedy. Of Greek he was almost entirely ignorant when he began this course of self-instruction;

* Ruchat. Histoire de la Reform. de la Suisse, t. I., liv. i., p. 6; Gerdes, t. i. p. 101. The account which Maimbourg gives of Zuingle, is a striking example of the unfairness of his narrative. He endeavours to make it appear that the whole of the reformer's design had its commencement in his hatred to celibacy. It was not, however, till eight or ten years after he began to preach against the corruptions of the Roman Church, that he married. His engagement was then one of a very prudential kind, for he married a widow, by no means young, and whom his enemies even accused him of taking on account of her fortune, an accusation which little accords with that before brought forward. Maimbourg. Hist. du Calvanisme, p. 4.

but he soon overcame the difficulties which lay in his path, and was at length enabled to read fluently, not only the New Testament, but most of the fathers. Such was his desire to become thoroughly familiar with the style of the apostolic writings, that he copied St. Paul's Epistles with his own hand, and made, in a similar manner, many extracts from Origen, and other early writers of celebrity. By these means he acquired, not only much positive knowledge, but those habits of investigation which rendered it almost impossible for him to remain contented with a system of discipline and theology like that of the Roman Church.* In the feelings thus awakened, he found himself strongly supported by the sympathy of Wolfgang Capito, then well known as a preacher at Basil. His style of teaching and conversing also now underwent a visible change. began to speak against the superstitions under which the people were in vain struggling for light; and in proportion as he excited their attention to the truths of the gospel, he found his own heart becoming daily more enlarged with the love of divine wisdom.

He

Notwithstanding the jealousy with which his sentiments were regarded by some of the neighbouring clergy, he continued to enjoy the favour of those who had it in their power to promote him. In the year 1516, therefore, he was removed from Glaris to the charge of the Church at Einsiedlin, in the canton of Shweitz, the stronghold of Catholicism, and where he had to encounter its spirit in perpetual conflict with the truths which he now began to regard as necessary to salvation. At Einsiedlin was the famous image of the virgin, before whose shrine crowds of worshippers were daily to be seen offering up their ignorant devotions. But dark as was the prospect presented by the general state

Descripsit Paulinas Epistolas, et memoriæ mandavit: illud tandem consecutus ut Græce facilius, quàm Latine, intelligeret. Post ad eundem modum egit in his, quæ sunt novi instrumenti omnibus. Cæterum cum ex D. Petro didicisset: Scripturam non esse privatæ interpretationis, in cœlum suspexit, doctorem quærens Spiritum; à quo precibus contendit, largiretur, quo sensa divinæ mentis perscrutari quàm rectissime posset. Et ne vel seipsum imagine Spiritus falsâ, vel alios deciperet, scripta contulit, et obscura claris explicavit. De orthodoxis scriptoribus sensit, quod ipsi de se volunt: legendos esse cum judicio et ad Scripturam Canonicam, ceu Lydium lapidem, probandos. Melchior. Adami Vitæ Theolog. p. 12.

of the people, there were here also to be found some few able and inquiring men, whose minds were anxiously directed to the pursuit of knowledge. Zuingle soon explained his sentiments on the subjects which chiefly interested their thoughts. His preaching became every day more evangelical and spiritual; and while the few who could really understand the nature of his opinions, felt intensely interested in their development, the multitude gave signs of awakening, which afforded a fair promise that the gospel would not be brought to them in vain. In most of his efforts, he was greatly aided by the abbot, Conrad von Rechberg, a man of singular freedom of opinion for the age in which he lived, and yet more for the station which he occupied. Theobald of Geroldseck, who held the second rank in the cloister, and had the chief share in the arrangement of its affairs, is described as possessing a still greater degree of courage, which he manifested, not merely in allowing an hitherto unknown liberty to the fraternity over which he presided, but in introducing translations of the Bible, and making a direct appeal to the Bishop of Constance and the papal legate against the superstitious practices of the district.

It is remarkable that Zuingle was enabled to ascend just so far and no farther in the scale of promotion, as enabled him to make his voice heard throughout the land. His merits were, for some time, superior, in the eyes of the ruling members of the Church, to the reasons which they might have for occasionally suspecting his discretion or his orthodoxy. Whatever, therefore, inferior enemies were disposed to say against him, he was appointed, in the year 1518, to be preacher in the cathedral at Zurich, a situation eminently calculated for the display of those stores of information which he had now, for many years, been carefully accumulating in less laborious stations.*

* Many persons in Zurich, it is said, laboured day and night to obtain Zuingle's appointment to the vacant parish. Of this he was ignorant, till he found himself asked, whether he would undertake the charge. When he accepted the appointment he could not tell whether he would not be a great loser by the change. Melchior. Adami Vitæ, p. 13. Hottinger, Helvetischer Kirchen-Geschichten, t. 1., p. 35.

The duty of preaching had fallen into general neglect, when Zuingle thus obtained a position so favourable for its exercise by a man of strong mind, and spiritual earnestness. A formal illustration of the regularly recurring and short portions of Scripture, which the Church had appointed to be read, was all that could be looked for in the best attended places of public worship. Zuingle at once determined to adopt a new course, and to this end, informed the principal officers of the cathedral, that he should read and expound the Gospel of St. Matthew to the people, and endeavour to lead them to a clear understanding of the whole system of divine truth.

While preparations were thus being made for the revival of knowledge, the emissaries of Rome were busy in endeavours to draw from the country the last tribute which it was to pay to the pride and luxury of St. Peter's. Zuingle had already sufficiently impressed the minds of some of his countrymen with doubts respecting the authority of the Pope, to lessen the success of this mission. But while such was the case in those districts which had enjoyed the advantage of his ministrations, the other cantons seemed proportionably anxious to render their homage and their offerings to the preacher of indulgences. To such an extent, it is said, did this take place, that Tetzel himself, with all his boldness and fraud, and with countries so much more promising to range over, was rivalled by his brother mendicant in Switzerland. Zurich was protected from the ravages of this imposture, not only by the preaching of Zuingle, but by the orders of the bishop, who, enraged at not being asked to subscribe his name to the drafts on the treasury of heaven, chose to regard the agent as an intruder, and therefore issued directions to his clergy to resist his appearance in their parishes. Still further, when the monk left the country, a formal complaint respecting his conduct was despatched to Rome, and Leo X. could probably discover, in the expressions employed, certain indications little favourable to his own wishes. The answer returned cautiously defended the right of the Church to levy contributions on the security