CHAP. XVI. The bishops of Constance and Basle on the paper so much at length. But it is impossible to read documents of this kind, emanating from senates and councils, without remarking the vast and even portentous change which has taken place. If statesmen and political bodies formerly too much approximated to the character of divines, they have surely now gone, to a fearful degree, into the opposite extreme-when their proceedings scarcely bear the trace of a reference to the scriptures, the providence, or the will and favour of God, or to those rules which he has given to direct the conduct both of nations and of individuals. Alas! in our public transactions we seem to have at least grown "ashamed of Christ and of his words," if we have not gone the length of declaring that we "will not have him to reign over us." We may flatter ourselves that we have cast off the narrow bigotry of former ages, and have made great advances in illumination: but, if this is to be shewn in the exclusion of religion, true and practical Christian religion, whether from our public counsels or our private habits, "the light that is in us will be found to be darkness." In the beginning of June, the bishops sent a long answer (extending to fifty sheets,) to the application which the council of Zuric had images and made to them on the subject of images and the the mass. sacrifice of the mass. This answer had previously received the approbation of some universities, and was so satisfactory to its authors that they published it to the world, at the same time that they sent it to Zuric. It was first examined by a commission of the clergy and members of the senate, and then read and considered in the council; who employed Zwingle to prepare an answer to it in their name.' As it only urged, in favour of images, the old arguments, that those which the Old Testament prohibited were the idols of the heathen, whereas those now in use were of a totally different kind, and regarded in a different manner, and therefore might and ought to be retained under the sanction of the church's authority; and pleaded, in support of the sacrifice of the mass, the testimonies of popes and councils; it is unnecessary here to dwell either upon the paper or the reply to it." 1 The answer is addressed only to the bishop of Constance. I do not find that the bishop of Coire had taken part in the communication made to the council, but the bishop of Basle was certainly concerned in it. Zuing. Op. i. fo. 205-226. Sleid. 72. (lib. iv.) Ru. i. 211. Gerd. i. 304-5. Zwingle's answer is dated August 18. Though the reference made for the following passage is certainly wrong, and I have not found it any where exactly in Zwingle's works, yet it may be given as a fair statement of his general line of argument against images, drawn from facts. He who first placed the statue of a holy man in a temple had certainly no other intention than to offer him as an object of imitation to the faithful; but men did not stop there. The saints were soon surrounded with a pomp which impressed the imagination of the people; they were transformed into divinities, and honoured as the pagans honoured their gods. Their names are given to temples and altars, and chapels are consecrated to them in woods, and fields, and upon mountains. How many men in the hour of trouble, or at the approach of danger, instead of invoking the Omnipotent, call upon men who have been dead for ages, whose virtues have certainly placed them in the mansions of the blessed, but who can neither hear nor succour us! How many Christians, instead of having recourse to the mercy of the Redeemer, expect salvation from some saint, the object of their superstitious devotion! There are even some who attribute supernatural virtues to these images. In order to enhance the veneration for them, they are sometimes kept concealed, and sometimes brought forth in pompous processions. Men consult them to learn the future; and to such a degree is the credulity of the vulgar abused, that they are made to believe that these inanimate statues have uttered words, shed tears, and given A. D. 1524. CHAP. XVI. Further of the Zuric. The council now scrupled not to proceed in the work of reformation. Even before the receipt of the bishop's answer concerning images proceedings and the mass, they had, at the solicitation of the Council of three pastors, Zwingle, Engelhardt, and Leo Jude, restrained or regulated several customary observances. A grand procession, annually made from Zuric to Einsidlin on Whitmonday, with the cross and banner at its head, they entirely abolished. The same was done by the procession of Corpus Christi-the provost and chapter having joined the pastors in a representation, that Christ had instituted the eucharist to be devoutly received in remembrance of his cross and passion, and not to be carried about to be gazed at by the idle multitude. Other celebrations the council regulated, ordering that they should be accompanied by a sermon; after which the people should return to their ordinary employments: thus aiming in a measure to correct the excessive number of holidays, which so much promote idleness and vice in Romancatholic countries. They likewise abolished offerings for the dead, the blessing of palms, of holy water, and of tapers, and the rite of extreme unction, with some other observances, as being superstitious, and contrary to the word of God. They caused the shrines in the churches, which were said to contain many wonderful relics of the saints, to be opened. Where bones were commands. Look at the votive tablets that cover the walls of our temples; is there one which testifies the gratitude of a Christian towards God, the dispenser of all good, or Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world? No, it is to men whose condition on earth was similar to our own that they attribute the miraculous cure of a disease, or unexpected succour in the hour of danger, or a wise resolution taken in some important circumstance of life." Hess, 171-173. found, they were interred with decent respect: but in general no such things as had been expected were discovered.1 A. D. 1524. of images. The pastors now pressed to have the resolution for the abolition of images carried into effect: and the council accordingly appointed a commission, consisting of seven ecclesiastics, namely, the abbot of Cappel, the commendator of Kusnacht, the provosts of Zuric and Embrach, and the three pastors of Zuric, with some members of their own body, to consider and report on the most unexceptionable mode of proceeding. Of the very prudent and temperate measures Abolition which were adopted Zwingle himself has given us a particular account. In consequence of the act of violence committed by Hottinger and his associates, the council had prohibited any person to remove images without public authority, except such as had been set up by members of his family, and still remained under his private control. Even under this restriction many had been withdrawn from the churches. The clergy were next empowered, after due consultation with other parties concerned, to remove images from their respective churches, provided it were done in an orderly and inoffensive manner. This regulation chiefly respected the country parishes. In the town, those persons whose families had erected images in the churches received notice that they must withdraw them within a limited time, or they would be removed by public authority. This 1 Ru. i. 213–215. Gerd. i. 294. Gerd. i. 294. Thus, at Geneva, when the relics which had been idolatrously adored were examined, the arm of S. Anthony was found to be part of the body of a stag, and the brain of S. Peter a pumice stone! Scultet. 201. CHAP. June 15. caused many more to be taken away. The prescribed period having elapsed, the three pastors, with twelve members of the council, of the different tribes, accompanied by a guardian of the public buildings and proper workmen, proceeded to the several churches, and, with closed doors, (to prevent a concourse of the people,) took down all the remaining images, and burned or otherwise destroyed them. In the country similar proceedings were adopted: and "not one of these idols," observes Zwingle, "was found able to deliver himself: all submitted to their fate with the most profound resignation. One stone figure of the Virgin, the monks did not scruple to affirm, would never be removed, or at least never be kept from its station; for that it had been repeatedly taken away, and even locked up, but was always found in its place again! returned no more after we had removed it."1 Gerdes appeals to this account, which he of the pro- says was fully borne out by the authentic Acts of the council, then recently published, as vindicating Zwingle from the censure passed upon him by Mosheim, that, "dazzled with the light into which he had just emerged, he was ill able to discriminate the objects around him whence bitter animosities and deplorable calamities proceeded from his indiscreet proceedings." Such a censure appears to be little applicable to Zwingle but it may be observed that the passage does not appear to exist in the copies of Moshiem current among Temperate character ceedings. 1 But it Zuing. Op. i. 261 (b). Ru. i. 215-217. Gerd. i. 294, 301-304. By Fueslin, in his Collection of Documents relating to the Swiss Reformation. |