faith"-the standing doctrine of his true church, drawn from the scriptures, and handed down through all generations.

At Schaffhausen the reformation had received a check by the expulsion of Hoffmeister and Hoffman. Both the magistrates and the clergy seem to have been intimidated: and a temporising policy was adopted, which can never be the line of duty, of honour, of happiness, or of safety. Those who are involved in the trial, or, in other words, exposed to the temptation, may contrive to reconcile their consciences to it; but it is never approved when looked back upon, either by the persons themselves, or by more impartial spectators who judge by the word of God. "To follow the Lord fully," and leave all consequences with him, is the only wise and right path.

The state of things in Glaris, at this period, seems to have resembled that at Schaffhausen: though there also, as at the latter place, it subsequently became more favourable.

At S. Gallen the reformation decidedly gained ground. It was in the year 1526 that Vadian was elected first magistrate; and under his zealous and able direction the citizens followed closely in the steps of Zuric.

In the Tockenburg a general assembly of the people was held in the month of August, 1527, at which all the inhabitants, whether natural born subjects or not, were allowed to attend-" because," said their governors, "religion and the glory of God, which are to be the topics for deliberation, are equally the concern of all men." After this meeting, the images and altars were demolished through a great part of the country. The abbot of S. Gallen, who had jurisdiction over the Tockenburg, expostulated strongly against such proceedings, and even appeared personally in the council to oppose them: but his efforts were unavailing.

The anabaptists still continued to trouble Switzerland, and ran into incredible extravagances and enormities, amounting in one well-attested instance, at least, to the deliberate commission of murder. A young man, in the presence of his father and a numerous family, demanded to take off the head of his brother, under the pretence of imitating Abraham's sacrifice of his son; and the brother actually submitted to the execution, with the exclamation, Father, thy will be done!"

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CHAPTER V.

Disputation of Berne-Reformation of that Cantonand of Basle-Erasmus-Soleure-Treaty of Arau -Conference of Marpurg-Anabaptists.

THE great disputation of Berne, the chief of all those which were held in Switzerland, may be considered as the principal event of the following year, 1528. It was appointed by the grand council of that state, by summons issued in the November preceding. Ten theses or articles were prepared for discussion by Haller and Colbius, which were transmitted to all the parties invited or expected to attend. The council earnestly solicited the four bishops of Lausanne, Basle, Constance, and Sion, who had jurisdiction within their dominions, to send deputies: distinctly intimating that their failure to do their duty, by endeavouring to heal the divisions of the afflicted church, might be followed by the loss of those prerogatives which they claimed within the territories of Berne. They invited deputations also from all the cantons, and the attendance of learned men from every part of Switzerland, and from the surrounding countries generally.

Most of the higher parties applied to discouraged the project. The Roman-catholic cantons, assembled at Lucerne, refused to suffer any persons to pass through their territories to the proposed meeting.

The Friburgers, more violent than the rest, even endeavoured to excite the people of Berne to rise against their rulers. Nor did the emperor suffer his multiplied engagements to prevent his writing to the government, urging them to refer the whole question to a general council, and, in the mean time, to the approaching diet of Ratisbon. But though the prelates, and most of the higher powers applied to, declined any participation in the meeting, yet a great number of ecclesiastics and learned men assembled from all parts of Switzerland and the surrounding countries. More than three hundred and fifty priests are said to have been present: and among the more celebrated names on the side of the reformed were reckoned Zwingle, Œcolampadius, Pellican, Bullinger, Haller, Blaurer, Capito, Bucer, Hoffmeister, Megander, Zingk, Conrad Schmidt, Imelin, Burgawer, Somius of Augsburg, Althamer of Nuremberg, Schappeler, Reust burgomaster of Zuric, and Vadian burgomaster of S. Gallen. The whole council of

Berne also was present.

The meeting took place in the church of the Franciscans, and it lasted from the 7th to the 26th of January, inclusive, with the exception of only one day, Two sessions were held daily, and each session was opened with prayer. All persons concerned were regularly ranged in seats appropriated to them, according to the rank of the cantons or towns from which they were deputed. That every thing might be conducted in an orderly manner, and recorded with unimpeachable fidelity, four presidents-Vadian of S. Gallen, the dean of S. Peter's at Basle, the abbot of Gottstatt, and the commendator of Kusnachtwere chosen by the meeting, and two secretaries by each of the two parties. The secretaries were sworn to perform their duty faithfully, and the presidents engaged by solemn promise to enforce the rules agreed upon for the conduct of the discussion-one of which was, "That no proof should be admitted

but from scripture, nor any explanation of the proofs, which was not also supported by scripture.”

The proceedings of this disputation are preserved to us in the authentic “Acts," published at Zuric, two months after its close. Bucer also has given us an account of it, at some length, in his dedication of his commentary on S. John to the magistrates and ministers of Berne. We have moreover a curious epistle addressed by a zealous Roman-catholic priest of Soleure, James of Munster, who was present, to his friend Sigismund of S. Trudo, a canon and eminent lawyer of Mentz, which fully confirms every representation of the unfavourable figure which his party made on this occasion. It will not be to our purpose to enter into detail: yet something may be drawn from each of these sources of information. Such discussions were evidently of signal service at the period of the reformation, when the people had less opportunity of being instructed by books than we now enjoy, and when all the mummeries of the popish worship, and all the antiscriptural doctrines of the popish faith, which were to be exposed by being contrasted with the scriptures, were notorious to all men.

Haller, as a principal pastor of the town, brought forward the first proposition, which affirmed the fundamental principles that Christ is the only (spiritual) head of the church, and the written word of God the only rule of its faith. He explained and supported his proposition in a short speech, and was followed by Ecolampadius. Alexius Gratt, a Dominican of Berne, undertook to maintain the supremacy of S. Peter, and through him of the pope: for which one of his arguments was our Lord's having given to Peter the name of Cephas, which, said Gratt, “ is a Greek word signifying a head, or chief." Haller informed him that the word was Syriac, and in the very passage referred to was explained to mean a rock or stone. Gratt alleged that he had read what he stated concerning the name Cephas in the vocabu