CECOLAMPADIUS
304
CECOLAMPADIUS
corrupt body i^( Romaiiism. His health failing him. he was liiiaJly (I'/liKe-l to abandon his position at Basle, and lie returned to ^^'cinsberg. But he maintained an active correspondence with Erasmus, and also with Luther and Melaucthon, whose views more or less influenced him even in the line of his studies. He devoted himself especially during this season of retirement to the careful study of the Hebrew ; he also published a tract, De Pus- c/iali ri.fu (1518), in condemnation of the broad humor with which the Easter sermons of the day abounded, and, strange to say, he wrote a tragedy containing six tliousaiid lines. His piety during this period of his life was sincere, but so very sombre that his friends often railed him about his superstition; which was to be as- cribed in part to his physical distempers, though the main cause of it was his imperfect knowledge of the way of salvation. As soon as his health would permit he went back to Basle, at the earnest request of Eras- mus, who was getting out the second edition of his New Testament, and Wanted his help; but after a sojourn of a few months (1518) Qilcolampadius removed to Augs- burg, having been appointed one of the principal preach- ers of that city. Here it was that he tirsl met Luther, who came to Augsburg in May, 1519, to confer with the papal legate, and by him (Ecolampadius was "instruct- ed in the way of tlie Lord more perfectly.'' With true Christian promptitude, he at once placed himself by the side of the Eeformer. The Lord had long been training him for a glorious work, but his education was not yet complete. True, he had learned the grand central truth of the Gospel — free justification through the blood and righteousness of the Son of God ; and had confirmed the belief of his friends in his conversion to the new doctrines by at once espousing and defending them in the C'anonici indocti, which he published anonymously, in connection with the canon Bernh. von Adelmanns- felden, about 1518. Yet such was still his respect for some of the principles of the Roman Catholic Church that, witliout consulting any one, he entered, April 23, 1520, to the surprise of all his friends and the disgust of many of them, the monastery of St. Bridget, near Augs- burg. He was prompted, of course, by no selfish consid- eration to take this step, but by the sincere though ill-founded hope of being in a more favorable position to cultivate personal holiness. "I had," he said, "a fair prospect of being something, if I had remained in the world." It is thought by some that Gicolampadius sought the retirement of the convent to give himself to more careful investigation of and reflection upon the new doctrines. Certain it is that he carried with him into this retirement the new views as he had learned them from the lips of the great German Eeformer him- self, and there was even then a most deep-rooted sym- pathy in his heart for the cause of the Reformer. " If they condemn Luther," said he frankly and openly, *' they must first condemn Holy Scripture." His high repu- tation had induced the fraternity to accede to him lib- erty for his own opinions and studies; but as his convic- tions gradually tended towards Lutheranism, his preach- ing and writing became more and more discordant with the opinions of his fellow-monks, and they soon discov- ered that the new-comer was a most unsuitable mem- ber of their society, with tastes and ideas utterly remote from theirs. In one of his sermons (published at Basle in 1521), he sjjokc against the adoration of the Virgin and the use of the rosary ; in another, on the Eucharist, delivered on Corpus Christi day (Latin, Basle, 1521; German, Augsburg, 1531), he rejected tlie doctrine of transul)stantiation. But his most imi)(>rtant work is one on confession, written originally in Latin, and after- wards translated into German, in which he openly de- clares outward confession unnecessary for the Christian, since God alone has the power to absolve (as had been held imtil the time of Peter Lombard), and the priest could do no more than (iroclaim this absolution. His position in the convent became untenable, his liberty of thinking and writing was denied him, and he was even