36 THfi SWISS REFOKMATION.
of enduring vitality. Zwingli had to use the Latin, or to struggle with an uncouth dialect; and the Swiss Version of the Bible by his faithful friend Leo Judee remained confined to German Switzerland, but is more accurate, and kept pace in subsequent revisions with the progress of exegesis. Zwingli can never inspire, even among his own countrymen, the same enthusiasm as Luther among the Germans. Luther is the chief hero of the Reformation, standing in the front of the battle-field before the Church and the world, defying the papal bull and imperial ban, and leading the people of God out of the Babylonian captivity under the gospel banner of freedom.
Each was the right man in the right place ; neither could have done the work of the other. Luther was foreordained for Germany, Zwingli for Switzerland. Zwingli was cut down in the prime of life, fifteen years before Luther; but, even if he had outlived him, he could not have reached the eminence which belongs to Luther alone. The Lutheran Church in Germany and the Reformed Church of Switzerland stand to this day the best vindication of their distinct, yet equally evangelical Chi-istian work and character.
NOTES.
I add the comparative estimates of the two Reformers by two eminent and equally unbiassed scholars, the one of German Lutheran, the other of Swiss Reformed, descent.
Dr. Baur (the founder of the Tiibingen school of critical historians) says : ^ " When the two men met, as at Marburg, Zwingli appears more free, more unprejudiced, more fresh, and also more mild and conciliatory; while Luther shows himself harsh and intolerant, and repels Zwingli with the proud word : ' We have another spirit than you.' ^ A comparison of their controversial writings can only result to the advantage of Zwingli. But there can be no doubt that, judged by the merits and effects of their reformatory labors, Luther stands much higher than Zwingli. It is true, even in this respect, both stand quite independent of each other. Zwingli has by no means received his impulse from Luther ; but Luther alone stands on the proper field
1 Kirchengeschichte, IV. 87 sq.
- Martin, another impartial and dogmatically unbiassed writer, likewise gives, with reference to the Marburg conference, " the honors of the debate, for logic and for moderation and brotherly charity," to Zwingli. Hist, de France, VIH. 114, note. So does Dean Stanley.
§ *J. ZWINGLI AND LUTHER. 37
of battle where the cause of the Reformation had to be fought out. He is the path-breaking Reformer, and without his labors Zwingli could never have reached the historic significance which properly belongs to him alongside of Luther." ^
Dr. Alexander Schweizer (of Zurich), in his commemorative oration of 1884, does equal justice to both: " Luther and Zwingli founded, each according to his individuality, the Reformation in the degenerated Church, both strengthening and supplementing each other, but in many respects also going different ways. How shall we estimate them, elevating the one, lowering the other, as is the case with Goethe and Schiller ? Let us rather rejoice, according to Goethe's advice, in the possession of two such men. May those Lutherans who wish to check the growing union with the Reformed, continue to represent Luther as the only Reformer, and, in ignorance of Zwingli's deep evangelical piety, depreciate him as a mere humanistic illuminator : this shall not hinder us from doing homage at the outset to Luther's full greatness, contented with the independent position of our Zwingli alongside of this first hero of the Reformation ; yea, we deem it our noblest task in this Zwingli festival at Zurich, which took cheerful part in the preceding Luther festival, to acknowledge Luther as the chief hero of the battle of the Reformation, and to put his world-historical and personal greatness in the front rank ; and this all the more since Zwingli himself, and afterwards Calvin, have preceded us in this high estimate of Luther." ^
Of s^^ular historians, J. Michelet (^Histoire de France, X. 310 sq.) shows a just appreciation of Zwingli, and his last noble confession addressed to the King of France. He says of him : " Grand docteur, meiUeur patriate, nature forte et simple, il a montre' ie ti/pe meme, le vrai ge'nie de la Suisse, dans sa Jiere inde'pendance de Vltalie, de VAllemagne. . . . Son langage a Francois 1'^, digne de la Renaissance, e'tablissait la question de I'Eglise dans sa grandeur." He then quotes the passage of the final salvation of all true and noble men, which no man with a heart can ever forget.
1 " Nehen Lnther." This is the proper expression, which also Schweizer has chosen. Usteri places Zwingli too high when he calls him " ein Martin Luther ebenlnlrtiger Zeuge lies evangelischen Glaubens." He is independent, but not equal.
2 Zwingli's Bedeutung nehen Luther. Festrede zu Zwingli's 400 jdhrigem Geburtstag 1 Jan., 1484, gehalten in der Universitdtsaula zu Zurich 7 Jan., 1884 (Zurich, 1884), p. 3.