§ 11. ZWINGLl'S LABORS AND STUDIES. 41
This is a reformatory idea ; for the aim of the Reformation was to reopen the fountain of the New Testament to the whole people, and to renew the life of the Church by the power of the primitive gospel. By his method of preaching on entire books he could give his congregation a more complete idea of the life of Christ and the way of salvation than by confining himself to detached sections. He did not at first attack the Roman Church, but only the sins of the human heart ; he refuted errors by the statement of truth. ^
His sermons gained him great popularity in Zurich. The people said, " Such preaching was never heard before." Two prominent citizens, who were disgusted with the insipid legendary discourses of priests and monks, declared after hearing his first sermon, " This is a genuine preacher of the truth, a Moses who will deliver the people from bondage." They became his constant hearers and devoted friends.
Zwingli was also a devoted pastor, cheerful, kind, hospitable and benevolent. He took great interest in young men, and helped them to an education. He was, as Bullinger says, a fine-looking man, of more than middle size, with a florid complexion, and an agreeable, melodious voice, which, though not strong, went to the heart. We have no portrait from his lifetime ; he had no Lucas Kranach near him, like Luther ; all his pictures are copies of the large oil painting of Hans Asper in the city library at Zurich, which was made after his death, and is rather hard and wooden.'^
Zwingli continued his studies in Zurich and enlarged his library, with the help of his friends Glareanus and Beatus Rhenanus, who sent him books from Basle, the Swiss headquarters of literature. He did not neglect his favorite classics, and read, as Bullinger says, Aristotle, Plato, Thu-
1 He did not elaborate his discourses on Matthew for publication, but we have fragmentary reports from the year 1525. See the extracts in Morikofer, 1. 57-03.
2 See Asper's portrait on p. 16, and the description of the Zwingli pictures in Morikofer, I. 345, and in tlie pamphlet, Zwingli-AussteUung, Zurich, January, 1884.
42 THE SWISS REFORMATION.
cyclides, Homer, Horace, Sallust, and Seneca. But his chief attention Avas now given to the Scriptures and the j)atristic commentaries.
In the meantime Luther's reform was shaking the whole Church, and strengthened and deepened his evangelical convictions in a general way, although he had formed them independently. Some of Luther's books were reprinted in Basle in 1519, and sent to Zwingli by Rhenanus. Lutheran ideas were in the air, and found attentive ears in Switzerland. He could not escape their influence. The eucharistic controversy produced an alienation; but he never lost his great respect for Luther and his extraordinary services to the Church.i
§ 12. Zwingli and the Sale of Indulgences.
Bernhardin Samson, a Franciscan monk of Milan, crossed the St. Gotthard to Switzerland in August, 1518, as apostolic general commissioner for the sale of indulgences. He is the Tetzel of Switzerland, and equalled him in the audacious profanation of holy things by turning the forgiveness of sins and the release from purgatorial punishment into merchandise. He gave the preference to the rich who were willing to buy letters of indulgence on parchment for a crown. To the poor he sold the same article on common paper for a few coppers. In Berne he absolved the souls of all the departed Bernese of the pains of purgatory. In Bremgarten he excommunicated Dean Bullinger (the father of Henry) for opposing his traffic. But in Zurich he was stopped in his career.
Zwingli had long before been convinced of the error of indulgences by Wyttenbach when he studied in Basle. He had warned the people against Samson at Einsiedeln. He exerted
1 In Zwingli's library are few works of Luther, and they have no annotations. (Usteri, I.e., p. 716.) His noble tribute to Luther is quoted in this History, vol. VI. 668.