§ 30. The jSwiss Diet mid the Conference at Badeti, 1526.
Thomas Murner : Die Disputacion vor den XII Orten einer loblichen Eidgenossenschaft . . . zu Baden gekalten. Luzern, 1527. This is the official Catholic report, which agrees with four otlier protocols preserved in Zurich. (Muller-Hottinger, VII. 84.) Murner published also a Latin edition, ijausa Helvetica orthodoxce fidei, etc. Lucerna?, 1528. Bellinger, I. 331 :sqq.' The writings of Zwingli, occasioned by the Disputation in Baden, in his Opera, vol. II. B. 396-522.
HoTTiNGER : Geschichte der Eidgenossen wiihrend der Zeit der Kirchentrennung , pp. 77-96. MoRiKOFER : Zw., II. 34-43. Merle : Reform., Bk. XI. ch. 13. Herzog : Oekolampad, vol. II. ch. 1. Hagenbach : Oekolampad, pp. 90-98. A. Bacr: Zw.'s TheoL, I. 501-518.
The Diet of Switzerland took the same stand against the Zwinglian Keformation as the Diet of the German Entpire against the Lutheran movement. Both Diets consisted only of one house, and this was composed of the hereditary nobility and aristocracy. The people were not directly represented by delegates of their own choice. The majority of voters were conservative, and in favor of the old faith ; but the majority of the people in the larger and most prosperous cantons and in the free imperial cities favored progress and reform, and succeeded in the end.
The question of the Reformation was repeatedly brought before the Swiss Diet, and not a few liberal voices were heard in favor of abolishing certain crying abuses ; but the majority of the cantons, especially the old forest-cantons around the lake of Lucerne, resisted every innovation. Berne was anxious to retain her political supremacy, and vacillated. Zwingli liad made many enemies by his opposi-
§ 30. THE SWISS DIET. 99
tion to the foreign military service and pensions of his countrymen. Dr. Faber, the general vicar of the diocese of Constance, after a visit to Rome, openly turned against his former friend, and made every effort to unite the interests of the aristocracy with those of the hierarchy. " Now," he said, "the priests are attacked, the nobles will come next." ^
At last the Diet resolved to settle the difficulty by a public disputation. Dr. Eck, well known to us from the disputation at Leipzig for his learning, ability, vanity and conceit,^ offered his services to the Diet in a flattering letter of Aug. 13, 1524. He had then just returned from a third visit to Rome, and felt confident that he could crush the Protestant heresy in Switzerland as easily as in Germany. He spoke contemptuously of Zwingli, as one who "had no doubt milked more cows than he had read books." About the same time the Roman counter-reformation had begun to be organized at the convent of Regensburg (June, 1524), under the lead of Bavaria and Austria.
The disputation was opened in the Catholic city of Baden, in Aargau, May 21, 1526, and lasted eighteen days, till the 8th of June. The cantons and four bishops sent deputies, and many foreign divines were present. The Protestants were a mere handful, and despised as " a beggarly, miserable rabble." Zwingli, who foresaw the political aim and result of the disputation, was prevented by the Council of Zurich from leaving home, because his life was threatened ; but he influenced the proceedings by daily correspondence and secret messengers. No one could doubt his courage, which he showed more than once in the face of greater danger, as when he went to Marburg through hostile territory, and to the battlefield at Cappel. But several of his friends were sadly disapjDointed at his absence. He would have equalled Eck in debate and excelled him in biblical learning. Eras-
1 "Jetzst ge/it's iiher die Geistlichen, dann kommt es an die Junker."
2 Comp. vol. VI. § 37, p. 178 sqq.
100 THE SWISS REFORMATION.
mus was invited, but politely declined on account of sickness.
The arrangements for the disputation and the local sympathies were in favor of the papal party. Mass was said every morning at five, and a sermon preached ; the pomp of ritualism was displayed in solemn processions. The presiding officers and leading secretaries were Romanists ; nobody besides them was permitted to take notes.^ The disputation turned on the real presence, the sacrifice of the mass, the invocation of the Virgin Mary and of saints, on images, purgatory, and original sin. Dr. Eck was the champion of the Roman faith, and behaved with the same polemical dexterity and overbearing and insolent manner as at Leipzig : robed in damask and silk, decorated with a golden ring, chain and cross ; surrounded by patristic and scholastic folios, abounding in quotations and arguments, treating his opponents with proud contempt, and silencing them with his stentorian voice and final appeals to the authority of Rome. Occasionally he uttered an oath, '■'•Potz Marter.''^ A contemporary poet, Nicolas Manuel, thus described his conduct : —
" Eck stamps with his feet, and claps his hands, He raves, he swears, he scolds; ' I do,' cries he, ' what the Pope commands, And teach whatever he holds.' "^
CEcolampadius of Basle and Haller of Berne, both plain and modest, but able, learned and earnest men, defended the Reformed opinions. CEcolampadius declared at the outset that he recognized no other rule of judgment than the Word of God. He was a match for Eck in patristic
1 Nevertheless, two young friends of the Reformation published reports from memory.
2 In Eck's und Faber's Badenfahrt :
"Eck zappelt mit Fiissen und Hdnden, Fing an zu schelten und schdnden. Er sprach : Ich hlib by dem Versfand, Den Papst, Cardinal, und Blshofhand."