§ 31. THE REFORMATION IN BERNE. 105
4. The essential and corporal presence of the body and blood of Christ cannot be demonstrated from the Holy Scripture.
5. The mass as now in use, in which Christ is offered to God the Father for the sins of the living and the dead, is contrary to the Scripture, a bla.sphemy against the most holy sacrifice, passion, and death of Clirist, and on account of its abuses an abomination before God.
6. As Christ alone died for us, so he is also to be adored as the only Mediator and Advocate between God the Father and the believers. Therefore it is contrary to the Word of God to propose and invoke other mediators.
7. Scripture knows nothing of a purgatory after this life. Hence all masses and other offices for the dead ^ are useless.
8. The worship of images is contrary to Scripture. Therefore images should be abolished when they are set up as objects of adoration.
9. Matrimony is not forbidden in the Scripture to any class of men ; but fornication and unchastity are forbidden to all.
10. Since, according to the Scripture, an open fornicator must be excommunicated, it follows tliat unchastity and impure celibacy are more pernicious to the clergy than to any other class.
All to the glory of God and his holy Word.
Zwingli preached twice during the disputation.^ He was in excellent spirits, and at the height of his fame and pubHc usefulness. In the first sermon he explained the Apostles' Creed, mixing in some Greek and Hebrew words for his theolosfical hearers. In the second, he exhorted the Bernese to persevere after the example of Moses and the heroes of faith. Perseverance alone can complete the triumph. (^Ferendovinciturfortuna.') Behold these idols conquered, mute, and scattered before you. The gold you spent upon them must henceforth be devoted to the good of the living images of God in their poverty. " Hold fast," he said in conclusion, "to the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free (Gal. 5:1). You know how much we have suffered in our conscience, how we were directed from one false comfort to another, from one commandment to another which only burdened our conscience and gave us no rest. But now ye have found freedom and peace in the knowledge and faith of Jesus Christ. From this freedom let notliing separate you. To
1 " All todtetidienst, als vir/il, seelmess, seelgrdt, sibend, dryssfjest, jarzyt, kerzen, und derglychen."
2 The sermons are printed in Werke, II. B. 203-229.
106 THE SWISS REFORMATION.
hold it fast requires great fortitude. You know how our ancestors, thanks to God, have fought for our bodily liberty ; let us still more zealously guard our spiritual liberty ; not doubting that God, who has enlightened and drawn you, will in due time also draw our dear neighbors and fellowconfederates to him, so that we may live together in true friendship. May God, who created and redeemed us all, grant this to us and to them. Amen."
By a reformation edict of the Council, dated Feb. 7, 1528, the ten Theses were legalized, the jurisdiction of the bishops abolished, and the necessary changes in worship and discipline provisionally ordered, subject to fuller light from the Word of God. The parishes of the city and canton were separately consulted by delegates sent to them Feb. 13 and afterwards, and the great majority adopted the reformation by popular vote, except in the highlands where the movement was delayed.
After the catastrophe of Cappel the reformation was consolidated by the so-called " Berner Synodus," which met Jan. 9-14, 1532. All the ministers of the canton, two hundred and twenty in all, were invited to attend. Capito, the reformer of Strassburg, exerted a strong influence by his addresses. The Synod adopted a book of church polity and discipline ; the Great Council confirmed it, and ordered annual synods. Hundeshagen pronounces this constitution a " true masterpiece even for our times," and Trechsel characterizes it as excelling in apostolic unction, warmth, simplicity and practical wisdom. ^
Since that time Berne has remained faithful to the Reformed Church. In 1828 the Canton by order of the government celebrated the third centenary of the Reformation.
1 The constitution was printed at Basle in the same year, and repeatedly since. Trechsel gives an epitome of it in Herzog^, II. 320 sqq.