§ 41. ZWINGLIANISM IN GERMANY. 163
prominent position in the history of Ziirich, and promoted its industry and prosperity, like the exiled Huguenots in Brandenburg, Holland, England, and North America.^
§ 41. Zwinglianism in G-ermany.
The principles of the Helvetic Reformation spread also to some extent in Germany, but in a modified form, and prepared the way for the mediating (Melanchthonian) character of the German Reformed Church. Although Luther overshadowed every other personality in Germany, Zwingli had also his friends and admirers, especially the Landgrave, Philip of Hesse, who labored very zealously, though unsuccessfully, for a union of the Lutherans and the Reformed. Bucer and Capito at Strassburg, Cellarius at Augsburg, Blaurer at Constance, Hermann at Reutlingen, and Somius at Ulm, strongly sympathized with the genius and tendency of the Ziirich Reformer.^ His influence was especially felt in those free cities of Southern Germany where the democratic element prevailed.
Four of these cities, Strassburg, Constance, Memmingen, and Lindau, handed to the Diet of Augsburg, 11th July, 1530, a special confession (^Confessio Tetrapolitana) drawn up by Bucer, with the assistance of Hedio, and answered by the Roman divines, Faber, Eck, and Cochlseus. It is the first symbolical book of the German Reformed Church (Zwingli's writings having never acquired symbolical authority), but was superseded by the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) and the Second Helvetic Confession (1566). It strikes a middle course between the Augsburg Confession of Melanchthon and the private Confession sent in by Zwingli during the same Diet, and anticipates Calvin's view on the Lord's Supper by teaching a real fruition of the true body and blood of Christ,
1 On the industry of the Italians in Ziirich, see Meyer, II. 375-391.
2 See the correspondence of Zwingli, in his Opera, vols. VII. and VIII,
164 THE SWISS KEFOKMATION.
not through the mouth, but through faith, for the nourishment of the soul into eternal life.^
The Zwinglian Reformation was checked and almost destroyed in Germany by the combined opposition of Romanism and Lutheranism. The four cities could not maintain their isolated position, and signed the Augsburg Confession for political reasons, to join the Smalcaldian League. The Reformed Church took a new start in the Palatinate under the- combined influence of Zwingli, Melanchthon, and Calvin (1563), gained strength by the accession of the reigning dynasty of Prussia (since 1614), and was ultimately admitted to equal rights with the Roman Catholic and Lutheran Churches in the German Empire by the Treaty of Westphalia (1648).
1 See VI. 718-721.
CHAPTER V.
THE CIVIL WAR BETWEEN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC AND REFORMED CANTONS.
See the works of Escher, Oechsli, and Fenner, quoted on p. 19 ; Moriko- FER, ZwingJi, II. 346-452 ; and Bluntschli, Geschichte des schweizerischen Bundesrecbtes von den ewigen Bunden bis auf die Gegenwart. Stuttgart. 2d ed. 1875, 2 vols.
§ 42. The First War of Cappel. 1529.
The year 1530 marks the height of the Zwinglian Reformation. It was firmly established in the leading cities and cantons of Ziirich, Bern, and Basel. It had gained a strong majority of the people in Northern and Eastern Switzerland, and in the Grisons. It had fair prospects of ultimate success in the whole confederacy, when its further progress was suddenly arrested b}^ the catastrophe of Cappel and the death of Zwingli.
The two parties had no conception of toleration (except in Glarus and the Grisons), but aimed at supremacy and excluded each other wherever they had the power. They came into open conflict in the common territories or free bailiwicks, by the forcible attempts made there to introduce the new religion, or to prevent its introduction. The Protestants, under the lead of Zwingli, were the aggressors, especially in the confiscation of the rich abbey of St. Gall. They had in their favor the right of progress and the majority of the population. But the Roman Catholics had on their side the tradition of the past, the letter of the law, and a majority of Cantons and of votes in the Diet, in which the people were not directly represented. They strictly prohibited Protestant preaching within their own jurisdiction, and even