178 THE SWISS REFORMATION.
truths of the heathen poets and philosophers the traces of the pre-Christian revehition of the Logos, and in the philosophy of the Greeks a schoolmaster to lead them to Christ. The humanists of the school of Erasmus recognized a secondary inspiration in the classical writings, and felt tempted to pray : " Saiicte Socrates^ ora pro nobis."' Zwingli was a humanist, but he had no sympathy with Pelagianism. On the contrary, as we have shown previously, he traced salvation to God's sovereign grace, which is independent of ordinary means, and he first made a clear distinction between the visible and the in\dsible Church. He did not intend, as he has been often misunderstood, to assert the possibility of salvation without Christ. " Let no one think," he wrote to Urbanus Rhegius (a preacher at Augsburg), " that I lower Christ; for whoever comes to God comes to him through Christ. . . . The word, " He who believeth not will be condemned,' applies only to those who can hear the gospel, but not to children and heathen. ... I openly confess that all infants are saved by Christ, since grace extends as far as sin. Whoever is born is saved by Christ from the curse of original sin. If he comes to the knowledge of the law and does the works of the law (Rom. 2 : 1-i, 26), he gives evidence of his election. As Christians we have great advantages by the knowledge of the gospel." He refers to the case of Cornelius, who was pious before his baptism ; and to the teacliing of Paul, who made the circumcision of the heart, and not the circumcision of the flesh, the criterion of the true Israelite (Rom. 2 : 28, 29) .i
The Confession to Francis I. was the last work of Zwingli. It was written three months before his death, and published five years later (1536) by Bullinger, who calls it liis " swan song." The manuscript is preserved in the National Library of Paris, but it is doubtful whether the king of France ever
^ Comp. the remarks on pp. 95 sqq., and Schweizer's Ceniraldogmen, L 9i sqq. and p. 131 sq.
§ 46. THE SECOND WAR OF CAPPEL. 179
saw it. Calvin dedicated to him his Institutes, with a most eloquent preface, but with no better success. Charles V. and Francis I. were as deaf to such appeals as the emperors of heathen Rome were to the Apologies of Justin Martyr and TertuUian. Had Francis listened to the Swiss Reformers, the history of France might have taken a different course.
§ 46. The Second War of Cappel. 1531.
Egli : Die Schlacht von Cappel, 1531. Zurich, 1873. Comp. tlie lit. quoted § 42.
The political situation of Switzerland grew more and more critical. The treaty of peace was differently understood. The Forest Cantons did not mean to tolerate Protestantism in their own territory, and insulted the Reformed preachers ; nor would they concede to the local communities in the bailiwicks (St. Gall, Toggenburg, Thurgau, the Rheinthal) the right to introduce the Reformation by a majority vote ; while the Ztirichers insisted upon both, and yet they prohibited the celebration of the mass in their own city and district. The Roman Catholic Cantons made new disloyal approaches to Austria, and sent a deputation to Charles V. at Augsburg which was very honorably received. The fugitive abbot of St. Gall also appeared with an appeal for aid to his restoration. The Ziirichers were no less to blame for seeking the foreign aid of Hesse, Venice, and France. Bitter charges and counter-charges were made at the meetings of the Swiss Diet.^
1 Bluntschli (who was a Protestant of Zurich) thinks that Zwingli and Ziirich were upon the whole more to blame. He says, I.e. I. .334: " Zivar hatte darin Zwingli ein richtiges politisches Princip ausgesprochen, class im wirklichen ernsten Conflictzwischen der innern Berechtigung und dem aussern,formellen Recht am Ende dieses jener weichen miisse. Aber er hatte dieses Princip iveder richtig angewendet ; denn ein solcher Widerspruch lag in dem eidgenossischen Bundesrechi denn dock nicht oder lange nicht in dem angegebenen Masse vor, noch waren die Mittel, welche er vorschlug, um ein vermeintlich besseres, well natiirlicheres RecM herzustellen, zu rechtfertigen. Und musste ein gerechter Mann zugeben, dass die Fiinf Orte auch ihre Stellung nicht rein erhielten von Missbrauch, so war dock nicht zu Idugnen, dass damals auf Seite der Stiidte und insbesondere Ziirichs der Miss-