186 THE SWISS REFORMATION.
The news of the disaster at Cappel spread terror among the citizens of Ziirich. " Then," says Bullinger, " arose a loud and horrible cry of lamentation and tears, bewailing and groaning."
On no one fell the sudden stroke with heavier weight than on the innocent widow of Zwingli : she had lost, on the same day, her husband, a son, a brother, a son-in-law, a brother-in-law, and her most intimate friends. She remained alone with her weeping little children, and submitted in pious resignation to the mysterious will of God. History is silent about her grief ; but it has been vividly and touchingly described in the Ziirich dialect by Martin Usteri in a poem for the tercentenary Reformation festival in Ziirich (1819).^
Bullinger, Zwingli's successor, took the afflicted widow into his house, and treated her as a member of his family. She survived her husband seven years, and died in peace.
1 Der armen From Zicinglin King, published in the " Alpenrosen," Bern, 1820, p. 273 ; in Zwingli's Werke, II. B. 281 ; also in Christoffel, I. 413, and Morikofer, II. 517. After giving vent to her woe, Anna Zwingli resorts to the Bible, which was her husband's comfort, and was to be hers. I select the first and the last of the fourteen stanzas of this poem, which Morikofer numbers among " the imperishable monuments of the great man."
1. " 0 Herre Oott, wie he/tiff shluoff
Mich dynes Zornes Ruthen ' Du amies Hers, ist's nit genuog,
Kannst du noch nicht verbluoten t Ich ring die Hand : Kdm' doch myn End !
Wer mag myn Elend fassen t Wer misst die Not ? Myn Gott, Myn Gott,
Hast du mich gar verlassen ?
14. " Komm du, o BuocJi ! du loarst syn Hort,
Syn Trost in allem Uebel. Ward er verfolgt mit That und Wort,
So griff er nach der Bibel, Fand Hilf bei ihr. Herr, zeige mir
Die Hilf in Jesu Nam.en ! Gib Muoth und Stark Zum schweren Werh
Dem schioachen Wybe ! Amen."
§ 48. REFLECTIONS ON THE DISASTER AT CARPEL. 187
A few steps from the pear-tree where Zwingli breathed his last, on a slight elevation, in view of the old church and abbey of Cappel, of the Rigi, Pilatus, and the more distant snow-capped Alps, there arises a plain granite monument, erected in 1838, mainly by the exertions of Pastor Esslinger, with suitable Latin and German inscriptions.^
A few weeks after Zwingli, his friend fficolampadius died peacefully in his home at Basel (Nov. 24, 1531). The enemies spread the rumor that he had committed suicide. They deemed it impossible that an arch-heretic could die a natural death.^
§ 48. Reflections on the Disaster at Cappel.
We need not wonder that the religious and political enemies of Zwingli interpreted the catastrophe at Cappel as a signal judgment of God and a punishment for heresy. It is the tendency of superstition in all ages to connect misfortune with a particular sin. Such an uncharitable interpretation of Providence is condemned by the example of Job, the fate of prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and the express rebuke of the disciples by our Saviour in the case of the man born blind (John 9 : 31). But it is found only too often among Christians. It is painful to record that Lutlier, the great champion of the liberty of conscience, under the influence of his mediaeval training, and unmindful of the adage, J)e mortuis nihil nisi honum, surpassed even the most virulent Catholics in the abuse of Zwingli after his death. It is a sad com-
1 Mrs. Meta Heusser (d. 1876), the most gifted Swiss poetess, who lived a few miles from Cappel, wrote two beautiful poems for the dedication of the monument, Oct. 11, 1838, which are printed in the first series of her Lieder, pp. 189 sqq. I quote the first stanza of the second poem : —
" Die Stdtte, ivo ein Heldenauge brack 1st theuer noch den spdten Enkelsohnen ; Es schiveigt der Todtenklage banges Ach, VerscUlungen von des Sieges JubeUonen."
- See above, § 31, pp. 115 sq., and the note on p. 188.