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 the 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 permitted to all.
10. Since, according to the Scripture, an open fornicator must be excommunicated, it follows that unchastity and impure celibacy are more pernicious to the clergy than to any other class. [721]
In his farewell sermon, Zwingli thus addressed the Bernese: 'Victory has declared for the truth, but perseverance alone can complete the triumph. Christ persevered unto death. Ferendo vincitur fortuna. Behold these idols, behold them conquered, mute, and scattered before us. The gold you have spent upon these foolish images must henceforth be devoted to the comfort of the living images of God in their poverty. In conclusion, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage (Gal. v. 1). Fear not! the God who has enlightened you, will enlighten also your confederates; and Switzerland, regenerated by the Holy Ghost, shall flourish in righteousness and peace.'
3. The Confession of Faith to Emperor Charles V. [722]
Zwingli took advantage of the meeting of the famous Diet at Augsburg, held A.D. 1530, to send a Confession of his faith addressed to the German Emperor Charles V., shortly after the Lutheran Princes had presented theirs (June 25). It is dated Zurich, July 3, and was delivered by his messenger at Augsburg on the 8th of the same month, but it shared the same fate as the 'Tetrapolitan Confession' of Bucer and Capito: it was never laid before the Diet, and was treated with undeserved contempt. Dr. Eck wrote in three days a refutation, [723] slanderously charging Zwingli that for ten years he had labored to root out from the people of Switzerland all faith and all religion, and to stir them, up against the magistrate; that he had caused greater devastation among them than the Turks, Tartars, and Huns; that he had turned the churches and convents founded by the Hapsburgers (the Emperor's ancestors) into temples of Venus and Bacchus; and that he now completed his crime by daring to appear before the Emperor with such an impudent piece of writing. The Lutherans (with the exception of Philip of Hesse, who sympathized with Zwingli) were scarcely less indignant, and much more anxious to conciliate the Catholics than to appear in league with Zwinglians and Anabaptists. They felt especially offended that the Swiss Reformer took strong ground against the corporeal presence, and incidentally alluded to them as persons who 'were looking back to the flesh-pots of Egypt.' [724] Melanchthon, who was at that time not yet emancipated from the Catholic tradition on that article, judged him insane. [725]
Zwingli, having had no time to consult with his confederates, offered the Confession in his own name, and submitted it to the judgment of the whole Church of Christ, under the guidance of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.
In the first sections he declares, as clearly and even more explicitly than the Lutheran Confession, his faith in the orthodox doctrines of the Trinity and the Person of Christ, as laid down in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds (which are expressly named). He teaches the election by free grace, the sole and sufficient satisfaction of Christ, and justification by faith, in opposition to all human mediators and meritorious works. He distinguishes between the internal or invisible, and the external or visible Church; the former is the company of the elect believers and their children, and is the bride of Christ; the latter embraces all nominal Christians and their children, and is beautifully described in the parable of the Ten Virgins, of whom five were foolish. Church may also designate a single congregation, as the church in Rome, in Augsburg, in Leyden. The true Church can never err in the foundation of faith. Purgatory he rejects as an injurious fiction which sets Christ's merits at naught. On original sin, the salvation of unbaptized infants, and the sacraments, he departs much further from the traditional theology than the Lutherans. He goes into a lengthy argument against the corporeal presence in the eucharist. On the other hand, however, he protests against being confounded with the Anabaptists, and rejects their views on infant baptism, civil offices, the sleep of the soul, and universal salvation.
The document is frank and bold, yet dignified and courteous, and concludes thus: 'Hinder not, ye children of men, the spread and growth of the Word of God--ye can not forbid the grass to grow. Ye must see that this plant is richly blessed with rain from heaven. Consider not your own wishes, but the demands of the age concerning the free course of the gospel. Take these words kindly, and show by your deeds that you are children of God.'
4. The Exposition of the Christian Faith to King Francis I. [726]
This is, as Bullinger says, the swan song of Zwingli, in which he surpassed himself. He wrote it in July, 1531, three months before his death, at the request of his friend Maigret, the French ambassador to Switzerland, and sent it in manuscript to Francis I., King of France (1515-1547), who, from political motives, showed himself favorable to the Protestants in Germany and Switzerland, while he persecuted them at home. A few years before he had dedicated to him his 'Commentary on the true and false Religion' (1525), and a few years afterwards (1536) Calvin dedicated to him his Institutes, with a most eloquent and powerful letter; but the frivolous monarch probably never read these voices of warning, which, if properly heeded, might have changed the whole history of France.
This last document of Zwingli is clear, bold, spirited, full of faith and hope. In a brief preface he warns the most Christian King of France against the lies and slanders circulated against the Protestants. He first treats of God, the ultimate ground of our faith and only object of worship. We do not despise the saints and sacraments, we only guard them against abuse; we honor Mary as the perpetual Virgin and Mother of God, [727] but we do not worship her in the proper sense of the term, which we know she herself would never tolerate. The sacraments we honor as signs or symbols of holy things, but not as the holy things themselves. Then he speaks of the holy Trinity, and the incarnation of the eternal Son of God for our salvation, who made a full satisfaction for all our sins. He gives an able exposition of the two natures in the one person of Christ, his death, resurrection, ascension, and return to judgment. He rejects purgatory as a papal fiction. He dwells very fully on the doctrine of the Sacraments, especially the eucharistic presence (rejecting ubiquity). The remaining chapters are devoted to the Church, the Magistrate, the remission of sins, faith and works, eternal life, and an attack on the Anabaptists, with whom the Protestants were often confounded in France. In conclusion, he entreats the king to give the gospel free course in his kingdom; to imitate the example of some pious princes in Germany; to judge by the fruits of the Reformed faith wherever it was fairly established; and to forgive the boldness with which he approached his majesty. The urgency of the case demanded it. An appendix is devoted to the mass, with proofs from the fathers, especially from Augustine, in favor of his view on the Lord's Supper.
[715] See Zwingli's poems, written during the pestilence, in Hagenbach, 1.c. p. 216, and another, p. 404. He published a moral poem, under the title The Labyrinth, as early as 1510, while priest at Glarus (Opera, Tom. II. B. pp. 243 sqq.; Mörikofer, Vol. I. pp. 13 sqq.). His preference for Puritanic simplicity in public worship gave rise to the fiction of his hostility to music. He was, on the contrary, singularly skilled in that art, and was called in derision by the Papists 'the evangelical lute-player.' A contemporary says that he never knew a man who could play on so many musical instruments--the lute, the harp, the violin, etc. [Zwingli's copy of the N. T. was confined to Paul's epistles and Hebrews.--Ed.]
[716] Once, at least, Luther speaks kindly of Zwingli, in a letter to Bullinger, of Zurich, May 14, 1588 (De Wette, Vol. V. p. 112): 'Libere enim dicam: Zwinglium, postquam Marpurgi mihi visus et auditus est, virum optimum esse judicavi, sicut et OEcolampadium.' In the same letter he says that Zwingli's death caused him much pain. But this personal respect did not prevent him from using the most violent language against his doctrine of the Lord's Supper, which he held in utter abhorrence to the last, and this all the more because his fanatical colleague Carlstadt, who gave him infinite trouble, had first proposed and defended it by an untenable exegesis. This accounts also for his absurd charge of fanaticism against the clear, sober-minded, jejune Zwingli. 'Es ist fast lächerlich,' says the mild and impartial Hagenbach (p. 280), 'wenn Luther mitten in seiner schwärmerisch tobenden Leidenschaft den ehrlichen Zwingli einen Schärmer nennt, ihn, der von aller Schwärmerei so fern war. Es sei denn, dass man den idealistischen Zug in ihm (und der war allerdings dem derben Realismus Luthers zuwider) mit diesem Namen bezeichnen wolle. Man betrachte auch nur sein Bildniss! Dieser energische, feste, satte Kopf, diese in Stein gehauene, markante Physiognomie, diese breite Stirn, dieses volle klare Auge, diesen geschlossenen Mund mit runden Lippen--genug! ich überlasse einem Lavater die vollendete Deutung des Bildes (der in ihm "Ernst, Nachdenken, männliche Entschlossenheit, eine sich zusammenziehende Thatkraft, einen schauenden, durchdringenden Verstand" erkennt), und berufe mich allein auf die Geschichte, welche den lebendigen Commentar zu diesem Bildniss ausmacht.'
[717] On the relation of Luther and Zwingli, see Ebrard, Vol. II. pp. 214 sqq.; Hagenbach, pp. 278 sqq.; and an essay of Hundeshagen in the Studien und Kritiken for 1862. Zwingli himself thus described his relation to Luther in 1523, when the German Papists began to denounce his doctrine as a Lutheran heresy: 'Ich habe, ehe noch ein Mensch in unserer Gegend etwas von Luther's Namen gewusst hat, angefangen das Evangelium Christi zu predigen, im Jahr 1516. Wer schalt mich damals lutherisch? . . . Luther's Name ist mir noch zwei Jahre unbekannt gewesen, nachdem ich mich allein an die Bibel gehalten habe. Aber es ist, wie gesagt, nur ihre Schlauheit, dass die Päpstler mich und Andere mit solchem Namen beladen. Sprechen sie: Du musst wohl lutherisch sein, du predigest ja, wie Luther schreibt; so ist meine Antwort: Ich predige ja auch wie Paulus; warum nennst du mich nicht vielmehr einen Paulisten? . . . Meines Erachtens ist Luther ein trefflicher Streiter Gottes, der da mit so grossem Ernste die Schrift durchforscht, als seit tausend Jahren irgend einer auf Erden gewesen ist. Mit dem männlichen, unbewegten Gemüthe, womit er den Papst von Rom angegriffen hat, ist ihm keiner nie gleich geworden, so lange das Papstthum gewähret hat, alle Andern ungescholten. Wessen aber ist solche That? Gottes oder Luthers? Frage den Luther selbst, gewiss sagt er dir: Gottes. Warum schreibst du denn anderer Menschen Lehre dem Luther zu, da er sie selbst Gott zuschreibt, und nichts Neues hervorbringt, sondern was in dem ewigen, unveränderlichen Worte Gottes enthalten ist? Fromme Christen! gebet nicht zu, dass der ehrliche Name Christi verwandelt werde in den Namen Luthers; denn Luther ist für uns nicht gestorben, sondern er lehrt uns den erkennen, von dem wir allein alles Heil haben. Predigt Luther Christum, so thut er's grade wie ich; wiewohl, Gott sei Dank! durch ihn eine unzählbare Menge mehr als durch mich und Andere, denen Gott ihr Mass grösser oder kleiner macht, zu Gott geführt wird. Ich will keinen Namen tragen, als meines Hauptmannes Jesu Christi, dessen Streiter ich bin. . . . Es kann kein Mensch sein, der Luther höher achtet, als ich. Dennoch bezeuge ich vor Gott und allen Menschen, dass ich all' meine Tage nie einen Buchstaben an ihn geschrieben habe, noch er an mich, noch verschafft, dass geschrieben werde. Ich habe es unterlassen, nicht dass ich jemand desswegen gefürchtet, sondern weil ich damit allen Menschen habe zeigen wollen, wie gleichförmig der Geist Gottes sei, da wir so welt von einander entfernt und doch einmüthig sind, aber ohne alle Verabredung, wiewohl ich ihm nicht zuzuzählen bin; denn jeder thut, soviel ihm Gott weiset.'