CHAP. Death of dius. Zwingle succeeded by Bullinger and : and risking all consequences. This was the case, in particular, with Frauenfeld, the capital of Thurgau, with Zurzach, in the county of Baden, and with some towns in the Rheinthal.1 The death of the meek and holy, the learned Ecolampa and devoted Ecolampadius followed, as we have elsewhere seen, a few weeks after that of Zwingle: 2 and the loss of these two great men at such a crisis must be considered as perhaps the heaviest which the church of Switzerland now sustained. God however, in his gracious providence, had raised up others qualified to succeed them, and to carry on his work. The offices of antistes, or chief pastor, and of professor of divinity, which had been united in Zwingle, were now divided, and the celebrated Henry Bullinger succeeded him in the former, while Theodore Bouchman, or BibliBibliander ander, was appointed to the latter. Bullinger, who was now only in the twenty-eighth year of his age, retained his post forty-four years, and rendered great and extensive service to the church of Christ. Bibliander was somewhat older; but he laboured at Zuric with much reputation and success for thirty-two years. Bullinger speaks in the highest terms of his associate and Pellican bears the following testimony concerning the state of Zuric some time after their appointment. "The mercy and grace of God have ordered things in such a manner, that, in the place of one Zwingle, and of the fidelity with which he laboured, the church has received a double blessing, and shews the effects of it in its increased edificaEcolampa- tion."-Ecolampadius was succeeded at Basle Myconius. by Oswald Myconius.3 dius by 1 Ru. 383-418, 423–468, 478–482, 499–503. 2 Vol. i. 121. 3 Ru. iii. 505-508, 497. A. D. 1531. expected. Indeed here, as in the case of Saxony, no such serious evils as might have been expected appear to have followed the defeat of the The church less injured reformed.1 God rebuked the self-confidence than might and humbled the pride of his people, and by have been necessary chastisement taught them greater forbearance towards others, and more simple dependence upon himself; but, though he rebuked and chastened them, he "gave them not over unto death," neither "delivered them to the will of their enemies:" on the contrary he visited them, and restored blessings unto them. Myconius observes concerning the effects of this visitation, "We have learned to walk much more cautiously; we prize the gospel of Christ more highly; we look more simply to God; and the friends and the enemies of the gospel are more clearly discriminated." 2 We have seen that both Ecolampadius and Musculus were sensible of the need there had been for such lessons as the reformed Swiss were now taught, and of those lessons being impressed upon them by severe means: 3 and Ruchat justly remarks, "It is painful that it should have been necessary for the reformed to be subjected to such discipline, to teach them 1 "The victories of the five cantons did not do near so much mischief, as might have been anticipated, to the reformed cantons and their dependencies, nor even to the subjects of the common bailliages, since both the one and the other retained their civil and religious liberties, and the affairs of the reformed were in no worse state after the war than before." Ru. iii. 483-4. 66 Many ministers were forbidden to officiate, to the stumbling of the weak: but the efforts of the Romanists were in various ways defeated. God raised up bold and zealous men, who, with his aid, supported the tottering cause of the reformation: and there were some, who, after recovering from their first consternation, returned to the reformed church." Ib. 523-4. CHAP. The similar fate of the 1531. 1547. 1553. the rules of Christian tolerance and patience. A little more adherence to the practice of these excellent virtues would have spared them these mortifications and would have saved the reformation the calamities which the opposite conduct drew upon it." 1 Indeed it is a highly observable fact, and one which we are sure was not permitted without "a need be" for it, that each of the three great branches of the reformation, at an early period, suffered a check, which to the apprehension of contemporaries must have threatened its destruction. Such was the case in Switzerland by the victories obtained by the Roman catholics over the reformed: in Germany, by a similar cause, followed by the suppression of the league of Smalkald, and the introduction of the Interim: and in England by the death of the good king Edward, and the succession of the bigoted and bloody Mary. Yet in each case the fears of its friends and the hopes of its enemies were alike disappointed. To the latter, it was "as when a hungry man dreameth, and behold he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty.' 2 In each case the church was taught that "her help cometh from the Lord," and that he "will not forsake his people," but in the time of exigency will appear for their deliverance: that "the wrath of man shall praise him, and the remainder of wrath -all that would go beyond his purposes-" will he restrain." In each case, what might have been thought destruction proved to be only correction it was pruning and not excision; : 1 Ruchat, iii. 464-5. 2 Such is the strict application of the text, Isaiah xxix. 7,8, to those who vainly imagined they had devoured the church, and "swallowed it up quick." and promoted, not prevented, the production of good fruit, to the glory of God and the benefit of mankind. And such, we are assured, shall always be the event, both to the individual Christian and to the church at large. To God therefore let his suffering people at all times turn, and to him "commit their cause," "in well doing"-even to Him" which doeth great things and unsearchable, marvellous things without number:" and, though his interposition be delayed, "let them wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry" beyond the prescribed and most appropriate period. A. D. 1531. taining reli If however we may judge from the case both of On mainGermany and of Switzerland, little encourage- gion by ment is afforded to maintaining the cause of arms. religion by an appeal to arms. Never was a military enterprise more misconducted, or with worse success, than the wars both of Cappel and of Smalkald. Little is in general to be expected from a religious body undertaking to fight for their religion. Conscientious men in such cases form but an unequal match for men of the world, who will proceed with less scruple, and very probably acquit themselves with more address, and therefore with a better prospect of success and especially this is not the means, unless in some cases of absolute and unavoidable necessity, (such as the Vaudois might at times be exposed to, to preserve themselves from absolute extirpation,) on which the blessing of heaven is to be expected. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal;" and "the children of this world are, in their generation, wiser than the children of light." But, even if a successful issue, in an external and political point of view, be in such a case attained, it will very probably be attended by more than CHAP. Folly of war. counterbalancing disadvantages to the real, spiritual prosperity of the church.. Indeed may. we not well ask, When will mankind at large learn how little-how very little conducive to the real good even of the victorious party, and speaking now only in a temporal sense-is gained by war? how much less than might in almost all cases be attained by pacific measures? How commonly, after a profusion of blood and treasure has been expended, does the contest end in a treaty of which the status quo ante bellum, if not something worse for both parties, is the basis? An exposure from actual history of the USELESSNESS of war, in almost all cases not strictly and unavoidably defensive, might be one of the best means of convincing men of the folly of that, which must always be, on one side or on both, an enormous wickedness.2 1 66 "Things in the same state as before the war." I subjoin the two following confirmations of the remark in the text. "The son of Chosroes abandoned without regret the conquests of his father; and a war which had wounded the vitals of the two monarchies (the Roman and the Persian,) produced no change in their external and relative situation." Gibbon, close of chap. xlvi.-" Wars of course, occurred: but, after the contending parties had sufficiently worried each other, a peace, made through the mediation of powerful and jealous neighbours, usually placed them, at the end of each struggle, pretty much in the same relative state as they were at the beginning." Faber, Sacred Calendar, iii. p. 323-referring to the history of Europe between the establishment of the balance of power and the French revolution. I may seem perhaps in these closing observations to stand in some degree opposed to an authority to which I much defer, that of Dr. M'Crie: Reformation in Spain, p. 343-4 : but when our respective limitations are considered, our difference will be found to be little more than apparent. |