CHAPTER XVIII. DISPUTATION OF BERNE-COURSE OF EVENTS IN A. D. 1528. Disputation THE great disputation of Berne, the chief of all those which were held in Switzerland, may be considered as the principal event of the following year, 1528. It was appointed by the of Berne. grand council of that state, by summons issued in the November preceding. Ten theses or articles were prepared for discussion by Haller and Colbius, which were transmitted to all the parties invited or expected to attend. The reasons assigned for the meeting were, the great diversity of sentiment and practice which prevailed in matters of religion within the territories of Berne; the refusal of any satisfactory communication of the Acts of Baden; and the great outery made by the monks against the measure, adopted by the council, of appointing administrators to take care that the property of the convents should not be dissipated by the present possessors, till the period should arrive for placing those institutions on a more satisfactory footing. The time chosen for this discussion was esteemed favourable CHAP. Opposition to the meeting. since all the great powers of Europe, being engaged in war one with another, were precluded from interfering with the affairs of the Swiss, and preventing their settling their disputes in such a way as seemed to them best. The council earnestly solicited the four bishops of Lausanne, Basle, Constance, and Sion, who had jurisdiction within their dominions, to send deputies; distinctly intimating that their failure to do their duty, by endeavouring to heal the divisions of the afflicted church, might be followed by the loss of those prerogatives which they claimed within the territories of Berne. They invited deputations also from all the cantons, and the attendance of learned men from every part of Switzerland, and from the surrounding countries generally. Murner was specially desired to be present: and a learned Franciscan of Granson, named De Marie-Palud, was even brought to Berne at the expence of the government. Murner answered the invitation only by a publication against the Bernese, so libellous that the state of Lucerne no longer ventured to protect him, and he was obliged soon after to quit Switzerland.1 Most of the higher parties applied to discouraged the project. The bishop of Lausanne told the council, that they had no persons among them sufficiently learned in the scriptures to engage in a discussion of so great importance. He sent, however, some of his divines to the meeting, but they soon withdrew, without either assigning their reasons or taking leave: a proceeding which drew from the lords of Berne a strong remonstrance to the bishop.2 1 Ruchat ii. 9, 401-2. 2 Ru. ii. 10. This remonstrance was conveyed in the last The Roman-catholic cantons, assembled at Lucerne, strongly opposed the measure, referring the Bernese to the disputation of Baden as having sufficiently decided the questions at issue and they refused to suffer any persons to pass through their territories to the proposed meeting. The Friburgers, more violent than the rest, even endeavoured to excite the people of Berne to rise against their rulers. Nor did the emperor suffer his multiplied engagements to prevent his writing to the government, urging them to refer the whole question to a general council, and, in the mean time, to the approaching diet of Ratisbon. It is needless to say that this advice was not taken. A. D. 1528. But though the prelates, with the single Parties exception already mentioned, and most of the assembled. higher powers applied to, declined any participation in the meeting, yet a great number of ecclesiastics and learned men assembled from all parts of Switzerland and the surrounding countries. As many as a hundred resorted to Zuric from Glaris, Schaffhausen, S. Gallen, Constance, Ulm, Lindau, Isenach, Augsburg, Nordlingen, and other places, to go in a body with Zwingle: and, as plots were formed against that reformer's life, the magistrates sent forward his party under an escort of three hundred soldiers. More than three hundred and fifty priests are said to have attended the disputation of Berne: and among the more celebrated names on the side of the reformed were reckoned Zwingle, colampadius, Pellican, Bullinger, Haller, Blaurer, Capito, Bucer, Hoffmeister, Megander, Zingk, Conrad Schmidt, Imelin, of three letters from the council to the bishop, which are given, ib. 512-518, and thence copied by Gerdes, vol. ii. Doc. No. 23. CHAP. Burgawer, Somius of Augsburg, Althamer XVIII. of Nuremberg, Schappeler, Reust burgomaster of Zuric, and Vadian burgomaster of S. Gallen. The whole council of Berne also was present. Regulations observed. The meeting took place in the church of the Franciscans, and it lasted from the 7th to the 26th of January, inclusive, with the exception of only one day. Two sessions were held daily, and each session was opened with prayer. All persons concerned were regularly ranged in seats appropriated to them, according to the rank of the cantons or towns from which they were deputed. That every thing might be conducted in an orderly manner, and recorded with unimpeachable fidelity, four presidentsVadian of S. Gallen, the dean of S. Peter's at Basle, the abbot of Gottstatt, and the commendator of Kusnacht-were chosen by the meeting, and two secretaries by each of the two parties. The secretaries were sworn to perform their duty faithfully, and the presidents engaged by solemn promise to enforce the rules agreed upon for the conduct of the discussion: one of which was, "That no proof should be admitted but from scripture, nor any explanation of the proofs, which was not also supported by scripture-no judge being allowed but scripture explained by itself, that is by the comparison of more obscure parts with those which are more clear." Any person was allowed to take notes, who would give in his name, and pledge himself to make no unfair use of them, and not to publish any thing from them before the authentic acts of the disputation should appear, which were to be printed with all possible despatch. The disputants were also allowed to receive assistance at the time from ány of their friends, whether by written or oral communication.1 A. D. 1528. The proceedings of this disputation are pre- Records of served to us in the authentic "Acts," published proceedings in the German tongue, at Zuric, two months after its close, and reprinted at Berne in 1608. Bucer also has given us an account of it, at some length, in his dedication of his commentary on S. John to the magistrates and ministers of Berne. We have moreover a curious epistle addressed by a zealous Roman-catholic priest of Soleure, Jacobus Monasteriensis, or James of Munster, who was present, to his friend Sigismund of S. Trudo, a canon and eminent lawyer of Mentz, which fully confirms every representation of the unfavourable figure which his party made on this occasion. Both Scultetus and Gerdes have copied Bucer's account, and Ruchat has abstracted largely from the Acts. It will not be our purpose to enter into detail: yet something may be drawn from each of these sources of information. discussions were evidently of signal service at the period of the reformation, when the people had less opportunity of being instructed by books than we now enjoy, and when all the mummeries of the popish worship, and all the antiscriptural doctrines of the popish faith, 1 Ru. ii. 5-29. Gerd. ii. 338-343, 351–353. Such Utility of 2 Scultet. 122-124. Gerd. ii. 351, 354-359. Ru. ii. 29-202. Dupin's account (vi. 108-9,) does not differ from that here given. In stating the objections made by the four bishops against holding the disputation, he says they urged, "that disputes about matters of faith ought not to be determined by scripture alone, because every one would explain it according to his own humour: that the law of God had provided another way to decide all doubts in religion, which is to apply themselves to the pope, and acquiesce in his determination." Such is the representation of a learned and candid Roman-catholic. such meetings. |