CHAP. rality, and for maintaining the discipline of the church.1 XVIII. Further progress of the reformation. Schaffhausen. Sept. The three powerful states of Zuric, Berne, and Basle being now fully committed in favour of the reformation, this fact gave great encouragement to such of their neighbours as leaned toward the same side, but had hitherto hesitated. It will not however be necessary for us to relate the further progress now made at the various places which have been before mentioned, and at several others which might be added to them. We have not sufficient details to render the accounts either very interesting or very instructive, and they may be judged of by what has been related concerning the leading states. We shall only select a few particulars which may be best worth recording. Schaffhausen, as has been intimated, at this time consummated its reformation. Our more recent notices of this place have represented it as retrograding, rather than advancing in the sacred cause. There were not wanting, however, persons to contend for the truth. The two parties struggled together for the mastery during the greater part of the year 1529: but at length a decided preponderance was given to the reformed by the timely interposition of Zuric, Berne, Basle, S. Gallen, and Mulhausen. Those places sent a joint deputation to Schaffhausen to exhort the government to a more decided conduct. They represented to the council, that, as it had shewn itself convinced of the truth and will of God, by in part abolishing the mass, images, and monasteries, it became it not " to halt between two opinions," as it had lately done; but to act more firmly 1 Gerd. ii. 381-383. Ru. ii. 373. 2 Vol. ii. 537, 576. and consistently, and thus to consult at once for the glory of God and the peace of the town. At the same time these states promised their support and protection against all external enemies. The council in consequence assembled the citizens at large, and submitted the question to them. By a plurality of votes they made their election in favour of the reformation, which was thenceforward formally established among them.1 A. D. 1529. In Glaris the violent differences which had Glaris. agitated the canton on the subject of religion were now to a considerable degree settled by an arrangement, which, though it did not amount to a general establishment of the reformation, yet confirmed it where it had already been introduced; required the clergy at large to preach nothing but what was drawn from the scriptures; and gave the reformed ministers access to all parts of the canton.2 At S. Gallen the magistrates took upon them S. Gallen. to reform the abbey church; and on the seventh of March the inhabitants for the first time assembled in it, to the number of three thousand, to hear the gospel preached by their pastor, Dominic Zilli. The examination and exposure of many false relics, which had been held in great veneration, produced a powerful effect. So much was the mind of a Romancatholic deputy from Glaris struck with the impostures which had been practised, that he renounced his former faith, and joined the reformed. The instructions of Schappeler also, who, as we have seen, had been appointed chaplain to the convent of S. Catharine, were CHAP. Bienne. Bremgarten. Bullinger, so successful that the nuns all renounced their profession, and quitted the house. 1 Bienne still followed in the steps of Berne. Here, as had been the case at Basle, a considerable portion of the council was opposed to the reformation, while the citizens favoured it and the latter prevailed. Stéhelin, the pastor, was brought before the council to answer for his doctrine. Some members would have sentenced him to death; others, to banishment: but the majority decided that if he could prove his doctrine from scripture he should continue unmolested in his employ. Farel visited Bienne this year, and aided the cause of the reformation there.2 The proceedings at the town of Bremgarten were interesting. Bullinger, the father of the the father: great reformer of that name, had been stationed there ever since the year 1506, and held the office of a rural dean. We have seen his determined resistance to Samson, the vendor of indulgencies, and have noticed some others of his proceedings favourable to reformation. The occasional services of his son also at Bremgarten had been useful. But it was not till this period that the eyes of the father were fully opened to the errors of Romanism, and the truth of the evangelical doctrine: and the avowal which he in consequence made from the pulpit was decided, and very affecting. He told his people that he had preached to them for twenty-three years, and that he had always taught them what he esteemed to be the truth; but he was now sensible that he himself had been blind, as so many others were, and could only therefore lead them on in darkness: that 1 Vol. ii. 460. Ru. ii. 384-388. Gerd. ii. 384--386. 2 Ru. ii. 388-390. Gerd ii. 388-9. A. D. 1528. he implored pardon of God; and, by the help of his grace, would for the future shew them the right way of salvation, as taught only in the holy scriptures, and would endeavour to lead them by the hand to Jesus Christ alone." The chief magistrate of the place, hearing him speak in this way, left the church in great wrath, and took measures for displacing him— in which it would seem that he succeeded.1 Considerable discords followed. The Romancatholic cantons sent deputies to require the inhabitants to persevere in their former superstition but they had recourse to Zuric, and, being supported by that canton and Berne, they resolved by a plurality of voices "to abolish the mass, images, and all the trumpery of popery, and to demand a reformed pastor." The images were accordingly broken or burned; Gervas Schuler, from the neighbourhood of Strasburg, and the younger Bullinger, and the son. hitherto master of the school at Cappel, were appointed joint-pastors; and regulations were adopted for the improvement of the morals of the people.2 Of an occurrence at Wesen, on the lake Wesen and of Waldenstadt, we have a somewhat amusing Schennis. account. Wesen and Schennis are situate in the district of Gaster, subject to the cantons of Schweitz and Glaris. Balthasar Trachsel, who, as we formerly saw, was driven from his "My father was driven from his country for the confession of the truth. . . . They tumultuously deprived him of his office, and expelled him the town. He came to Zuric," &c. Bullinger junior.-We afterwards find the father, in 1530, established as minister of Hermensweil, near Bremgarten. Ru. iii. 80.-After the defeat of the reformed in 1531, he was excepted from the peace, and retired to Zuric, where he died in 1533. Ib. 476. Ru. ii. 393-396. VOL. III. Gerd. ii. 392-394. Scultet. 138. E CHAP. Soleure. living of Art, for having dared, the first of all the Swiss clergy, to marry, appears to have introduced the reformed doctrine there; and the inhabitants, unawed by the neighbourhood of the rich abbey of Schennis, whose abbess ranked as a princess, this year abolished the mass. The canton of Schweitz interposed: but the people of Wesen replied, that in all other things they were ready to obey their earthly superiors, but that in the concerns of religion they must hold themselves responsible to God alone. Hence, in the presence of the deputy of Schweitz, some boys were allowed to carry out the images from the church to a place where several ways met, and there, placing them on the ground, to address them thus: "This way leads to Schweitz, that to Glaris; this to Zuric, and that to Coire: choose which you will take, and depart in peace but if you do not move along one or other of them we will burn you." As the idols shewed no disposition to move, they were set on fire and consumed.1 Soleure continues to this day an exclusively popish canton: yet it contained at the period of which we are writing many zealous advocates for the reformation, and even made very promising advances towards a public reception of it. The disputation of Berne had greatly strengthened the hands of the friends of the reformation here: and accordingly we find Ecolampadius very shortly after writing to Capito to look out for some "learned, eloquent, unmarried clergyman, prepared to promote the glory of God, who might be sent to Soleure, that antichrist might be dislodged from that place." 1 Ru. ii. 397, 399–402. |