This volume constitutes the second part of

THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION

by Philip Schaff

It is included as Volume VIII in the 8-volume

HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Volume VII in this series, on the German

Reformation, constitutes the first part of

this 2-volume unit on The History of the

Reformation

HISTORY

of the

CHRISTIAN CHURCH [1]

by

PHILIP SCHAFF

professor of church history in the union theological seminary

new york

Christianus sum: Christiani nihil a me alienum puto

VOLUME VIII.

MODERN CHRISTIANITY

THE SWISS REFORMATION

This is a reproduction of the Third Edition, Revised

Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1997. This material has been carefully compared, corrected¸ and emended (according to the 1910 edition of Charles Scribner's Sons) by The Electronic Bible Society, Dallas, TX, 1998.

PREFACE.

This volume concludes the history of the productive period of the Reformation, in which Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin were the chief actors. It follows the Protestant movement in German, Italian, and French Switzerland, to the close of the sixteenth century.

During the last year, the sixth-centenary of the oldest surviving Republic was celebrated with great patriotic enthusiasm. On the first day of August, in the year 1291, the freemen of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden formed, in the name of the Lord "a perpetual alliance for the mutual protection of their persons, property, and liberty, against internal and external foes. On the same day, in 1891, the great event was commemorated in every village of Switzerland by the ringing of bells and the illumination of the mountains, while on the following day--a Sunday--thanksgiving services were held in every church, Catholic and Protestant. The chief festivities took place, from July 31 to Aug. 2, in the towns of Schwyz and Brunnen, and were attended by the Federal and Cantonal dignitaries, civil and military, and a vast assembly of spectators. The most interesting feature was a dramatic representation of the leading events in Swiss history--the sacred oaths of Schwyz, Brunnen, and Grütli, the poetic legend of William Tell, the heroic battles for liberty and independence against Austria, Burgundy, and France, the venerable figure of Nicolas von der Flue appearing as a peacemaker in the Diet at Stans, and the chief scenes of the Reformation, the Revolution, and the modern reconstruction. The drama, enacted in the open field in view of mountains and meadows and the lake of Luzern, is said to have equalled in interest and skill of execution the famous Passion Play of Oberammergau. Similar celebrations took place, not only in every city and village of Switzerland, but also in the Swiss colonies in foreign lands, notably in New York, on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of September. [2]

Between Switzerland and the United States there has always been a natural sympathy and friendship. Both aim to realize the idea of a government of freedom without license, and of authority without despotism; a government of law and order without a standing army; a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, under the sole headship of Almighty God.

At the time of the Reformation, Switzerland numbered as many Cantons (13) as our country originally numbered States, and the Swiss Diet was then a loose confederation representing only the Cantons and not the people, just as was our Continental Congress. But by the revision of the Constitution in 1848 and 1874, the Swiss Republic, following the example of our Constitution, was consolidated from a loose, aristocratic Confederacy of independent Cantons into a centralized federal State, with a popular as well as a cantonal representation. In one respect the modern Swiss Constitution is even more democratic than that of the United States; for, by the Initiative and the Referendum, it gives to the people the right of proposing or rejecting national legislation.

But there is a still stronger bond of union between the two countries than that which rests on the affinity of political institutions. Zwingli and Calvin directed and determined the westward movement of the Reformation to France, Holland, England, and Scotland, and exerted, indirectly, a moulding influence upon the leading Evangelical Churches of America. George Bancroft, the American historian, who himself was not a Calvinist, derives the republican institutions of the United States from Calvinism through the medium of English Puritanism. A more recent writer, Douglas Campbell, of Scotch descent, derives them from Holland, which was still more under the influence of the Geneva Reformer than England. Calvinism breeds manly, independent, and earnest characters who fear God and nothing else, and favors political and religious freedom. The earliest and most influential settlers of the United States--the Puritans of England, the Presbyterians of Scotland and Ireland, the Huguenots of France, the Reformed from Holland and the Palatinate,--were Calvinists, and brought with them the Bible and the Reformed Confessions of Faith. Calvinism was the ruling theology of New England during the whole Colonial Period, and it still rules in great measure the theology of the Presbyterian, Congregational, and Baptist Churches.

In the study of the sources I have derived much benefit from the libraries of Switzerland, especially the Stadtbibliothek of Zürich, which contains the invaluable Simler collection and every important work relating to the Reformation in Switzerland. I take great pleasure in expressing my obligation to Dr. G. von Wyss, president, and Dr. Escher, librarian, for their courtesy and kindness on repeated visits to that library.

The sources on the Reformation in French Switzerland are now made fully accessible by the new critical edition of Calvin's works, by Herminjard's collection of the correspondence of the French-speaking Reformers (not yet completed), and by the publications of the documentary history of Geneva during the period of Calvin's labors, including the registers of the Council and of the Consistory.

I have freely quoted from Calvin's works and letters, which give us the best insight into his mind and heart. I have consulted also his chief biographers,--French, German, and English: his enthusiastic admirers,--Beza, Henry, Stähelin, Bungener, and Merle D'Aubigné; his virulent detractors--Bolsec, Galiffe, and Audin; and his impartial critics,--Dyer, and Kampschulte. Dr. Henry's work was the first adequate biography of the great Reformer, and is still unsurpassed as a rich collection of authentic materials, although not well arranged and digested. Dr. Merle D'Aubigné's "History of the Reformation" comes down only to 1542. Thomas H. Dyer, LL. D, the author of the "History, of Modern Europe," from the fall of Constantinople to 1871, and other historical works, has written the first able and readable "Life of Calvin" in the English language, which is drawn chiefly from Calvin's correspondence, from Ruchat, Henry, and, in the Servetus chapter, from Mosheim and Trechsel, and is, on the whole, accurate and fair, but cold and unsympathetic. The admirable work of Professor Kampschulte is based on a thorough mastery of the sources, but it is unfortunately incomplete, and goes only as far as 1542. The materials for a second and third volume were placed after his death (December, 1872) into the hands of Professor Cornelius of Munich, who, however, has so far only written a few sections. His admiration for Calvin's genius and pure character (see p. 205) presents an interesting parallel to Döllinger's eloquent tribute to Luther (quoted in vol. VI. 741), and is all the more valuable as he dissented from Calvin's theology and church polity; for he was an Old Catholic and intimate friend of Reusch and Döllinger.

The sole aim of the historian ought to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

I have dedicated this volume to my countrymen and oldest surviving friends in Switzerland, Dr. Georg von Wyss of Zürich and Dr. Fréderic Godet of Neuchâtel. The one represents German, the other French Switzerland. Both are well known; the one for his historical, the other for his exegetical works. They have followed the preparation of this book with sympathetic interest, and done me the favor of revising the proof-sheets. [6]

I feel much encouraged by the kind reception of my Church History at home and abroad. The first three volumes have been freely translated into Chinese by the Rev. D. Z. Sheffield (a missionary of the American Board), and into Hindostani by the Rev. Robert Stewart (of the Presbyterian Mission of Sialkot).

I have made considerable progress in the fifth volume, which will complete the history of the Middle Ages. It was delayed till I could make another visit to Rome and Florence, and study more fully the Renaissance, which preceded the Reformation. Two or three more volumes will be necessary to bring the history down to the present time, according to the original plan. But how many works remain unfinished in this world! Ars longa, vita brevis.

June, 1892.

The celebration has elicited some valuable contributions to the authentic history of Switzerland, which may be added to the literature on p. 3. I mention Dr. W. Oechsli: Die Anfänge der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft. Zürich, 1891.--Jos. Ig. von Ah: Die Bundesbriefe der alten Eidgenossen von 1201 bis 1513. Einsiedeln, 1891--Pierre Vaucher: Les Commencements de la Confédération suisse. Lausanne, 1891.--Prof. Georg von Wyss: Rede bei der Bundesfeier der Eidgenössischen polytechn. Schule, und der Hochschule Zürich am 25 Juli 1891. Zürich, 1891.--Denkschrift der historischen u. antiquarischen Gesellschaft zu Basel. Zur Erinnerung an den Bund der Eidgenossen vom 1. Aug. 1291. Basel, 1891.--The second volume of Dierauer's Geschichte der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft appeared at Gotha, 1892, but goes only to the year 1516, when the history of the Reformation began.

Bundesstaat, as distinct from a Staatenbund.

The first and second volumes of Dr. Henry's larger biography are sometimes quoted from the English translation of Dr. Stebbing; but the third volume always from the original, as Dr. Stebbing omits the appendices and nearly all the original documents.

Professor Reusch of Bonn kindly informed me by letter (Sept. 8, 1891) that Kampschulte first studied for the priesthood and was an orthodox and pious Catholic, but opposed the Vatican decree of papal infallibility in 1870, and may therefore be considered as having been virtually excommunicated. He administered to him the last sacrament (which the ultramontane priest was prohibited from doing by the Archbishop of Cologne). The first volume of Kampschulte's work was fully and favorably reviewed in Reusch's Literatur-blatt for 1869, No. 662, by Dr. Hefele of Tübingen, shortly before he became bishop of Rottenburg. Hefele, as a member of the Vatican council, was one of the most learned opponents of papal infallibility, but afterwards submitted for the sake of peace. A biographical notice of Kampschulte by Cornelius is to be found in the fifteenth volume of the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie.

I take the liberty of quoting a few passages from recent letters of these Swiss scholars which will interest the reader. Dr. von Wyss writes: "Ihr Vaterland in Amerika und die englische Sprache geben dem Werke ein Gepräge, welches dasselbe von deutschen ähnlichen Schriften eindrücklich unterscheidet--es liegt ein so unmittelbares Auffassen und Erfassen der Hauptsache, auf die es ankömmt, ein so bestimmtes Losgehen auf das Leben, das Praktische, darin--dass mich dieser charakteristische Zug Ihrer gewaltigen Arbeit ungemein anzieht. Wie verschieden sind doch die Anlagen und die Bedürfnisse der Völker! Wer wollte deutsches, französisches, englisches, amerikanisches Blut und Wesen (ich nenne sie nach der historischen Reihenfolge) zusammenschmelzen können! überall ein eigenthümlicher Zug! Jeder werthvoll und lieb, wenn er nicht übertrieben wird! Wer soll die Einheit bilden? Darüber sind wir, mein hochverehrter Freund (ich bin glücklich, so sagen zu dürfen), einig. Aber was wird es einst sein, wenn wir diese Einigung in ihrer vollen Verwirklichung, über dieser Erde, erblicken werden!"--"Ich lese die Probebogen allezeit mit dem grössten Vergnügen. Die Klarheit, Bestimmtheit und Genauigkeit Ihrer Darstellung (bis in's Einzelnste) und der Geist von dem sie getragen ist, gewähren mir die grösste Befriedigung.... Was Zwingli in seiner Expositio Fidei an König Franz I. über die Weit jenseits des Grabes sagt, ist mir von allen seinen Aeusserungen stets das Liebste, und in nichts fühle ich mich ihm mehr verwandt als gerade darin,--sowie in der Liebe, die ihn zu Bullinger zog."--Dr. Godet (Dec. 3, 1891): "Du scheinst zu fürchten, dass die Druckbogen mir eine Last seien. Im Gegentheil, sie sind mir eine Freude und Belehrung gewesen. Ich habe nie etwas so Befriedigendes über den Gegenstand gelesen. Calvin tritt hervor mit seinem wahren Gesicht und in seiner hehren Gestalt. Ich danke Dir herzlich für diese Mittheilung." The same, in a more recent letter: ..."Qu'il nous soit donnéàtous deux avant de quitter cette vie de pouvoir terminer nos travaux commencés,--toi, ton Histoire... moi, mon Introduction au Nouveau Testament.... Le premier volume, les épitres de Paul, sera, j'espère, terminéet impriméavec la fin de Pannée si..." The venerable author is now in his eightieth year.

POSTSCRIPT.

The above Preface was ready for the printer, and the book nearly finished, when, on the 15th of July last, I was suddenly interrupted by a stroke of paralysis at Lake Mohonk (where I spent the summer); but, in the good providence of God, my health has been nearly restored. My experience is recorded in the 103d Psalm of thanksgiving and praise.

I regret that I could not elaborate chs. XVII. and XVIII., especially the influence of Calvin upon the Reformed Churches of Europe and America (§§ 162 and 163), as fully as I wished. My friend, the Rev. Samuel Macauley Jackson, who happened to be with me when I was taken sick, aided me in the last chapter, on Beza, for which he was well prepared by previous studies. I had at first intended to add a history of the French Reformation, but this would make the volume too large and delay the publication. I have added, however, in an appendix, a list of literature which I prepared some time ago in the Library of the Society of the History of French Protestantism at Paris, and brought down to date. Most of the books are in my possession.

I may congratulate myself that, notwithstanding this serious interruption, I am enabled to publish the history of the Reformation of my native land before the close of the fiftieth anniversary of my academic teaching, which I began in December, 1842, in the University of Berlin, when my beloved teacher, Neander, was in the prime of his usefulness. A year afterwards, I received, at his and Tholuck's recommendation, a call to a theological professorship from the Synod of the German Reformed Church in the United States, and I have never regretted accepting it. For it is a great privilege to labor, however humbly, for the kingdom of Christ in America, which celebrates in this month, with the whole civilized world, the fourth centennial of its discovery.

Thankful for the past, I look hopefully to the future.

Philip Schaff.

Union Theological Seminary

New York, October 12, 1892.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The first edition (of 1500 copies) being exhausted, I have examined the volume and corrected a number of typographical errors, mostly in the French words of the last chapters. There was no occasion for other improvements.

P. S.

August 9, 1893.

HISTORY

of

THE REFORMATION

SECOND BOOK.

THE SWISS REFORMATION.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

§ 1. Switzerland before the Reformation.

Switzerland belongs to those countries whose historic significance stands in inverse proportion to their size. God often elects small things for great purposes. Palestine gave to the world the Christian religion. From little Greece proceeded philosophy and art. Switzerland is the cradle of the Reformed churches. The land of the snow-capped Alps is the source of mighty rivers, and of the Reformed faith, as Germany is the home of the Lutheran faith; and the principles of the Swiss Reformation, like the waters of the Rhine and the Rhone, travelled westward with the course of the sun to France, Holland, England, Scotland, and to a new continent, which Zwingli and Calvin knew only by name. Compared with intellectual and moral achievements, the conquests of the sword dwindle into insignificance. Ideas rule the world; ideas are immortal.

Before the sixteenth century, Switzerland exerted no influence in the affairs of Europe except by the bravery of its inhabitants in self-defence of their liberty and in foreign wars. But in the sixteenth century she stands next to Germany in that great religious renovation which has affected all modern history. [7]

The Republic of Switzerland, which has maintained itself in the midst of monarchies down to this day, was founded by "the eternal covenant" of the three "forest cantons," Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, August 1, 1291, and grew from time to time by conquest, purchase, and free association. Lucerne (the fourth forest canton) joined the confederacy in 1332, Zurich in 1351, Glarus and Zug in 1352, Berne in 1353, Freiburg and Solothurn (Soleur) in 1481, Basle and Schaffhausen in 1501, Appenzell in 1513,--making in all thirteen cantons at the time of the Reformation. With them were connected by purchase, or conquest, or free consent, as common territories or free bailiwicks, the adjoining lands of Aargau, Thurgau, Wallis, Geneva, Graubündten (Grisons, Rhätia), the princedom of Neuchatel and Valangin, and several cities (Biel, Mühlhausen, Rotweil, Locarno, etc.). Since 1798 the number of cantons has increased to twenty-two, with a population of nearly three millions (in 1890). The Republic of the United States started with thirteen States, and has grown likewise by purchase or conquest and the organization and incorporation of new territories, but more rapidly, and on a much larger scale.

The romantic story of William Tell, so charmingly told by Egidius Tschudi, the Swiss Herodotus, and by Johannes von Müller, the Swiss Tacitus, and embellished by the poetic genius of Friedrich Schiller, must be abandoned to the realm of popular fiction, like the cognate stories of Scandinavian and German mythology, but contains, nevertheless, an abiding element of truth as setting forth the spirit of those bold mountaineers who loved liberty and independence more than their lives, and expelled the foreign invaders from their soil. The glory of an individual belongs to the Swiss people. The sacred oath of the men of Grütli on the Lake of Lucerne, at the foot of Seelisberg (1306 or 1308?), and the more certain confederation of Dec. 9, 1315, at Brunnen, were renewals of the previous covenant of 1291. [10]

The Swiss successfully vindicated their independence against the attacks of the House of Habsburg in the memorable battles of Morgarten ("the Marathon of Switzerland" 1315), Sempach, and Näfels, against King Louis XI. of France at St. Jacob near Basle (the Thermopylae of Switzerland, 1444), and against Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy at Granson, Murten (Morat), and Nancy (1476 and 1477).

Nature and history made Switzerland a federative republic. This republic was originally a loose, aristocratic confederacy of independent cantons, ruled by a diet of one house where each canton had the same number of deputies and votes, so that a majority of the Diet could defeat a majority of the people. This state of things continued till 1848, when (after the defeat of the Sonderbund of the Roman Catholic cantons) the constitution was remodelled on democratic principles, after the American example, and the legislative power vested in two houses, one (the Ständerath or Senate) consisting of forty-four deputies of the twenty-two sovereign cantons (as in the old Diet), the other (the Nationalrath or House of Representatives) representing the people in proportion to their number (one to every twenty thousand souls); while the executive power was given to a council of seven members (the Bundesrath) elected for three years by both branches of the legislature. Thus the confederacy of cantons was changed into a federal state, with a central government elected by the people and acting directly on the people. [11]

This difference in the constitution of the central authority must be kept in mind in order to understand why the Reformation triumphed in the most populous cantons, and yet was defeated in the Diet. The small forest cantons had each as many votes as the much larger cantons of Zurich and Berne, and kept out Protestantism from their borders till the year 1848. The loose character of the German Diet and the absence of centralization account in like manner for the victory of Protestantism in Saxony, Hesse, and other states and imperial cities, notwithstanding the hostile resolutions of the majority of the Diet, which again and again demanded the execution of the Edict of Worms.

The Christianization of Switzerland began in the fourth or third century under the Roman rule, and proceeded from France and Italy. Geneva, on the border of France and Savoy, is the seat of the oldest church and bishopric founded by two bishops of Vienne in Southern Gaul. The bishopric of Coire, in the south-eastern extremity, appears first in the acts of a Synod of Milan, 452. The northern and interior sections were Christianized in the seventh century by Irish missionaries, Columban and Gallus. The last founded the abbey of St. Gall, which became a famous centre of civilization for Alamannia. The first, and for a long time the only, university of Switzerland was that of Basle, where one of the three reformatory Councils was held. During the Middle Ages the whole country, like the rest of Europe, was subject to the Roman see, and no religion was tolerated but the Roman Catholic. It was divided into six episcopal dioceses,--Geneva, Coire, Constance, Basle, Lausanne, and Sion (Sitten). The Pope had several legates in Switzerland who acted as political and military agents, and treated the little republic like a great power. The most influential bishop, Schinner of Sion, who did substantial service to the warlike Julius II. and Leo X., attained even a cardinal's hat. Zwingli, who knew him well, might have acquired the same dignity if he had followed his example.

"The affairs of Switzerland," says Hallam (Middle Ages, II. 108, Am. ed.), "occupy a very small space in the great chart of European history; but in some respects they are more interesting than the revolutions of mighty kingdoms. Nowhere besides do we find so many titles to our sympathy, or the union of so much virtue with so complete success.... Other nations displayed an insuperable resolution in the defence of walled towns; but the steadiness of the Swiss in the field of battle was without a parallel, unless we recall the memory of Lacedaemon."

They were called gemeine Herrschaften or Vogteien and zugewandte Orte.

Or the father of Swiss historiography, as he is also called. His Chronicon Helveticum or Eidgenössische Chronik (1000-1470) was first edited by Professor Iselin, Basle, 1734 and '36, in 2 vols. Aegidius Tschudi of Glarus (1505-1572) derived the Tell legend from the Weisse Buch of Sarnen, and Etterlin of Lucerne, and adorned it with his fancy, and masterly power of narration. He was a pupil of Zwingli, but remained in the old church. In a letter to Zwingli, February, 1517, he says, "Non cum aliquo docto libentius esse velim, quam tecum." Zw., Opera, VII. 21. The MS. of his Chronik is preserved in the city library of Zürich. It is carefully described, with a facsimile in the Neujahrsblatt of the Stadtbibliothek in Zürich auf das Jahr 1889 (Zürich, Orell Füssli & Co.).

On the origin of the Swiss Confederation and the Tell and Grütli legends, see the critical researches of Kopp, Urkunden zur Geschichte der eidgenössischen Bünde, Luzern, 1835, and Wien, 1851, 2 vols. Hisely, Recherches critiques sur Guillaume Tell, Lausanne, 1843. Kopp, Zur Tell-Sage, Luzern, 1854 and '56. Karl Hagen, Die Politik der Kaiser Rudolf von Habsburg und Albrecht I. und die Entstehung der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft, Bern, 1857. G. von Wyse, Die Gesch. der drei Lander Uri, Schwyz und Unterwalden,1212-1315, Zürich, 1858; Zürich am Ausgange des dreizehnten Jahrh., Zürich, 1876. A. Rilliet, Les origines de la confédération suisse, histoire et légende, 2d ed., Genève, 1869. Dierauer, Gesch. der Schweiz. Eidgenossenschaft, Gotha,

The Staatenbund became a Bundesstaat. The same difference exists between the American Confederacy during the Revolutionary War and the United States after the war, as also between the old German Bund and the new German Empire.

The numerical strength of Protestantism at the death of Zwingli was probably not far from two-thirds of the population. The relation of the two confessions has undergone no material change in Switzerland. In 1888 the Protestants numbered 1,724,257; the Roman Catholics,