Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/882

Rh 832 Z W I Z W I Though no longer so important as when it lay on the chief trade route from Saxony to Bohemia and the Danube, Zwickau still carries on considerable commerce in grain, linen, and coal. The mainstay of the industrial prosperity of the town is the adjacent coalfield, which in 1885 em ployed 10,000 hands and yielded coal to the value of 854,900. The mines are mentioned as early as 1348; but they have been actively worked only for the last 65 years, during which time the population of the town has increased more than sixfold. In 1885 the population was 39,245; in 1834 it was 6701. Zwickau is of Slavonic origin, and is mentioned in 1118 as a trading place. From 1290 till 1348 it was a free imperial city, but about the latter date it was forced to accept the protection of the margrave of Meissen. The Anabaptist movement of 1525 be gan at Zwickau under the inspiration of the &quot;Zwickau prophets.&quot; Robert Schumann (1810-1856), the musical composer, was born here. The name is sometimes fancifully derived from the Latin cygnca, from a tradition that placed a. &quot;swan lake&quot; here which had the property of renewing the youth of those who bathed in it. ZWIXGLI, HULDKEICH (1484-1531), Swiss Reformer, was born on 1st January 1484 at Wildhaus, at the head of the Toggenburg valley, in the canton of St Gall, Switzer land. His father was a well-to-do peasant proprietor, amman of the township ; his mother was Margaret Meili, whose brother was abbot of the cloister of Fischingen in Thurgau. The people of Wildhaus were in Zwingli s time a self-ruled village community. They had also bought from the abbots of St Gall the privilege of electing their own pastor ; and the first parish priest chosen by the votes of the parishioners was Bartholomew Zwingli, the uncle of the Reformer, who latterly became dean of Wesen. Zwingli thus came of a free peasant stock, and he carried the marks of his origin all his life. When eight years old he was sent to school at Wesen, where he lived with his uncle, the dean. Two years later he was sent to Basel ; and after a three years sojourn there he became a pupil in the high school of Bern, where his master was Heinrich Wolflin, an accomplished classical scholar, from whom Zwingli acquired that love of classical literature which never left him. From Bern he went to Vienna (in 1500), and after two years study there he returned to Basel. At Basel the celebrated Thomas Wyttenbach was his master and friend, and taught him those Evangelical truths which he afterwards so signally defended. It is impossible to avoid contrasting the joyous youth of Zwingli with the sad childhood of Luther. Zwingli was full of love of family, of township, of country, and of Christ. He had none of those dark religious experiences which drove Luther to the convent, and which made him miserable there. He had never to struggle alone in despair of soul, one step at a time, towards the gospel of God s free grace. Wyttenbach was very unlike those nominalist divines from whom Luther learnt mediaeval theology. He foresaw many things which a later generation discovered. Zwingli has assured us that Wyttenbach taught him that the death of Christ, and not priests, masses, and pilgrim ages, was a sufficient ransom for the sins of the world ; that he pointed out the errors of the schoolmen and of Romish theology ; and that he asserted that Holy Scrip ture, and not ecclesiastical tradition, was the sole rule of faith. It cost Zwingli nothing to break with the mediaeval church. He had been taught independence from child hood, and shown how to think for himself while a student at Basel. When twenty-two years of age Zwingli was ordained by the bishop of Constance. He preached his first sermon at Ilapperswyl, and said his first mass among his own people at Wildhaus. He was appointed (1506) to the parish of Glarus, where he had leisure for study and began to read extensively and carefully in preparation for future work. At Glarus too he gathered the boys of the district about him (^Egidius Tschudi, the historian of Switzerland, among them) to teach them the classics ; and he set himself by a study of the masterpieces of ancient and mediaeval rhetoric to learn the art of oratory. He tells us that at this time he foresaw that a man who is called to be a preacher must know many things, two things above all others God, and how to speak. Meanwhile he tested every doctrine in theology by the Word of God and took his stand firmly upon what it taught him. The Swiss troops of Zwingli s day were supposed to be the best in Europe, and neighbouring states were glad to have their assistance in Avar. The Swiss were accustomed to hire out. their soldiers for large sums of money to those states who paid best. It was their custom also to send the parish priest of the district from which the troops came as chaplain to the regiment. Zwingli went twice, once in 1512 and again in 1515, with the men of Glarus. He saw the demoralizing tendency of such mercenary war fare and ever afterwards denounced the immoral traffic. In 1521 he persuaded the authorities of the canton of Zurich to renounce it altogether. In 1516 Zwingli was transferred to Einsiedeln. It was then, and is still, resorted to by thousands of pilgrims yearly, who come to visit the famous image of the Virgin and Child which has been preserved there for at least a thousand years. Zwingli denounced the superstition of pilgrimages. His sermons made a great sensation and attracted attention in Rome. The papal curia had no wish to quarrel with the Swiss, who furnished them with troops, and sought to silence the Reformer by offers of promotion, which he refused. Soon afterwards he was elected, after some opposition, to be preacher in the cathedral at Zurich, and accepted the office (1518), having first obtained a pledge that his liberty to preach the truth should not be interfered with. He began the fight almost on his arrival. Bernhardin Samson, a pardon-seller like Tetzel, had been selling indulgences in the Forest Cantons and proposed to come to Zurich. Zwingli prevailed on the council to send the friar out of the country. In the beginning of 1519 he began a series of discourses on the New Testament Scriptures, on St Matthew s Gospel, on the Acts of the Apostles, and on the Pauline Epistles. The sermons, preached &quot; in simple Swiss language,&quot; had a great effect. The Reformation in Zurich was begun. The council of the canton was on Zwingli s side and protected their preacher. He began to preach against fasting and other Roman practices ; some of his followers put his precepts in practice and ate flesh in Lent. The bishop of Constance accused them before the council of Zurich. Zwingli was heard in their defence, and the accusation was abandoned. The victory on the subject of fasting was followed by an attack on the doctrine of the celibacy of the clergy. Pope Adrian VI. interfered, and asked the Zurichers to abandon Zwingli. The Reformer persuaded the council to allow a public disputation, which was held in 1523. Zwingli pro duced sixty-seven theses, 1 containing a summary of his doctrinal views, and argued in their favour with such power that the council upheld the Reformer and separated the canton from the bishopric of Constance. The Refor mation, thus legally established, went forward rapidly. The Latin language was discontinued in the service ; the incomes of chapters, convents, and monasteries were applied for education ; the celibacy of the clergy was abolished ; monks and nuns were freed from their vows ; mass and image worship were declared to be idolatrous ; and the Eucharist in both kinds Avas celebrated by a solemn com munion of all the Reformed congregations on Maundy Thursday 1525. _____ 1 Cf. Schafi&quot;s Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Churches, p. 197.