Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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§ 44. BETWEEN THE WARS. POLITICAL PLAINS OF ZWINGLI.
The effect of the first Peace of Cappel was favorable to the cause of the
Reformation. It had now full legal recognition, and made progress in the
Cantons and in the common territories. But the peace did not last long.
The progress emboldened the Protestants, and embittered the Catholics.
The last two years of Zwingli were full of anxiety, but also full of important
labors. He contemplated a political reconstruction of Switzerland, and a
vast European league for the protection and promotion of Protestant
interests.
He attended the theological Colloquy at Marburg (Sept. 29 to Oct. 3,
1529) in the hope of bringing about a union with the German Lutherans
against the common foe at Rome. But Luther refused his hand of
fellowship, and would not tolerate a theory of the Lord’s Supper which he
regarded as a dangerous heresy. f270
While at Marburg, Zwingli made the personal acquaintance of the
Landgraf, Philip of Hesse, and the fugitive Duke Ulrich of Würtemberg,
who admired him, and sympathized with his theology as far as they
understood it, but cared still more for their personal and political interests.
He conceived with them the bold idea of a politico-ecclesiastical alliance of
Protestant states and cities for the protection of religious liberty against the
combined forces of the papacy and the empire which threatened that
liberty. Charles V. had made peace with Clement VII., June 29, 1529, and
crossed the Alps in May, 1530, on his way to the Diet of Augsburg,
offering to the Protestants bread with one hand, but concealing a stone in
the other. Zwingli carried on a secret correspondence with Philip of Hesse
from April 22, 1529, till Sept. 10, 1531. f271 He saw in the Roman empire
the natural ally of the Roman papacy, and would not have lamented its
overthrow. f272 Being a republican Swiss, he did not share in the loyal
reverence of the monarchical Germans for their emperor. But all he could
reasonably aim at was to curb the dangerous power of the emperor by
strengthening the Protestant alliance. Further he did not go. f273
He tried to draw into this alliance the republic of Venice and the kingdom
of France, but failed. These powers were jealous of the grasping ambition
of the house of Habsburg, but had no sympathy with evangelical reform.
Francis I. was persecuting the Protestants at that very time in his own
country.