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

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It is dangerous to involve religion in entangling political alliances. Christ
and the Apostles kept aloof from secular complications, and confined
themselves to preaching the ethics of politics. Zwingli, with the best
intentions, overstepped the line of his proper calling, and was doomed to
bitter disappointment. Even Philip of Hesse, who pushed him into this net,
grew cool, and joined the Lutheran League of Smalcald (1530), which
would have nothing to do with the Protestants of Switzerland.
§ 45. ZWINGLI’S LAST THEOLOGICAL LABORS. HIS
CONFESSIONS OF FAITH.
During these fruitless political negotiations Zwingli never lost sight of his
spiritual vocation. He preached and wrote incessantly; he helped the reform
movement in every direction; he attended synods at Frauenfeld (May,
1530), at St. Gall (December, 1530), and Toggenburg (April, 1531); he
promoted the organization and discipline of the Reformed churches, and
developed great activity as an author. Some of his most important
theological works—a commentary on the prophecies of Isaiah and
Jeremiah, his treatise on Divine Providence, and two Confessions of
Faith—belong to the last two years of his life.
He embraced the opportunity offered by the Diet of Augsburg to send a
printed Confession of Faith to Charles V., July 8, 1530. f274 But it was
treated with contempt, and not even laid before the Diet. Dr. Eck wrote a
hasty reply, and denounced Zwingli as a man who did his best to destroy
religion in Switzerland, and to incite the people to rebellion. f275 The
Lutherans were anxious to conciliate the emperor, and repudiated all
contact with Zwinglians and Anabaptists. f276
A few months before his death (July, 1531) he wrote, at the request of his
friend Maigret, the French ambassador at Zürich, a similar Confession
addressed to King Francis I., to whom he had previously dedicated his
“Commentary on the True and False Religion” (1524). f277 In this
Confession he discusses some of the chief points of controversy,—God and
his Worship, the Person of Christ, Purgatory, the Real Presence, the Virtue
of the Sacraments, the Civil Power, Remission of Sin, Faith and Good
Works, Eternal Life,—and added an Appendix on the Eucharist and the
Mass. He explains apologetically and polemically his doctrinal position in
distinction from the Romanists, Lutherans, and Anabaptists. He begins with
God as the ultimate ground of faith and only object of worship, and closes