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

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and after frightening the guards at the gate plunged into the water, and
vanished. He had a strong foreboding of an approaching calamity, and did
not expect to survive it. Halley’s comet, which returns every seventy-six
years, appeared in the skies from the middle of August to the 3d of
September, burning like the fire of a furnace, and pointing southward with
its immense tail of pale yellow color. Zwingli saw in it the sign of war and
of his own death. He said to a friend in the graveyard of the minster (Aug.
10), as he gazed at the ominous star, “It will cost the life of many an
honorable man and my own. The truth and the Church will suffer, but
Christ will never forsake us.” f282 Vadian of St. Gall likewise regarded the
comet as a messenger of God’s wrath; and the famous Theophrastus, who
was at that time in St. Gall, declared that it foreboded great bloodshed and
the death of illustrious men. It was then the universal opinion, shared also
by Luther and Melanchthon, that comets, meteors, and eclipses were
fireballs of an angry God. A frantic woman near Zürich saw blood
springing from the earth all around her, and rushed into the street with the
cry, “Murder, murder!” The atmosphere was filled with apprehensions of
war and bloodshed. The blockade was continued, and all attempts at a
compromise failed.
The Forest Cantons had only one course to pursue. The law of selfpreservation
drove them to open war. It was forced upon them as a duty.
Fired by indignation against the starvation policy of their enemies, and
inspired by love for their own families, the Waldstätters promptly
organized an army of eight thousand men, and marched to the frontier of
Zürich between Zug and Cappel, Oct. 9, 1531.
The news brought consternation and terror to the Zürichers. The best
opportunity had passed. Discontent and dissension paralyzed vigorous
action. Frightful omens demoralized the people. Zürich, which two years
before might easily have equipped an army of five thousand, could now
hardly collect fifteen hundred men against the triple force of the enemy,
who had the additional advantage of fighting for life and home.
Zwingli would not forsake his flock in this extreme danger. He mounted his
horse to accompany the little army to the battlefield with the presentiment
that he would never return. The horse started back, like the horse of
Napoleon when he was about to cross the Niemen. Many regarded this as a
bad omen; but Zwingli mastered the animal, applied the spur, and rode to
Cappel, determined to live or to die with the cause of the Reformation.