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

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Thurgau and the Rheinthal had to restore the convents. Bremgarten 22 and
Mellingen had to pledge themselves to re-introduce the mass and the
images. In Glarus, the Roman Catholic minority acquired several churches
and preponderating influence in the public affairs of the Canton. In
Solothurn, the Reformation was suppressed, in spite of the majority of the
population, and about seventy families were compelled to emigrate. In the
Diet, the Roman Cantons retained a plurality of votes.
The inhabitants of the Forest Cantons, full of gratitude, made a devout
pilgrimage to St. Mary of Einsiedeln, where Zwingli had copied the
Epistles of St. Paul from the first printed edition of the Greek Testament in
1516, and where he, Leo Judae, and Myconius had labored in succession
for a reformation of abuses, with the consent of Diepold von Geroldseck.
That convent has remained ever since a stronghold of Roman Catholic
piety and superstition in Switzerland, and attracts as many devout pilgrims
as ever to the shrine of the “Black Madonna.” It has one of the largest
printing establishments, which sends prayer-books, missals, breviaries,
diurnals, rituals, pictures, crosses, and crucifixes all over the Germanspeaking
Catholic world. f298
Bullinger, who succeeded Zwingli, closes his “History of the Reformation”
mournfully, yet not without resignation and hope. “All manner of tyranny
and overbearance,” he says, “is restored and strengthened, and an insolent
régime is working the ruin of the confederacy. Wonderful are the counsels
of the Lord. But he doeth all things well. To him be glory and praise!
Amen.”
NOTE ON THE CONVENT OF EINSIEDELN.
(Comp. § 8, pp. 29 sqq.)
On a visit to Einsiedeln, June 12, 1890, I saw in the church a number of
pilgrims kneeling before the wonder-working statue of the Black Madonna.
The statue is kept in a special chapel, is coal-black, clothed in a silver
garment, crowned with a golden crown, surrounded by gilt ornaments, and
holding the Christ-Child in her arms. The black color is derived by some
from the smoke of fire which repeatedly consumed the church, while the
statue is believed to have miraculously escaped; but the librarian (Mr.
Meier) told me that it was from the smoke of candles, and that the face of
the Virgin is now painted with oil.