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

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The library of the abbey numbers 40,000 volumes (including 900
incunabula), among them several copies of the first print of Zwingli’s
Commentary on the true and false Religion, and other books of his. In the
picture-gallery are life-size portraits of King Frederick William IV. of
Prussia, his brother, the Prince of Prussia (afterwards Emperor William I.
of Germany), of Napoleon III. and Eugenie, of the Emperor Francis Joseph
of Austria and his wife, and their unfortunate son who committed suicide in
1889, and of Pope Pius IX. These portraits were presented to the convent
on its tenth centenary in 1861. The convent was founded by St. Meinhard,
a hermit, in the ninth century, or rather by St. Benno, who died there in
940. The abbey has now nearly 100 Benedictine monks, a gymnasium with
260 pupils of twelve to twenty years, a theological seminary, and two filial
institutions in Indiana and Arkansas. The church is an imposing structure,
after the model of St. Peter’s in Rome, surrounded by colonnades. The
costly chandelier is a present of Napoleon III. (1865).
The modern revival of Romanism, and the railroad from Wädensweil,
opened 1877, have greatly increased the number of pilgrims. Goethe says
of Einsiedeln: “Es muss ernste Betrachtungen erregen, dass ein einzelner
Funke von Sittlichkeit und Gottesfurcht hier ein immerbrennendes und
leuchtendes Flämmchen angezündet, zu welchem glaübige Seelen mit
grosser Beschwerlichkeit heranpilgern, um an dieser heiligen Flamme auch
ihr Kerzlein anzuzünden. Wie dem auch sei, so deutet es auf ein
grenzenloses Bedürfniss der Menschheit nach gleichem Lichte, gleicher
Wärme, wie es jener Erste im tiefsten Gefühle und sicherster
Ueberzengung gehegt und genossen.”
For a history of Einsiedeln, see Beschreibung des Klosters und der
Wallfahrt Maria-Einsiedeln. Einsiedeln. Benziger & Co. 122 pp.
The wood-cut on p. 197 represents the abbey as it was before and at the
time of Zwingli, and is a fair specimen of a rich mediaeval abbey, with
church, dwellings for the brethren, library, school, and gardens. Einsiedeln
lies in a dreary and sterile district, and derives its sole interest from this
remarkable abbey.
§ 51. THE RELATIVE STRENGTH OF THE
CONFESSIONS IN SWITZERLAND.
We may briefly sum up the result of the Reformation in Switzerland as
follows: —