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

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4) In a letter to his five brothers, Sept. 17, 1522, to whom he dedicated
a sermon on “the ever pure Virgin Mary, mother of God,” Zwingli
confesses that he was subject to Hoffahrt, Fressen, Unlauterkeit, and
other sins of the flesh (Werke, I. 86). This is his latest confession; but if
we read it in connection with the whole letter, it makes the impression
that he must have undergone a favorable change about that time, and
concluded a regular, though secret, connection with his wife. As to
temperance, Bullinger (I. 305) gives him the testimony that he was
“very temperate in eating and drinking.”
5) Zwingli was openly married in April, 1524, to Anna Reinhart, a
respectable widow, and mother of several children, after having lived
with her about two years before in secret marriage. But this fact, which
Janssen construes into a charge of “unchaste intercourse,” was known
to his intimate friends; for Myconius, in a letter of July 22, 1522, sends
greetings to Zwingli and his wife (“Vale cum uxore quam felicissime et
tuis omnibus,” Opera, VII. 210; and again: “Vale cum uxore in
Christo,” p. 253). The same is implied in a letter of Bucer, April 14,
1524 (p. 335; comp. the note of the editors). “The cases,” says
Mörikofer (I. 211), “were very frequent at that time, even with persons
of high position, that secret marriages were not ratified by a religious
ceremony till weeks and months afterwards.” Before the Council of
Trent secret marriages were legitimate and valid. (Can. et Decr. Conc.
Trid., Sess. XXIV., Decr. de reform. matrimonii.)
Zwingli’s character was unmercifully attacked by Janssen in his
Geschichte des deutschen Volkes, Ill. 83 sq.; An meine Kritiker
(1883), 127–140; Ein zweites Wort an meine Kritiker (1888), 45–
48; defended as far as truth permits by Ebrard, Janssen und die
Reformation (1882); Usteri, Ulrich Zwingli (1883), 34–47; Alex.
Schweizer, articles in the “Protest. Kirchenzeitung,” Berlin, 1883,
Nos. 23–27. Janssen answered Ebrard, but not Usteri and
Schweizer. The main facts were correctly stated before this
controversy by Mörikofer, I. 49–53 and 128), and briefly also by
Hagenbach, and Merle (bk. VIII. ch. 6).
§ 8. ZWINGLI IN EINSIEDELN.
In 1516 Zwingli left Glarus on account of the intrigues of the French
political party, which came into power after the victory of the French at