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

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Marignano (1515), and accepted a call to Einsiedeln, but kept his charge
and expected to return; for the congregation was much attached to him,
and promised to build him a new parsonage. He supplied the charge by a
vicar, and drew his salary for two years, until he was called to Zurich,
when he resigned.
Einsiedeln f31 is a village with a Benedictine convent in the Catholic canton
Schwyz. It was then, and is to this day, a very famous resort of pilgrims to
the shrine of a wonder-working black image of the Virgin Mary, which is
supposed to have fallen from heaven. The number of annual pilgrims from
Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy exceeds a hundred thousand.
Here, then, was a large field of usefulness for a preacher. The convent
library afforded special facilities for study.
Zwingli made considerable progress in his knowledge of the Scriptures and
the Fathers. He read the annotations of Erasmus and the commentaries of
Origen, Ambrose, Jerome, and Chrysostom. He made extracts on the
margin of his copies of their works which are preserved in the libraries at
Zurich. He seems to have esteemed Origen, Jerome, and Chrysostom more,
and Augustin less, than Luther did; but he also refers frequently to
Augustin in his writings. f32
We have an interesting proof of his devotion to the Greek Testament in a
MS. preserved in the city library at Zurich. In 1517 he copied with his own
hand very neatly the Epistles of Paul and the Hebrews in a little book for
constant and convenient use. The text is taken from the first edition of
Erasmus, which appeared in March, 1516, and corrects some typographical
errors. It is very legible and uniform, and betrays an experienced hand; the
marginal notes, in Latin, from Erasmus and patristic commentators, are
very small and almost illegible. On the last page he added the following
note in Greek: —
“These Epistles were written at Einsiedeln of the blessed Mother of
God by Huldreich Zwingli, a Swiss of Toggenburg, in the year one
thousand five hundred and seventeen of the Incarnation, in the
month of June. f33 Happily ended.” f34
At the same time he began at Einsiedeln to attack from the pulpit certain
abuses and the sale of indulgences, when Samson crossed the Alps in
August, 1518. He says that he began to preach the gospel before Luther’s
name was known in Switzerland, adding, however, that at that time he