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

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§ 17. THE SIXTY-SEVEN CONCLUSIONS.
On the Sixty-seven Conclusions and the Three Disputations see
ZWINGLI: Werke, I. A. 105 sqq.; BULLINGER: I. 97 sqq.; EGLI: 111,
114, 173 sqq.; MÖRIKOFER: I. 138 sqq., 191 sqq. The text of the
Sixty-seven Articles in Swiss-German, Werke, I. A. 153–157; in
modern German and Latin, in SCHAFF: Creeds of Christendom, III.
197–207.
Zwingli’s views, in connection with the Lutheran Reformation in Germany,
created a great commotion, not only in the city and canton of Zurich, but in
all Switzerland. At his suggestion, the government—that is, the
burgomaster and the small and large Council (called The Two Hundred)—
ordered a public disputation which should settle the controversy on the
sole basis of the Scriptures.
For this purpose Zwingli published Sixty-seven Articles or Conclusions
(Schlussreden). They are the first public statement of the Reformed faith,
but they never attained symbolical authority, and were superseded by
maturer confessions. They resemble the Ninety-five Theses of Luther
against indulgences, which six years before had opened the drama of the
German Reformation; but they mark a great advance in Protestant
sentiment, and cover a larger number of topics. They are full of Christ as
the only Saviour and Mediator, and clearly teach the supremacy of the
Word of God as the only rule of faith; they reject and attack the primacy of
the Pope, the Mass, the invocation of saints, the meritoriousness of human
works, the fasts, pilgrimages, celibacy, purgatory, etc., as unscriptural
commandments of men.
The following are the most important of these theses: —
1. All who say that the gospel is nothing without the approbation of the
Church, err and cast reproach upon God.
2. The sum of the gospel is that our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Son of
God, has made known to us the will of his heavenly Father, and
redeemed us by his innocence from eternal death, and reconciled us to
God.
3. Therefore Christ is the only way to salvation to all who were, who
are, who shall be.