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

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either very solemn and impressive, or very cold and barren. The Anglican
Church has the advantage of an admirable liturgy.
§ 21. OTHER CHANGES. A THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL. THE
CAROLINUM. A SYSTEM OF THEOLOGY.
Other changes completed the Reformation. The Corpus Christi festival was
abolished, and the Christian year reduced to the observance of Christmas,
Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost. Processions and pilgrimages ceased.
The property of convents was confiscated and devoted to schools and
hospitals. The matrimonial legislation was reconstructed, and the care of
the poor organized. In 1528 a synod assembled for the first time, to which
each congregation sent its minister and two lay delegates.
A theological college, called Carolinum, was established from the funds of
the Great Minster, and opened June 19, 1525. It consisted of the collegium
humanitatis, for the study of the ancient languages, philosophy and
mathematics, and the Carolinum proper, for the study of the Holy
Scriptures, which were explained in daily lectures, and popularized by the
pastors for the benefit of the congregation. This was called prophesying (1
Cor. 14:1). f109 Zwingli wrote a tract on Christian education (1526). f110 He
organized this school of the prophets, and explained in it several books of
the Old Testament, according to the Septuagint. He recommended eminent
scholars to professorships. Among the earliest teachers were Ceporin,
Pellican, Myconius, Collin, Megander, and Bibliander. To Zwingli Zurich
owes its theological and literary reputation. The Carolinum secured an
educated ministry, and occupied an influential position in the development
of theological science and literature till the nineteenth century, when it was
superseded by the organization of a full university. f111
Zwingli wrote in the course of three months and a half an important work
on the true, evangelical, as opposed to the false, popish faith, and
dedicated it to Francis I., king of France, in the vain hope of gaining him to
the cause of the Reformation. f112 It completes his theological opposition to
the papacy. It is the first systematic exposition of the Reformed faith, as
Melanchthon’s Loci was the first system of Lutheran theology; but it was
afterwards eclipsed by Calvin’s Institutes, which were addressed to the
same king with no better effect. Francis probably never read either; but the
dedication remains as a connecting link between the Swiss and the French
Reformation. The latter is a child of the former.