In Switzerland from 1516 to 1525 - James Aitken Wylie

Chapter 4
Zwingli's Birth and
School-days
THERE is an apt resemblance between the
physical attributes of the land in which we are now
arrived, and the eventful story of its religious
awakening. Its great snow-clad hills are the first to
catch the light of morning, and to announce the
rising of the sun. They are seen burning like
torches, while the mists and shadows still cover the
plains and valleys at their feet. So of the moral
dawn of the Swiss. Three hundred years ago, the
cities of this land were among the first in Europe to
kindle in the radiance of the Reformed faith, and to
announce the new morning which was returning to
the world. There suddenly burst upon the darkness
a multitude of lights. In Germany there was but one
pre-eminent center, and one pre-eminently great
leader. Luther towered up like some majestic Alp.
Alone over all that land was seen his colossal
figure. But in Switzerland one, and another, and a
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