Protestantism in Switzerland - James Aitken Wylie

your own valleys to the free preaching of the
Gospel." Conciliation was impossible; the
conference broke up, and the breach remained
unclosed.
This was a terrible complication. Nothing but a
united and bold policy, Zwingli saw, could
extricate them from it. But instead of this, the
Council of Zurich was every day displaying greater
vacillation and feebleness. The lukewarm and timid
were deserting the Reform, its old enemies were
again raising their heads. Courage and patriotism
were lacking to meet the ire of the mountaineers,
roused by the half-measures which had been
adopted. Ruin was coming on apace. The burden of
the State rested on Zwingli; he felt he could no
longer accept a position in which he was
responsible for evils which were mainly owing to
the rejection of those measures he had counseled.
He appeared before the Great Council on the 26th
of July, 1531, and, with a voice choking with
emotion, said: "For eleven years I have preached
the Gospel among you, and warned you of the
dangers that would threaten the Confederacy if the
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