Protestantism in Switzerland - James Aitken Wylie

pastor to go to the conference. Whispers had come
to the ears of their Excellencies that the Romanists
intended to employ other weapons besides
argument. The place where the conference was to
be held was of evil omen; for at Baden the blood of
the Wirths [6] was yet scarcely dry; and there the
Popish cantons were all-powerful. Even Eck, with
whom Zwingli was to dispute, had proclaimed the
futility of fighting against such heretics as the
preacher of Zurich with any other weapons than
"fire and sword."[7] So far as the "fire" could reach
him it had already been employed against Zwingli;
for they had burned his books at Friburg and his
effigy at Lucerne. He was ready to meet at Zurich
their entire controversial phalanx from its Goliath
downwards, and the magistrates would have
welcomed such meeting; but send him to Baden the
council would not, for that was to send him not to
dispute, but to die.
In coming to this conclusion the lords of Zurich
transgressed no law of charity, and their
conclusion, hard though it was, did the Romanists
of Switzerland no wrong. Wherever at this hour
23