THE WAR OF CAPPELL. 199 mutually promised not to molest or interfere with one another on account of religion. After having fomented troubles in various districts partly under the control of the Catholic cantons, Zurich at length openly invaded the territory of St. Gall, and issued a decree forbidding the five neighboring Catholic cantons to trade with her subjects in corn and salt. The object of this embargo was, to cut off from the Catholic mountaineers the supplies which they had been in the habit of deriving by commerce from those living in the plains, and thereby to starve them into acquiescence in the glorious work of the Reformation! Zuingle and the preachers openly clamored for the blood of the Catholics, in their public harangues in Zurich. Here is an extract from one of the great Swiss reformer's sermons, delivered on the 21st September, 1531: "Rise up, attack; the five cantons are in your power. I will march at the head of your ranks, and the nearest to the enemy. Then you will feel the power of God, for when I shall harangue them with the truth of the word of God, and shall say: whom seek you, O ye impious! then, seized with terror and with panic, they will not be able to answer, but they will fall back, and will take to flight, like the Jews on the mountain of Olives at the word of Christ. You will see that the artillery which they will direct against us, will turn against themselves, and will destroy them. Their pikes, their halberds, and their other arms, shall not hurt you, but will hurt them."* This discourse was printed and circulated; but alas for the prophetic faculty of the reformer! The event falsified his prediction in every particular. And, as Zuingle himself marked the preparations the five cantons were making for the coming struggle, even his own heart failed him; and the lately inspired prophet of God dwindled down into a miserable poltroon, overcome by terror, and pretending to have had strange presentiments, and observed strange signs in the heavens! Nevertheless, the Zurichers compelled him to march at their head to the village of Cappell, near the confines of the hostile cantons. * Quoted by De Haller, pp. 78, 79, note. Here the two armies encountered; but fiery and fanatical as were the Zuinglians, they could not withstand the impetuous charge of the brave Swiss mountaineers. These carried every thing before them. The Zurichers took to flight in great disorder, with the loss of "nineteen cannon, four stands of colors, all their baggage, and of at least fifteen hundred men, among whom were twenty-seven magistrates, and FIFTEEN PREACHERS."* Zuingle, the apostle of Switzerland, fell, sword in hand, fighting the battles of the Lord, as never apostle had fought them before! The Zurichers, however, recovered from their fright in a few days, and on the 21st of October,† "having been reinforced by their allies of Saint Gall, of Toggenburg, of Thurgavia, and even of the Grisons, of Berne, of Bâle, and of Soleure, they again attacked the Catholics with very superior forces; but they were a second time defeated at the mountain of Zug, and took to flight in disorder, abandoning their artillery, their money, and their baggage." The Catholic army now marched in triumph almost to the very walls of Zurich, after having a third time defeated the Zurichers, and driven them from their position.§ The Zuinglians, thus humbled by defeat, were now disposed to accede to the terms of peace proposed by the Catholic cantons. The treaty bound the Zurichers "to leave the five cantons, with their allies and adherents, from the present to all future time, in peaceable possession of their ancient, true, and undoubted Christian faith, without molesting or importuning them with disputes or chicanery, and renouncing all evil intentions, stratagems, and finesse; and that, on their side, the five cantons would leave the Zurichers and their adherents free in their belief; that in the common districts, of which the cantons were co-sovereigns, the parishes which had embraced the * Quoted by De Haller, pp. 79, 80. The battle of Cappell was fought on the 11th of October. TWO PARALLEL DEVELOPMENTS. 201 new faith, might retain it if it suited them, that those which had not yet renounced the ancient faith would also be free to retain it, and that, in fine, those who should wish to return to the true and ancient Christian faith would have the right to do so." The Zurichers further bound themselves to pay or rather to restore to the five cantons, the money which the latter had expended in the difficulties of 1529; and to replace, at their own expense, the ornaments destroyed or forcibly taken from the different churches during the preceding years. Thus terminated the war of Cappell. It left the Catholics in the ascendant, and contributed more than any thing else to check the headlong progress of the Swiss Reformation. CHAPTER. VII. REACTION OF CATHOLICITY AND DECLINE OF PROTESTANTISM. Two parallel developments-The brave old ship-Modern Protestantism quite powerless-A "thorough godly reformation" needed-Qualities for a reformer-The three days' battle-The puzzle-A thing doomed-Which gained the victory ?--The French revolution-Ranké and Hallam -The rush of waters stayed-Persecution-Protestant spice-The Council of Trent-Revival of piety-The Jesuits-Leading causes and practical results-Decline of Protestantism-Apt comparison-What stemmed the current?-Thread of Ariadne-Divine Providence-Reaction of Catholicity-Casaubon and Grotius-Why they were not converted-Ancient and modern Puseyism--Justus Lipsius and Cassander-The inferenceSplendid passage of Macaulay-Catholicity and enlightenment - The Church indestructible—General gravitation to Rome-The circle and its center. No fact in the entire history of the Reformation is perhaps more remarkable, than that which is presented by the speedy decline of Protestantism, on the one hand, and the no less *De Haller, p. 85. rapid reaction of Catholicity on the other. A rapid glance at the history of these opposite developments of the two systems of religion will throw much additional light on their respective characters, and will serve to explain to us still more fully what we have been endeavoring thus far to elucidate; the character, causes, and manner of the Reformation. It is in accordance with a divine maxim, to judge the tree by its fruits; and we propose, in the present chapter, to make a general application of this rule; reserving, however, more special details on the subject to those which will follow. The Reformation swept over the world like a violent storm: and it left as many ruins in its course. It threatened to overturn every thing, and bear down all things in its impetuous course. So rapid was its work of destruction, that its admirers and partisans confidently predicted the speedy downfall of the old religion, and the triumphant establishment of the new ones on its ruins. Even many of those who remained steadfast in the ancient faith, though firmly relying on the solemn promises of Christ, yet trembled not a little for the safety of the Church. Jesus seemed to be asleep, while the tempest was so furiously raging on the sea of the world; and His disciples, who were in the good old ship of the Church tossed on the waves, like their prototypes of the gospel, "came to him, and awaked him, saying: 'Lord save us, we perish.' And Jesus said to them: 'Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?' Then rising up He commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm." Such was precisely the phenomenon presented by the history of the Church in the sixteenth century. Soon the storm of the Reformation had spent its fury, and settled down into "a great calm;" the calm of indifferentism and infidelity on the lately troubled sea of Protestantism, and of peace and security on the broad ocean of Catholicism. When men's minds had had time to recover from the excitement produced by the first * St. Matthew, viii: 24-26. REACTION AND DECLINE. 203 movements of the Reformation, they were enabled to estimate more justly the motives and causes of this revolution. The result was, that many enlightened Protestants returned to the bosom of the Catholic Church; while others, gifted with less grace, or indued with less moral courage, plunged madly into the vortex of infidelity. Thus Catholicity, far from being extinguished, was, by a powerful reaction, speedily reinstated in its former position of impregnable strength; while its enemies, so lately boasting of their victory, were weakened by division and soon dwindled away. Like the sturdy oak of the forest, which, instead of being thrown down by the storm, vanquishes its fury, and even sends its roots further into the earth in consequence of the agitation of its branches; so also the tree of the Church, planted by Christ and watered with His blood and that of his countless martyrs, successfully resisted the violence of the storm of Protestantism, and became, in consequence of it, more firmly and solidly fixed in the soil of the world-more strongly "rooted and founded in charity."* Nothing is more certain in all history than this wonderful two-fold development. Even D'Aubigné, surely an unexceptionable witness, admits its entire truth, however he may seek to disguise it by the thin mantle of sophistry. Speaking of the decline of modern Protestantism, he employs this emphatic language. "But modern Protestantism, like old Catholicism (!), is, in itself, a thing from which nothing can be hoped-a thing quite powerless. Something very different is necessary to restore to men of our day the energy which saves."+-So that, the experiment of Protestantism, notwithstanding all the noise it has made in the world, and all its loud boasting about having destroyed superstition and enlightened mankind, has still turned out a complete failure, even according to the explicit avowal of its most unscrupulous advocate! It has been enlightening and saving the world now for full three hundred * Ephesians, iii: 17. † D'Aubigné, vol. i. Preface, p. ix. |