ut Fable
he set his mind at ease. Unfavorable reports of him had since arrived;
and there was no one in Zurich, who did not laud Zwingli's attainments
to the skies. But his life offered another difficulty. A minority at
least found fault with it. A part of them saw in his fondness for music
a worldly disposition; others said that he had not confined himself in
Glarus to good society; and at a very recent date a rumor began to
spread abroad, that he had been guilty of too familiar intercourse with
a daughter of a citizen of that place. A further examination of his
fitness for the office was committed to the Provost Frei and two
members of the canonicate, Utinger and Hofmann. The latter, an aged,
severe man, formerly a zealous preacher against the mischief of foreign
pensions, was particularly anxious to know what might be in the affair.
"Write to me about it"--concludes he--"not, because you need first
prove to me the falsehood of the charge, but because I wish to
contradict those who are ill-disposed."

A letter from Zwingli to the canon Utinger immediately followed, in
which he honorably confessed the crime, yet affirmed that he had not
been the seducer, but the seduced. With shame and anguish he made this
confession, and vowed that, for the future, by daily and nightly
searchings and labors, he would keep himself free from stains of this
sort. "Nevertheless"--continued he--"if such charges are spread abroad
by my enemies, your people must have a poor opinion of me, and if I
should be elected, the preaching of the Gospel must suffer damage. It
is advisable, therefore, for you to consider well beforehand, what the
public sentiment may be, and to listen rather to God than men. Speak
frankly about me, with whomsoever you may find it necessary. Show my
scrawl," (for that it is and no vindication) "to Myconius, and to any
one else you please. I lay my fate in your hands. Whatever the result
may be, withdraw not your love; mine for you always remains."

That, after all this, Myconius and Utinger pushed on matters with
redoubled zeal; that Hofmann came out on his side; that of the
twenty-four canons seventeen cast their votes for him; that in Zurich,
and among all the sons of Zurich in foreign lands, the liveliest joy
prevailed, shows us that the favorable opinion, held of him, did not
suffer much by his confession. It was the same case in the scene of his
former labors. The inhabitants of Glarus, to whom he had gone, toward