d system. Only by holding firmly
to the very language of Holy Scripture could he keep his ground against
his numerous opponents, for only thus far were his hearers able to
follow him. We will see hereafter what difficulties he prepared for
himself, when, instead of clinging to the letter in explaining the
words of the eucharist, he yielded to a freer spirit.

"Well has my lord and brother said"--so Zwingli answered Schmied's
objections--"that we ought to put away the false images in our hearts
by the preaching of God's Word. I hope too that Leo and I have not been
negligent in this; but he has spoken ill, when he calls images 'the
staves of the weak.' Where is there any passage of this sort in the
Holy Scripture? But we are to follow its plain language. And it is
clear as day, that it permits no images, least of all those of gold and
silver, of whose value poverty is deprived."

Hofmeister also thought, that, according to the commission he had
received, he must admonish the commander to contend only with
Scripture. The latter, from respect to the order of the government, did
not prolong the colloquy.

So decided was Zwingli's victory, so general the aversion to meet him,
that a whole troop of those, who were enemies, carpers and boasters
behind his back, now became silent in his presence, when called by
name. The manner in which some tried to get out of the affair was quite
characteristic. This one played the part of an injured man, and growled
out, that no body had a right to ask him as long as he kept his peace;
that one naively declared, that he had believed the old, but now he
must believe the new; a third, that he would teach nothing bad, that he
could understand neither Greek nor Hebrew, and it were well if these
languages had never come into the country; a fourth, that he could not
fight, his sword having been broken off at the hilt; the prior of the
Augustinians said, that he could give answer any moment from the Papal
Decrees, and if he was not able to do it, then he would stand there
like any other "cowled pate;" and the rest in a similar strain.

Thus the fate of images was decided by an easy battle. "This has been
child's play,"--said Zwingli--"but now we come to a more important
matter."

Here again we must be reminded, that it belongs to the province of
theology, not history, to show in what nearer or more remote connection
the doctrine of the mass, as then laid down and practised by the
Church, stan