go home and busy themselves in peaceful affairs, and if
there are any good-for-nothing people in their own dioceses, who wish
to stir up discord, disorder and rebellion, that they drive them off,
so that we may not again witness such improper and wanton doings, as
lately happened at the monasteries of T[oe]ss and Rueti; then will My
Lords, as soon as other business permits, sit upon their articles, and
with the help of Master Ulric Zwingli and other learned and sensible
men, take counsel, and see what, according to the Divine Word, can be
remitted, and what not. But in the meantime, every man must pay
interest and tithes in church and state, according to the decree last
issued." Then this special admonition was directed to the clergy: "That
they shall look well and truly into the Holy Scriptures, busy
themselves with the plain preaching of the Gospel, practice the same,
and strive more after peace than discord; for if they do not so, the
refractory will be punished according to his desert and as opportunity
allows."

By these proceedings the malcontents were silenced for the present, but
the government felt that something more was needed for the restoration
of order. At a time, when the religious movements occasioned new and
unforseen expenses to the State, it could not abandon any of its former
sources of revenue. Hence the tithe-question was clothed with special
importance. All the tithes were not church-property; a part of them
belonged to strangers, to whom the government was bound to give its
protection, and to the same protection the church also had a claim,
which was not done away, but only changed. Besides a mere declaration
on the part of the government, that the tithe must be paid, nothing
more was done. But conviction had to be wrought in the public mind, and
to do this, again devolved on Zwingli.

But before he laid the subject before the people, he endeavored to
settle whatever was unstable and wavering in the opinions of the Great
Council, so that the authorities might proceed the more firmly in their
line of action. Still the belief prevailed among many of the members,
that the tithe was purely a religious affair, and this position was
strongly maintained by the Secretary, am Gruet, who, Bible in hand, met
Zwingli with his own weapons. It is true, that here he could only
appeal to the Old Testament, but this yet held too important a place in
Zwingli's system of doctrines, to suffer the Reformer lightly