ingli as an advocate of war. It appeared
to him a calamity; but as a calamity, which cannot always be avoided,
for which one must be prepared, and that the times of its coming are
determined in the plans of superhuman wisdom.

Holding such views and persuaded that the expedition was lawful--in the
line of right and duty, he now, in 1512, followed the banner of the
Canton Glarus into Italy. According to ancient custom, this was the
duty of the pastor of the chief congregation, for where the banner
waved, there was the highest power of the country. To every one in the
warlike assembly gathered around it, his voice was boldly lifted up. In
order to counsel and to guide, it was necessary, that the most
intelligent should not be wanting there.

In a Latin letter to his friend Vadianus in Vienna, Zwingli himself has
thus narrated the events of this campaign:

"Since an evil report about the Confederates has been spread far and
wide, and since even that, which the result proves to have been just
and innocent, is abused and misrepresented, I have undertaken to give
you a picture, short indeed, but true, of the actual condition of our
affairs. Passing over the terms of a treaty of alliance, concluded
between the Most Holy Vicegerent of Christ, Julius II, and the
Confederates, I would only state, that the King of the French (to whom,
even while attacking the Church of Christ, some one gave the flattering
title, 'Most Christian') wearied out the Venetians by protracted war,
conquered in several hard-fought battles, and captured or laid waste
their towns; and also that he took up arms against the anointed Head of
the Church; set up, under the guidance of a wicked demon, an antipope,
as he is styled, and robbed the Holy See of many large cities, among
which was Bologna, mother of the sciences and nurse of the common law.
When, at the close of the Easter festival, the august King of Spain
beheld the ship of Peter tossing in danger on the threatening waves,
the condition of the Church filled him with sorrow. As quick as
possible he gathered an army and sent it to the aid of the Papal
troops, who since winter had lingered in Middle Italy. Full of valor
and skilled in military science, they approached Ravenna by forced
marches. But the French tyrant also sent out a strong force to meet the
Spaniards and their allies, the Venetians."

"When the enemy came in sight, the Spaniards did not decline battle.
They had with them an engineer,