ere is it written in
the Gospel that we must deny food to our neighbor?" another: "We will
have no war for religions' sake; if they are not willing to believe in
God, let them stick to the devil!" Another wished a delegate to be sent
to Bremgarten, and others still referred to a declaration of the
government made at the opening of the Reformation, that it should begin
and end in peace. The resolute behavior of the Bernese deputies was
scarcely able to prevent an actual outbreak on the part of the
malcontents.

Under such circumstances, the inactivity of some, the perplexity of
others, and the ill-humor of a third class, rendered Zwingli's
situation more difficult from day to day, as the number of those, who
blamed him with all the evil, and pointed him out as an unceasing
author of mischief, continued to increase even in Zurich. Fierce was
the anger of the Nobles' Guild, because six of its members, accused of
hostility to the Reformation, had been obliged, chiefly through his
exertions, to withdraw, part from the Great and part from the Small
Council. The majority of the millers and bakers also opposed him,
because they attributed the fact, that the authorities had of late
become far more strict in their supervision, to his preaching. "For,
from the most ancient times," Bullinger, who narrates this, adds,
"preachers have had to bear the blame, when obliged to preach against
anything done contrary to the Word of God." To the burgher of the town,
it was pretended by his enemies, that he was seeking the favor of the
country-people, in order by their aid to keep down the cities; to the
country-man, who, in the present condition of things, saw his cottage,
his undefended property, the life and fortune of his family in
continual peril, that he alone stood in the way of peace with the Five
Cantons. Intrigue, mistrust, disunion reigned in the Council itself. It
became more and more difficult to find suitable persons to execute
important missions. Several of the most experienced statesmen
endeavored to withdraw. The well-meaning sighed over the inextricable
confusion.

Matters had already come to such a pass, that a feeling of his own
forsaken condition took hold of the Reformer himself. "Hence he came,"
as Bullinger informs us, "before the Council and burghers, on the 26th
of July, and told how he had now preached the Gospel for eleven years,
and warned them with the fidelity of a father, and thoroughly and often
and abundan