Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/842

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ZWINGLI


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ZWINGLI


and opened schools of philosophy, theology, etc., in the monastery, and founded the library. During the period of Josephinism Abbot Rainer was obhged to resign, to be succeeded by a commendatory abbot (1786), but after 1804 the community was allowed to elect its own abbot. Since 1S78 the abbey has been administered by Abbot Stephen Roessler, the sixty- first from its foundation; besides him two other noted historians were members of Zwettl during the nine- teenth centvu-y: John von Frast (d. 18.50) and Leo- pold Janauschek, the author of "Originum Cistercien- sium". The abbey is justly proud of its great library, which contains over 60,000 volumes, 500 incunabula, and 420 MSS. The community is now formed of over 40 priests, who have care of fifteen incorporated parishes.

LjKCK,AnrMlesAustrioCUiravaUenses(\ienaa., 1723) ; Sartorius, Cistercium bis-terlium (Prague, 1700) ; Von Frast. Stiftungs- buch des Cistercienser Kloslers Zwettl (Vienna. 1851); Idem. Vrkunden u. gesrhichtiche Notizen des Stifles Zwettl (Vienna. 1849) ; Roessler in Xenia Bemardina Verzeichniss der Handschriften des Stifles Zwettl (Vienna, 1891) ; Idem. Das Stifl Zwettl (Vienna, 1893); M.\NRiQrE, Annales cistercienses (Lyons, 1642—49); JONGEUNUS, Notilia abbatiarum ord. cisterciensis (Cologne, 1(540) ; KoLL, Chronicon breve monasteriorum o. cist, ad S. Crucem in Austria el S. Gotthardum in Hungaria (Vienna, 1834) ; Watzl, Die Cisterrienser von Heiligenkreuz (Graz, 1898) ; Brc.v- NER, Ein Cisterzienser-buch (Wiirzburg, 1881) ; Janauschek, Originum cisterciensium, I (Vienna, 1877) : Catalogus personarum religiosarum s. ord. cisterciensis (Rome, 1906).

Edmond M. Obrbcht

Zwingli, Ulrich (Holdreich), founder of the Reformation in Switzerland, b. at Wildhaus in Switz- erland, IJan., 1484; d. 11 Oct., 1531. ZwingH came from a prominent family of the middle classes, and was the third of eight sons. His father Ulrich was a district official of the httle town of Wildhaus, and a cousin of his mother, Margaret MeiU, was abbot of the Benedictine mona.stery in Fischingen in Thurgau. A brother of the elder Zwingli, Bartholomew, was pastor of Wildhaus until 1487, but then became pastor and dean of Wesen on the Walensee. Zwingli re- ceived his early education at Wesen under the guid- ance of this uncle, by whom he was sent, at the age of ten, to Gregory Bunzli of Wesen who was studying at Basle and also teaching in the school of St. Theodore, which ZwingH henceforth attended. For his higher studies he went to Berne, whither the celebrated Swiss Humanist Schuler was attracting many students for Classical studies. Zwingli's name is entered on the roll of the University of Vienna for the winter term of 1498-99, but he was excluded from the university. The reason for his exclusion is un- known (cf. F. Ruegg in "Zeitschrift fur schweiz. Kirchengesch.", II, 1908, 215; V, 1911, 241; and Aug. Waldburger in "Schwoiz. theol. Zeitschrift, XXVII, 1911, Nos. 39, 91, 134, 181). ZwingH appears, how- ever, to have overcome the difficulty, for he was again matriculated in 1500. Two years later he re- turned to Basle, where, among others, Thomas Wytten- bach encouraged him to devote himself to the serious study of theology. In 1506 he completed his studies and received the degree of Master of Theology. Shortly before his graduation the parish of Gl.anis had selected him as its pastor, although he had not yet been ordained priest. Apart from his exclusion from the University of Vienna, his student life presents no unusual features, though his later friends and followers relate much that is lauda- tory about this period. His studies at Berne, Vienna, and Basle, where Humanism was eagerly cultivated, made Zwingli one of its zealous supporters.

As pastor of Glarus from 1.506 to 1516, the contin- uation of his humanistic studies was one of Zwingli's chief occupations. He studied Greek, read the Classics and the Fathers of the Church, and entered into familiar intercourse with the Humanists of the time, especially with Heinrich T.oriti (Glareanus), Erasmus, and Vadian. He also engaged in teaching, and the later chroniclers iEgidius and Valentine


Tschudi were his pupils. In pubHc Hfe he was chiefly conspicuous for his poHtical activity, in this respect following the example of many ecclesiastics of his day. In the ItaHan campaigns of 1513 and 1515, when the Swiss won the victories of Novara and Marignan, he acted as army chaplain. His earhest Uterary at- tempts — the rhymed fables of the ox (about 1510), "De Gestis inter GaUos et Helvetios relatio" (1512), "The Labyrinth" (1516?) — are all concerned with poUtics. These works, which reveal ZwingH as the devoted adherent and champion of the papal party, won him the friendship of the powerful Swiss cardinal Matthew Schinner and an annual pension of fifty gulden from the pope. So zealously indeed did he then e.spouse the cause of the pope that his position in Glarus became untenable when the French party became predominant there in 1516. Diebold von Geroldseck, the administrator and sole conventual in the Benedictine monastery at Einsiedeln, entrusted him with the position of a secular priest there, and at the end of 1516 ZwingH left Glarus. (Cf. G. Heer, " LHrich ZwingH als Pfarrer von Glarus ", Zurich, 1884.)

As secular priest at Einsiedeln, the celebrated place of pilgrimage for Switzerland and South Germany, Zwingli's chief office was that of preacher. For the fulfihnent of this task he devoted himself to the study of Holy Writ, copied the Epistles of St. Paul, and learned Hebrew, but did not meanwhile neglect the Classics, a fact which won him flattering praise from the Humanists. Erasmus was keenly aware of the laxity of ecclesiastical Hfe (the abuses in external worship, the degeneracy of a large proportion of the clergy), and rightly agitated a reform within the Church, impressing its necessity on the ecclesiastical authorities. Zwingli worked in the same spirit at Einsiedeln from 1516 to 151S. In disputing Luther's priority, Zwingli later claimed (and most historians have supported his claim) that while at Einsiedeln he already preached against the old Faith. His claim is, however, negatived by the facts that he continued to draw his pension, that at the end of 1518, at his own petition, he was appointed by the pope acolyte- chaplain of the Roman See (cf. the document in "Analecta reformatoria", I, 98), and that his friendly intercourse with Cardinal Schinner stiU continued when he was engaged at Zurich in 1519.

Towards the end of 1518, when the post of secular preacher at Miinster became vacant, Zwingli applied for the vacancy at the invitation of Oswald Myconius (a friend of his youth), who was engaged as teacher in the monastery school of that place. Like many other clerics, Zwingli was suspected of offences against celibacy. These reports, which were current even in Zurich, made his position there difficult. When his friend Myconius questioned him on this point, Zwingli WTote from Einsiedeln that it was not, as had been asserted, a respectable girl, but a common strum- pet with whom he had been intimate. (Cf. J. B. MuUcr, "Zwingli u. seine Freunde in Einsiedeln" in "Mitteil des hist. Vereins des Kantons Schwyz", fasc. 7, 1890, pp. 31 sqq.; also the references in "Realencycl. fiir prot. Theol.", XXI, 3rd ed..p.778.) His friends in Zurich succeeded in .suppressing these reports, and on 11 Dec, 1518, the chapter elected Zwingli by a great majority. He was then thirty-five years old, " in body a handsome and vigorous person, fairly tall, and of a friendly a.spect ". In his intercourse with otliers he was an agreeable compan- ion, of pleasant address and gay temperament, a good singer and nuisiiian, and a skilled orator, .\ccused by his contemporaries of no slight moral otTences, he niade no attcru])! to clear himself of the charges. As a scliolar he was a Hinnanist rather than a theologian. I'nder the influence of Erasmus, he saw clearly the defects of ecclesiastical Hfe, but could not himself claim to be spotless, and his talents led him to engage rather in disputes concerning secular affairs than to