t missionaries into
Geneva to win it to his cause and to the Confederacy. The Catholic
cantons, stung to the quick, again sought aid from Austria and raised
another and better army. [Sidenote: Defeat of Zwingli] Zwingli heard
of this and advocated a swift blow to prevent it--the "offensive
defence." Berne refused to join Zurich in this aggression, but agreed
to bring pressure to bear on the Catholics [Sidenote: May 1531] by
proclaiming a blockade of their frontiers. An army was prepared by the
Forest Cantons, but Berne, whose entirely selfish policy was more
disastrous to the Evangelical cause than was the hostility of the
league, still refused to engage in war. Zurich was therefore obliged
to meet it alone. An army of only two thousand Zurichers marched out,
accompanied by Zwingli as field chaplain. Eight thousand Catholic
troops attacked, utterly defeated them, and {159} killed many on the
field of battle. [Sidenote: October 11, 1531] Zwingli, who, though a
non-combatant, was armed, was wounded and left on the field. Later he
was recognized by enemies, killed, and his body burned as that of a
heretic.

The defeat was a disaster to Protestant Switzerland not so much on
account of the terms of peace, which were moderate, as because of the
loss of prestige and above all of the great leader. His spirit
however, continued to inspire his followers, and lived in the Reformed
Church. Indeed it has been said, though with exaggeration, that Calvin
only gave his name to the church founded by Zwingli, just as Americus
gave his name to the continent discovered by Columbus. In many
respects Zwingli was the most liberal of the Reformers. In his last
work he expressed the belief that in heaven would be saved not only
Christians and the worthies of the Old Testament but also "Hercules,
Theseus, Socrates, Aristides, Antigonus, Numa, Camillus, the Catos and
Scipios. . . . In a word no good man has ever existed, nor shall there
exist a holy mind, a faithful soul, from the very foundation of the
world to its consummation, whom you will not see there with God."
Nevertheless, Zwingli was a persecutor and was bound by many of the
dogmatic prepossessions of his time. But his religion had in it less
of miracle and more of reason than that of any other founder of a
church in the sixteenth century. He was a statesman, and more willing
to trust the people than were his contemporaries, but yet he was ready
to sacrifice his count