bright gate.

Thus sickness did not cause him to waver in his settled convictions,
but filled him, on the contrary, with new courage. Yet the last poem
shows us that a foreboding of a darker fate in the future was by no
means strange to him. Indeed, not long after his recovery, he expressed
himself still more clearly in a similar strain to his friend Myconius.
After a glance at the dangers which surrounded Luther, he continued:
"Whatever may befall me, I, already marked out as a victim, look for
every thing evil from the clergy and the laity. I only pray Christ for
courage to bear all with a manly heart, and that he may crush or
strengthen me, his laborer, as may seem good to him, and, should I even
fall under excommunication, I will think of Hilary, that learned and
holy man, who was banished from Gaul to the deserts of Africa, and of
Lucius, who was driven from the Roman See, and afterwards brought back
with honor. I will not liken myself to such men, who though greater
than I, still endured the greatest evils. But should _one_ glory await
me; may it be, to suffer shame for Christ! Yet, let him, who thinketh
he standeth, take heed lest he fall."

That he could thus express himself to his best friend only by letter
and no more see him in person at his side, belonged to the bitter
trials of his life at this time. Myconius had just then accepted a
call to the highest professorship in his native city Luzern, and
Zwingli found himself deprived of half his support, "like an army"--he
said--"one of whose wings is cut off in the presence of the enemy."
This man, by reason of his moderation, had great influence with the
clergy and the laity, and often became a useful mediator between them
and the impetuous Zwingli. There was no one now to persuade the
Reformer to use milder measures; and the complaints of the canons,
summed up in a letter to his superior, the Provost Frei, only provoked
him to a repulsive answer. These related chiefly to the imposition of
tithes, the main source of revenue to the church, and an unjust burden
in the eyes of the majority of the nation. The people's priest was
expressly pledged by the statutes, to take care of the conscientious
disposition of the tithe, and to insist upon it as a religious duty in
his discourses. "Instead of which"--says the letter of the canons--"he
denies the divine origin of the tax, and seems to regard it as tyranny,
if it be strictly enforced. Is it any wonder that the peo