laid on it; for
that would be acting the thief, or the robber. The authorities should
wait till the jointures are without a possessor (till the present
incumbents are dead, or have voluntarily relinquished their rights),
and then arrange it with God himself; so that common justice be
maintained and no one led into wickedness."

Why should a people, accustomed to form free judgments on human
affairs, as well as to express their opinions freely concerning them,
oppose with violence such views, founded as they were by Zwingli, at
all points, on the Holy Scriptures? Did not experience also teach that
the Church of Christ has become great in poverty, and straightway been
corrupted by riches? Willingly or unwillingly, the government had to
yield to public opinion, and awaken to a still more lively
consciousness, that, if it would not continually oscillate, without
character, between the old and the new, no escape remained, except in
the way which the welfare and honor of the country pointed out; by
making common cause with the bold and progressive Reformer.

From this feeling, it no longer threw any obstacles in the way of the
public marriage of the clergy in the churches, even that of Leo Judae,
people's priest at St. Peter's. William R[oe]ubli, then preacher at
Wytikon, anxious to set a striking example, had made a beginning, by
wedding the daughter of a wealthy countryman, amid a concourse of
joyful guests, on the 28th of April, 1523.

A letter came from the Emperor, accompanied by a decree of the Bishop,
in which the prohibition of such marriages, the punishment of those who
broke their monastic vows, as well as a severer watchfulness against
innovating teachers, were strongly enjoined; but it was all in vain.
The Council decided, against the wish of the Bishop, that this
"mandate" should neither be complied with, nor even acknowledged, and
wrote to him; "in the city of Zurich, its courts and its territories,
the Gospel and the Divine Word shall be truly proclaimed, but if any
one thinks that heretical matters and articles are preached, let him
point them out, whereupon fitting action will be taken in the case."

Just in proportion as Zwingli's position became more secure, his views
were transferred to the system of government, and the Reformation
taking hold thus of political life, new embarrassments were prepared
for him by the very men, who originally supported him, and the first
traces of dangerous movements from