d joined industry and a thirst for learning in
his earlier youth, and knew how to gain the good-will of Zwingli and
Vadianus. Many letters bear witness of the friendly relations in which
he stood toward both; but his character gradually became worse, and he
could not escape the never-failing consequences of debauchery. Not the
body only, but the spirit also, sinks under them. Peace vanishes from
the soul; insight into the sphere of duty and the relations of life
grows dim. Still, at times a nobler feeling awoke within him; he
acknowledged the justice of his sufferings, bewailed his folly and
strove to break loose from his fetters; but then again he would accuse
others, especially his father. How severe and dreadful is the language
which he uses in a letter to Vadianus: "My father would discover my
crime, if the beam in his own eye did not hinder him from seeing the
mote in mine. He does not know what I have had to suffer on his
account, since he first caused me to be fed by the Emperor and then by
the King of France. Had he taught me to get along with a small
patrimony according to the national custom; had he not wished me to
soar higher, as my wings grew, in the track of his other son, then
would I not be troubled, when the betrayers of the fatherland are
cursed, lest my father should be included among them; then would I not,
when such are spoken of, grow now red with shame and now pale with
fear, lest they should say my father was a French hireling; then would
I not be irritated; then would I not be compelled to tremble for a
speedy discovery; then would I not have to think of restitution; then
perhaps had I never bartered my freedom for gold and my honor for
sordid metal. The King flays his people and snatches the food from
their mouths like a wolf, that he may adorn his person and fare
sumptuously, and would have once been able to bring me to God knows
what, if my native city had raised me to honor and dignity. O that it
were granted me, to plunge from this misery into another, or to escape
both, and reach the shore from the wreck in a happier hour! Is this
denied me? then do I set myself against fate and the gods and will
brave the torture, till their wrath is satiated in my grave. Glad am 1
that the plague, which still spared many, during the past autumn, has
broken out here again in the course of this month!"

Thus, Zwingli's labors in Zurich began to stir up base elements, along
with what were truly noble and pu