to reject
its authority for an isolated case. He showed, however, in a long and
spirited debate with am Gruet, before the Great Council and a crowd of
other hearers, that the Levitical priesthood, for whom the tithe had
been introduced into the Old Testament, came to an end with the Gospel;
and by this, according to his view, the question had been brought back
from the sphere of religion into that of civil law. But neither am
Gruet, on the one side, nor the Anabaptists on the other, were disposed
to let him slip with so cheap a victory. Am Gruet would yield nothing,
and in fact the following passage is found in the protocol of the Great
Council, "that neither of the two contending parties has so triumphed
that the other is obliged to yield, and that My Lords are not
displeased with the warning and exposition of their Secretary, but
think he has acted according to his duty and his oath." But the
decisive battle, which now drew near, was first to be fought with the
Anabaptists.

During the interval, Zwingli prepared for the people a detailed
exposition of the rights of the church and state to the tithe, which
the government then used as a general and final decree for the
disturbed districts. The scrupulous payment of the great tithe[4] for
the future was also enjoined upon them in an earnest tone. In regard to
the so-called little tithe, the government promised strict inquiry, the
removal of abuses, and a diminution of it, as far as possible.

In the greater part of the canton, through the cautious language of the
Council, the exhortations of the more sensible, and the conviction,
which won its way into the minds of many, civil order was
re-established. One of the creators of disturbance, Suesstrunk by name,
was indeed put to death by the sword, and the pastor of Westenbach, who
especially distinguished himself by his ill-timed discourses, was
thrown into prison for several days and punished with a fine--acts easy
to be explained, when we consider the severity of punishments in that
age and the grievous losses, which the state suffered by this
insurrection.

Only one district of the Canton was not yet pacified: the territory of
Grueningen. Here the Anabaptists still retained numerous adherents, and
these Anabaptists and their fierce battle with Zwingli are the objects
to which we must now turn our attention.

The Holy Scripture is the great record of the religious education of
the human race. It shows us man primeval