nd the natural
result was, the monk found so little encouragement in the neighboring
Schwyz, that he the more quickly passed on to richer and more willing
hearers in Bern.

But now, with this last act, the ministerial labors of the Reformer in
Einsiedeln must be brought to a close. Erhard Battman, people's priest
at Zurich, was elected a member of the monastery of that place and
resigned his post as preacher. The choice of a successor lay with the
canons. A majority of the most influential of them, together with
several officers of state urgently desired that Zwingli should be
chosen. Oswald Myconius, properly Geisshausler, who is since known as
the biographer and friend of Zwingli, became an agent in the matter. He
was born at Luzern, four years later than Zwingli, and had received a
careful education, particularly in the Latin language at Rothweil under
an eminent teacher, and afterwards in the High School at Basel. He
early became acquainted with the accomplished Glareanus and thanked him
especially for his perception of every beautiful and noble tendency in
life, and for an introduction to Zwingli, who once came from Glarus to
Basel on a visit. It was the learned Netherlander Erasmus chiefly,
around whom, all who strove after culture and science with genuine
zeal, united themselves in Basel. Even Art found in this genial man
recognition and encouragement. The celebrated painter Holbein was his
friend, and had furnished spirited illustrations for a book, in which
Erasmus had hit off the various follies of the time with wit and humor.
This memorial is preserved to this day in the library of the city. In
the society of such distinguished men Myconius found his sphere of
knowledge enlarged, his judgment corrected and his will strengthened.
Three beautiful traits appear prominent in his character--Earnestness,
Thoroughness, (by which, not content till he had rightly apprehended
the smallest details, he rose higher, step by step, but ever the more
securely, for thus Platter, afterwards his scholar, has portrayed him
with grateful affection), and then, that which only belongs to pure
endeavor, a Modesty, that is not concerned about its own praises but
only about the propagation of truth, and springing from this and
connected with it, the most cordial esteem and the most devoted
friendship, where he discovered true merit in others, and an
acknowledgment without envy, where he found in them a greater talent
than his own. Fo