pastor of S. Peter's became the father of three boys by his servant maid.[1] Another minister of the Gospel was publicly whipped at Basle for his immoralities. Œcolampadius, in narrating the fact in a letter to Zwingli, complains that licentiousness was the weak point in the Evangelical pastors. This in a letter dated June, 1528. Zwingli also, in a letter to Œcolampadius, lets in a little light on his brother Reformer Glarean that we cannot quote; it is too coarsely expressed.
From Glarus, Zwingli moved to Einsiedeln, where he preached vehemently against the Catholic faith, good works and Romish usages. His biographers lead us to infer that, whatever his life may have been at Glarus, he was a model of virtue at Einsiedeln. But unhappily it was not so. The report that he had debauched the daughter of a worthy man there having reached his sister, she wrote to expostulate with him. His reply is that the charge was true, and he treated it lightly.[2] In a letter to Heinrich Utinger he spoke quite frankly as to how "like a dog" he had returned to his "own vomit again." The letter is too abominable to bear quotation.[3] It is not a pleasant task lifting the veil of the prophet who has been so belauded as a saint and apostle, but the hand that lifts it is actually his own.
"No churchyard ghole, caught lingering in the light
Of the bless'd sun, e'er blasted human sight
With lineaments so foul, so fierce, as those
Th' imposter now, in grinning mockery shows—
'There, ye wise saints, behold your light, your star—
Ye would be dupes and victims, and ye are.
Is it enough? or must I, while a thrill
Lives in your sapient bosoms, cheat you still?'"[4]
It is worthy of remark what a stamp there is on all the faces of the Reformers with the exception of Luther. Calvin's face is without sweetness, spirituality, charity; and that of John Knox is full of bitterness.
But to return to Thun and the Confirmation. It was a relief after looking at the faces of the scowling Reformers to see those fresh and innocent of the children as they entered the naked,
