Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/713

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'Protesta7tt Revolt in Switzerland and England 607 than Luther. He lived in the famous monastery of Einsiedeln, Zwingli near the Lake of Zurich, which was the center of pilgrimages on iJads^he^ account of a wonder-working image. " Here," he says, " I be- g^^grknd gan to preach the Gospel of. Christ in the year 15 16, before any against the one in my locality had so much as heard the name of Luther." Three years later he was called to an influential position as Zwingli preacher in the cathedral of Zurich, and there his great work ^^e abuses really commenced. He then began to denounce the abuses in J^j^'j^j.^j^ ^^^ the Church as well as the shameless traffic in soldiers, which the traffic in soldiers he had long regarded as a blot upon his country's honor.^ But the original cantons about the Lake of Lucerne, which feared that they might lose the great influence that, in spite of their small size, they had hitherto enjoyed, were ready to fight for the old faith. The first armed collision between the Swiss Protestants and Catholics took place at Kappel in 1531, and Zwingli fdl in the battle. The various cantons and towns never came to an agreement in religious matters, and Switzer- land is still part Catholic and part Protestant. Far more important than Zwingli's teachings, especially for Calvin England and America, was the work of Calvin, which was and the carried on in the ancient city of Geneva, on the very outskirts chunih^"^" of the Swiss confederation. It was Calvin who organized the Presbyterian Church and formulated its beliefs. He was born in northern France in 1509 ; he belonged, therefore, to the second generation of Protestants. He was early influenced by the Lutheran teachings, which had already found their way into France. A persecution of the Protestants under Francis I drove him out of the country and he settled for a time in Basel. Here he issued the first edition of his great work. The Insti- Calvin's tutes of Christianity^ which has been more widely discussed than Christianity any other Protestant theological treatise. It was the first orderly 1 Switzerland had made a business, ever since the time when Charles VIII of France invaded Italy, of supplying troops of mercenaries to fight for other countries, especially for France and the Pope. It was the Swiss who gained the battle of Marignano for Francis I, and Swiis guards may still be seen in the Pope's palace.