ON MERCENARY SOLDIERS[1]
(About 1530)
Born In 1484, died in 1531; educated at Bern, Vienna, and Basel; became Pastor of a church in Glarus, Switzerland, in 1506; a Preacher at Zurich in 1518, where he inaugurated the Reformation; met the Saxon reformers in conference in 1529; went with the Zurich forces against the Forest Cantons in 1531; killed at the Battle of Kappel.
The foreign lords have so wheedled and enticed us, simple confederates, seeking their own profit, that at length they have brought us into such danger and disagreement between ourselves that we, not regarding our fatherland, have more care how to maintain them in their wealth and power than to defend our own houses, wives, and children. And this were less had we not shame and damage out of this pact. We have at Naples, at Navarre, at Milan, suffered greater loss in the service of these masters than since we have been a Confederacy; in our own wars we have been ever conquerors, in foreign wars often vanquished; such evils, it is to be feared, have been brought about by those who seek more their own private gain than the true interests of their country.
Let each one for himself reflect on the evils of
- ↑ From a sermon translated by John Cochran. By kind permission of Messrs. T. & T. Clark, of Edinburgh.
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