Calvin Synod Herald, 1984 (84. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1984-02-01 / 1. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD — 4 — REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA A SHEPHERD THAT WAS SLAIN WITH HIS FLOCK--------------------------------------------- Dr. Stephen Szabó------------------------------------------Ulrich Zwingli “The business of the Truth is not to be deserted, even to the sacrifice of our lives. For we live not for this age of ours, nor for the princes, but for the Lord. — Zwingli in one of his writings. The tired main army of the Zürichers had just arrived on the hill Albis after a long march from the early morning till this third hour of the afternoon. It had been on Monday evening two days before that alarming news had reached the city of Zurich. The troops of the five Catholic cantons had crossed the borders of the leading Protestant canton of Zurich, coming to destroy the new reformed religion with fire and sword! The day after, an advanced guard of twelve hundred men had been sent to meet the challenge, and the artillery had followed them a few hours later. And now on Wednesday, the eleventh of October of 1531, the main army of not quite two thousand hastily armed men had arrived at the battlefield. Rudolf Lavater, the leader of this main body, stopped his white horse on the top of the hill Albis, and sitting like an iron statue in the saddle, surveyed the entire battlefield of Kappel. The autumn sunlight glistened upon his golden helmet and the sun rays played on the spears of the sturdy men-at-arms around him. Beside him Ulrich Zwingli, the great reformer and chief pastor of Zurich, bore the banner on horseback, according to the old Swiss custom. Over his black ministerial robe he had a shirt of mail. He wore a helmet and a side sword, and hung a hand gun from the saddle of his horse. Now that the time had come for the great preacher and reformer to defend with the sword the Truth he had preached all his life, he was at the head of the troops as a good shepherd, ready to die with his flock. They saw that their advanced troops were in great distress down in the valley below the hill. They knew that the situation was desperate. The advanced troops under George Goldi were on high ground, backed by a ditch filled with water and surrounded with wood and swampy land. Their artillery had just repelled the first onslaught of the enemy. However, the fast moving martial scene below brought about a change. The enemy forces having crossed the swamps, and having arrived at an elevation backed by woods, approached them with a deadly encircling movement on two sides from the direction of Oberfeld through woodland roads and riverside paths all along the rolling ground. Cavalry soldiers wearing white-plumed helmets mounted shining black horses and carried their long spears and heavy battle axes; infantry soldiers in scarlet and blue uniforms carried long swords and smoking hand guns; artillery men dragging cannons rolled ever nearer and nearer. Eighteen thousand well-armed soldiers from the united forces of the Pope of Rome, Ferdinand of Austria and the five Swiss cantons, remained faithful to the Old Church. Schwyz, Uri Unterwalden, Luzern, and Zug were coming to destroy the six times smaller, hastily-gathered and poorly-equipped little army of Zurich which was defending the Truth of the Gospel and Liberty of Conscience. Rome thought it was now or never! The preaching of the true Gospel was spreading rapidly through Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Transylvania, Sweden, Denmark, and even France. The great scheme of Philip of Hesse to unite the Protestants had failed. Now was the time, they thought, to deal a fatal blow to the disunited Protestant forces separately and in different places. Dark and ominous thunder clouds appeared on the sky above the distant, blue range of stormily sunlit Alps. Lavater gazed expectantly towards the mountain range. The troops of the Bernese allies were already on their way through the treacherous mountain roads. But there was no sign of them in the distance yet. Their help would be late. Zwingli’s eyes sparkled like stars. “If we stand here waiting,” exclaimed he in a sudden outburst, “it will be too late to help our fellows. We must not stand here and see our friends suffer defeat.” Suddenly a hawk flew overhead with its prey in its claws and blood fell upon the hill top. That was considered by the soldiers behind as a bad omen. “Another bad sign!” whispered one of the soldiers behind. “Remember, this morning, when he first attempted to mount, how his horse shied?” “And remember that in Zug, a shield had been seen in the air?” joined another. “And on the river Reuss shots were heard at night?” put in another. “And on the Bruenig Pass flags flew in the heavens?” “And on the Lake of Luzern phantom ships sailed filled with ghosts in warriors’ garb?” “But the worst sign of all was that right fearful comet that appeared over Zurich at the sunset of St. Lawrence’s day.” “Yes! Its long and broad tail stretched to mid-heaven, and its color was pale yellow.” “And all people in Zurich know,” said a red-faced, heavy-set warrior in a half-whisper and half-speech, “that when George Abbot asked our Zwingli what it meant, he said, ‘Dear George, it will cost me and many an honest man his life; Truth and the Church will yet suffer. Still Christ will not desert us." “And true it is!” exclaimed Zwingli, overhearing the red-faced warrior’s remark. “I, and many of you may die, but Truth will conquer! The true Church will live! Christ will not desert us!” Then raising the flag high, he cried violently: “I go to our fellows down below! I am prepared either to die with or among them, or to succor them as God pleases! Who will follow me? God’s will be done!” And the tired troops ran down the valley to assist their friends. Down there in the meantime the battle had been resumed again, and it raged with full fury. Battle cries thundered through the valley. The popish regiments cried: “Sacreligious scamps!” “Damned heretics!” “Sons of the old devil!” “Long live the Pope!j ” “Help us Holy Mary!” “Miserere Nobis!” The Protestant troops returned the epithets with equal vehemence; “Worshippers of idols!” “Godless papists!” “Sons of the old darkness!” “Long live the Gospel!” “For Truth and Liberty!” “Help us, Lord Christ!” Trumpets blared. Drums sounded. Cannons barked. Hand guns shot. Swords, spears, battle axes clanged. The much smaller Protestant troops fought with heroic courage against the overwhelming foe and sold their lives dearly and highly in a desperate battle for a great and wonderful cause. But the fight was hopeless and unequal.
