On Providence and Other Essays

The Works of Huldreich Zwingli

altogether set at rest by this treatise, for he expresses in a letter of Sep- tember 28, 1526 ( Zwingl <*# Werke, VIII, 726-8) the fear that Zwingli might be accused of Origenism. Zwingli tried to remove his doubts by a letter dated October 16, 1526 (Werke, VIII, 737-9).]

Huldreich Zwingli to Urbanus Rhegius,* Preacher of the Gospel at Augsburg.

RACE and peace through Jesus Christ, our Lord. You wrote me very recently a letter which, though it was very long, was not long enough, most learned Urbanus, for it so abounded in new and learned things and showed with clearness that you had been in no way offended by the letter which I had combined with the one in which I discuss the Eucharist with Billicanus in no unfriendly wayf, as I think.

Yet I have not been able to answer before those things which I think ought by no means to be passed over in silence, though I have constantly and eagerly desired to answer them. I am so badly driven by occupations, nay by those furies, who, kind- ling everywhere the fires of contention, will some day suffer a punishment worthy of Castor and Pollux. But now, having secured, or, if the truth may be told without shame, having stolen, a little leisure time, I will do my best to say at least something if not altogether enough with regard to the question you raise in your letter. For you are not the only one who thinks that I hold and write an unusual doctrine with regard to the pollution of human descent. There are other great men who entertain the same idea. I have myself seen letters of certain men to myself and to others, some of which beg me to explain my view more clearly, while others warn their friends not to

*The reformer Urbanus Rhegius (Koenig) was born in 1490 at Langenargen, near Lindau. He studied at Freiburg and at Ingolstadt. At the latter place he became professor of poetry and rhetoric. In the year 1520, he became cathedral preacher at Augsburg, where he accepted the principles of the Reformation. In 1530, he was called as superintendent to Celle and as such was the reformer of the Duchy of Luneburg. He died March 23, 1541. His works appeared in 1562 at Nuremberg, four volumes in German, three volumes in Latin. His biography was written by Heim- buerger (Gotha, 1851) and by Uhlhorn (Elberfeld, 1861).

tSee the Responsio E. Zwinglii , to the letters of Theob. BillicanOs and U. Rhegius, Schuler and Schulthess ed., Ill, 646-670.

On Original Sin

suffer themselves to be dragged to destruction by me.' They are both of them overcautious, not to say anxious. For those to whom the question is so clear that they think I need to make a declaration of doctrine, ought to bring out publicly their own clear teaching forthwith, for I do differ somewhat with those who have so far been thought to have hit the nail on the head in this matter; and, on the other hand, those to whom my view seems so dangerous that they think they ought to warn their friends to beware of it, should caution all men, or at least try to make me explain like those who were before me. I will, therefore, with the help of Christ, try to make all’ men see clearly that what I have said upon this matter briefly but plainly, was not said at random or without authority from the sacred Scriptures; and that, on the other hand, much has been said by many people in regard to this matter which has little foundation in die truly sacred [canonical] writings. For what could be said more briefly and plainly than that original sin is not sin but disease, and that the children of Christians are not condemned to eternal punishment on account of that disease? On the other hand, what could be said more feebly or more at variance with the canonical Scriptures than that this disaster was relieved by the water of baptism, while through want thereof it was intensified, and that it was not only a disease but even a crime? Therefore, my dear Urbanus, believe that I treated such reasoning so concisely and lightly in my work upon Baptism and Catabaptism* because otherwise the book would have grown to interminable length. For I had determined even then, to treat the whole subject more at length and with greater precision if circumstances should demand it. But I had a hope that the thing would be settled by those few words, for in these days men’s minds are so happily constituted that if you offer them a slight opportunity or give them a handle to take hold of, they straightway press on to the very end. Yet some are of a more sincere spirit than others. We often say we do not understand a thing when we do not want to understand it. Or we are ashamed to appear ignorant. We sometimes forget both God and our- selves, — that it is impossible for anything to escape Him or for us to know everything.

But do thou, to come at length to the subject, most fair- •See Zwingli’s Werke , Schuler and Schulthess ed., vol. II, 1, p. 287.

The Works of Huldreich Zwingli

minded priest of the truth, accept my argument in this manner : Let us first of all come to an agreement as to these terms, “sin” and “disease.” Then let us define the disease itself, and attempt to discover the appropriate name for it, and show how it damns and whom. Thirdly, let us show that it cannot be cured by any other medicine than the blood of Christ, the Son of God, so far am I from denying Christ’s efficacy. Therewith I shall also search out whether the evil can be averted by anything else than that blood, for instance, by the water of baptism.