Scarcely had Magister Ursinus quitted the schoolroom and his primers, than, taking refuge in his modest chamber, he became absorbed in the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures, and the most learned treatises of the theologians. The struggle between Luther and Zwingle was commencing. To which of these two chiefs should the French Reform attach itself? Luther had been known in France for a much longer time than Zwingle; yet Farel decided in favour of the latter. Mysticism had characterized the Germanic nations during the Middle Ages, and scholasticism those of Roman descent. The French were in closer relation with the dialectician Zwingle than with the mystic Luther; or rather, they were the mediators between the two great tendencies of the Middle Ages; and, while giving to the christian thought that correct form which seems to be the province of southern nations, they became the instruments of God to spread through the Church the fulness of life and of the Spirit of Christ. [Sidenote: THE DOOR IS OPENED.] It was in this little chamber at Aigle that Farel read the first publication addressed to the German by the Swiss Reformer.[852] "With what learning," cries he, "does Zwingle scatter the darkness! with what holy ingenuity he gains over the wise, and what captivating meekness he unites with a forcible erudition! Oh, that by the grace of God this work may win over Luther, so that the Church of Christ, trembling from such violent shocks, may at length find peace!"[853] [852] Pia et amica ad Lutheri sermonem apologia. (Opp. vol. ii. t. 2, p. 1.) [853] Ut Christi succussa undique Ecclesia, pacis non nihil sentiat. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 26.) The schoolmaster Ursinus, excited by so noble an example, gradually set about instructing the parents as well as the children. He at first attacked the doctrine of purgatory, and next the invocation of Saints. "As for the Pope, he is nothing," said he, "or almost nothing, in these parts;[854] and as for the priests, provided they annoy the people with all that nonsense, which Erasmus knows so well how to turn into ridicule, that is enough for them." [854] Papa aut nullus aut modicus hic est. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 36.) Ursinus had been some months at Aigle: a door was opened to him; a flock had been collected there, and he believed the looked for moment had arrived.