Zwingle, whose eye nothing escaped, saw that a favourable hour for Berne was coming, and immediately gave the signal. "The dove commissioned to examine the state of the waters is returning with an olive-branch into the ark," wrote he to Haller; "come forth now, thou second Noah, and take possession of the land. Enforce, be earnest, and fix deeply in the hearts of men the hooks and grapnels of the Word of God, so that they can never again be rid of them."[886]--"Your bears," wrote he to Thomas ab Hofen, "have again put forth their claws. Please God that they do not draw them back until they have torn everything in pieces that opposes Jesus Christ." [886] Aculeos ac hamos, sic in mortalium pectora dimitte, ut etiam si velint, non possint. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 10.) [Sidenote: VICTORY OF THE GOSPEL.] Haller and his friends were on the point of replying to this appeal, when their situation became complicated. Some Anabaptists, who formed everywhere the extreme party, arriving in Berne in 1527, led away the people from the Evangelical preachers "on account of the presence of idols."[887] Haller had a useless conference with them. "To what dangers is not Christianity exposed," cried he, "wherever these furies have crept in!"[888] There has never been any revival in the Church, without the hierarchical or radical sects immediately endeavouring to disturb it. Haller, although alarmed, still maintained his unalterable meekness. "The magistrates are desirous of banishing them," said he; "but it is our duty to drive out their errors, and not their persons. Let us employ no other weapons than the sword of the Spirit."[889] It was not from Popery that the Reformers had learnt these principles. A public disputation took place. Six Anabaptists declared themselves convinced, and two others were sent out of the country. [887] Ne plebem dehortentur ab auditione concionum nostrarum ob idolorum præsentiam. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 49.) [888] Consideravimus omnes periculum urbis nostræ et totius Christianismi, ubi illæ furiæ irrepserint. (Ibid. p. 50.) [889] Nostrum est, omnio gladio spiritus refellere. (Ibid.) The decisive moment was drawing near. The two great powers of the age, the Gospel and the Papacy, were stirring with equal energy; the Bernese councils were to speak out. They saw on the one hand the five primitive cantons taking daily a more threatening attitude, and announcing that the Austrian would soon reappear in Helvetia, to reduce it once more into subjection to Rome; and on the other they beheld the Gospel every day gaining ground in the Confederation. Which was destined to prevail in Switzerland--the lances of Austria or the Word of God? In the uncertainty in which the councils were placed, they resolved to side with the majority. Where could they discover a firm footing, if not there? _Vox populi, vox Dei._ "No one," said they, "can make any change of his own private authority: the consent of all is necessary."[890]