In this house, towards the end of the fifteenth century, lived a man named Zuinglius, amman or bailiff of the district. The family of the Zwingles, or Zwingli, was ancient, and in high esteem among the inhabitants of these mountains.[605] Bartholomew, brother of the bailiff, at first curate of the parish, and, after 1487, dean of Wesen, was a person of some celebrity in the district.[606] Margaret Meili, the wife of the amman of Wildhaus, and whose brother John was afterwards abbot of the convent of Fischingen in Thurgovia, had already given birth to two sons, Heini and Klaus, when, on the first day of the year 1484, seven weeks after the birth of Luther, a third son, Ulric, was born in this solitary hut.[607] Five other sons, John, Wolfgang, Bartholomew, James, Andrew, and a daughter, Anna, were afterwards added to this Alpine family. No person in the country was more venerated than amman Zuinglius.[608] His character, his office, his numerous children, made him the patriarch of these mountains. He and all his sons were shepherds. No sooner did the first days of May open upon these mountains than the father and the children departed with their flocks for the pastures, rising gradually from station to station, and so, towards the end of July, reaching the highest summits of the Alps. Then they began gradually to redescend towards the valley, and in autumn the whole population of Wildhaus returned to their humble huts. Sometimes, during the summer, the young people who had been obliged to remain at home, eager for the mountain breezes, set out in bands for the chalets, uniting their voices to the melody of their rustic instruments. On their arrival on the Alps, the shepherds from a distance saluted them with their horns and their songs, and regaled them with a feast of milk. Afterwards the joyous band, by turnings and windings, descended again into the valley, moving to the sound of their pipes. Ulric in his youth doubtless joined occasionally in this amusement. He grew up at the foot of those rocks which seem eternal, and whose tops reach the heavens. "I have often thought," says one of his friends, "that, being brought near to heaven on these sublime heights, he there contracted something celestial and divine."[609] [605] Diss Geschlächt der Zwinglinen, wass in guter Achtung diesser Landen, als ein gut alt ehrlich Geschlächt. (H. Bullinger's Histor. Beschreibung der Eidg. Geschichten.) This valuable work existed only in manuscript in 1837, and was communicated to me by the kindness of M. J. G. Hess. In the quotations I preserve the orthography of the period and of the manuscript. The friends of history have since caused it to be printed. [606] Ein verrumbter Mann. (Ibid.) [607] Quadragesimum octavum agimus, writes Zuinglius to Vadian, 17th September, 1531. [608] Clarus fuit pater ob spectatam vitæ sanctimoniam. (Oswald Myconius, Vita Zwingli.) [609] Divinitatis nonnihil cœlo propriorem contraxisse. (Ibid.)