Scarcely had Samson left Schwitz when a citizen of this canton, named Stapfer, a man of distinguished talent, and afterward secretary of state, was with his family reduced to great distress. "Alas," said he, when applying in agony to Zuinglius, "I know not how to satisfy my own hunger and the hunger of my poor children."[681] Zuinglius knew to give where Rome knew to take; he was as ready to practise good works, as to combat those who taught that they were the means of obtaining salvation. He daily gave liberally to Stapfer.[682] "It is God," said he, anxious not to take any glory to himself, "It is God who begets charity in the believer, and gives him at once the thought, the resolution, and the work itself. Whatever good a righteous man does it is God who does it by his own power."[683] Stapfer remained attached to him through life; and, four years after, when he had become secretary of state, and felt wants of a higher kind, he turned towards Zuinglius, and said to him with noble candour, "Since you provided for my temporal wants, how much more may I now expect from you wherewith to appease the hunger of my soul!" [681] Ut meæ, meorumque liberorum inediæ corporali subveniretis. (Zw. Ep. 234.) [682] Largas mihi quotidie suppetias tulistis. (Ibid.) [683] Caritatem ingenerat Deus, consilium, propositum et opus. Quidquid boni præstat justus, hoc Deus sua virtute præstat. (Zw. Op., i, p. 226.) The friends of Zuinglius increased. Not only at Glaris, Bâle, and Schwitz, did he find men of like spirit with himself; in Uri there was the secretary of state, Schmidt; at Zug, Colin Müller and Werner Steiner, his old companions in arms at Marignan: at Lucerne, Xylotect and Kilchmeyer; Wittembach at Berne, and many others in many other places. But the curate of Einsidlen had no more devoted friend than Oswald Myconius. Oswald had quitted Bâle in 1516, to take charge of the cathedral school at Zurich. In this town there were no learned men, and no schools of learning. Oswald laboured along with some well-disposed individuals, among others, Utinger, notary to the pope, to raise the Zurich population out of ignorance and initiate them in ancient literature. At the same time he defended the immutable truth of the Holy Scriptures, and declared that if the pope or emperor gave commands contrary to the gospel, obedience was due to God alone, who is above both emperor and pope. [Sidenote: ZURICH. THE COLLEGE OF CANONS.] CHAP. VI. Zurich--The College of Canons--Election to the Cathedral--Fable--Accusations--Confession of Zuinglius--The Designs of God Unfolded--Farewell to Einsidlen--Arrival at Zurich--Courageous Declaration of Zuinglius--First Sermons--Effects--Opposition--Character of Zuinglius--Taste for Music--Arrangement of the Day--Circulation by Hawkers.