When, therefore, the Bishop of Constance himself, just at this time, in
a pastoral letter to the clergy of his diocese, uttered, in the
strongest terms, complaints of their thoroughly corrupt condition, and
deplored, that "many of them, without regard to shame and the fear of
God, kept lewd women in their houses, and would neither put them away
nor do better, and that others were addicted to gambling and oftener to
be met with in taverns than in their own rooms, wrangled in the
streets, scolded, giving rise to uproar as well as blasphemy against
the Savior, his blessed mother, and all the saints of God, wore weapons
and clothes altogether unsuited to their condition, entered into
unlawful agreements, crept into nunneries and otherwise led abandoned
lives at variance with the priestly character," and acknowledged the
urgent necessity of a remedy, was it a seditious movement, or not
rather a noble effort to help on a good cause, when Zwingli thanked his
chief pastor for this, but at the same time begged him to act as well
as speak?
It is easy to imagine how such a zealous discharge of the duties of his
calling should more and more attract the attention of the public
authorities. Wintherthur was anxious to see him in the place of its
deceased pastor. He had to decline, because the citizens of Glarus were
not willing to release him from his former engagement. In Zurich even,
wither he had come on a visit, the number of his admirers continually
increased. The burgomaster Roist and his brethren-in-arms at Marignano
were acquainted with him since the Italian campaign. To the senator,
Jacob Grebel, he was introduced by his son Conrad, at that time one of
his warmest admirers. The canons Utinger, Erasmus, Schmied and
Engelhart knew and honored his scientific attainments, and even the
hostile disposition, which, then already, some of the most resolute
defenders of every kind of wickedness cherished toward him, might well
have proved a recommendation to all well-disposed people. Thus the way
was prepared for a translation to the scene of his future labors, but
before this, Einsiedeln was yet to see him coming out boldly against
one of the cardinal sins of the Papal Court.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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