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nothing so much as public religion and the everlasting Gospel."

While the union of piety and humility, with talent and erudition, manifested in this declaration, and exhibited in the general conduct of Vadianus, sheds an amiable lustre on his character; the variety of his literary productions, and the research of his theological disquisitions, would indicate uncommon diligence and facility of composition. Though the calls of the first magistracy, which he often sustained, engaged him in a varied round of employ, the responsibility of which he felt equally with the managers of larger states, he yet knew how to husband his hours, and improve his opportunities. At the urgent request of Bullinger, he drew up some "Meditations" on various abstruse questions in divinity, and maintained the existence of the triumphant Saviour in the substance of very flesh; in opposition to the ancient notion of the Eutychians, who considered the human nature as absorbed in the divine, and thus deduced conclusions decidedly favourable to the cause of Protestantism. The Reformers saw the necessity of maintaining correct sentiments on the person of Christ, and of upholding the opinions of Tertullian, Augustine, and other orthodox fathers in the purer ages of the church. Thus did this extraordinary man attract attention no less as a disputant in polemic divinity, than by his justice as a magistrate, his skill as a physician, his science as a scholar, his talent as a poet, and his eloquence as a senator.

The work of Reformation proceeded, meanwhile, in the district of St. Gallen, in a steady and efficient manner. In no part of Christendom, perhaps, has a religious revolution been accomplished with less disturbance. Instructed by the disorder that had occurred at Zurich, the magistrates had directed the statues to be gra

dually removed from the churches under cover of the night, and had contented themselves, in the first instance, with enjoining the clergy, over whom they possessed influence, to adhere in their public exhortations to the plainer verities of the Gospel *. They now issued a formal edict for the abolition of images and altars, instituted a consistorial court for the decision of matrimonial causes, and the administration of ecclesiastical discipline, passed some laws for the regulation of expenses in public worship, and prohibited the further observance of useless festivals +." Nor should the sympathy and compassion shown to the needy part of the population by the Consul and his coadjutors be unobserved. The costly vestments, ear-rings, gems, chains, and other ornaments, which had captivated the senses of the votaries in less enlightened days, but were equally abhorrent from Protestant feeling and republican frugality, were collected and sold for the sum of ten thousand silver florins, which was distributed among the poor. In this surrender of redundant decoration, the magistracy found themselves seconded by the citizens with the most honourable alacrity. The revenues arising from suppressed convents were appropriated in the same useful manner; while the ministers of the commonwealth were directed to be assiduous in instructing the liberated nuns of St. Catharine and St. Leonard in the elements of a purer theology.

In 1528, the memorable conference was held at Berne, under the presidency of Vadianus and three others, which ended so much in favour of the reforming divines. Its influence extending to St. Gallen, the images were taken from

* Hoffman in Reform. Sangall. apud Hottinger Helv. Kirch. gesch. p. 181. + Hoffman in Reform. Sangall. apud Hottinger Helv. Kirch. gesch. p. 337.

the church of St. Magnus, which had been spared in the former purgation, in consequence of some claim set up by the neighbouring Abbot. On the tenth of June all ecclesiastics were interdicted the celebration of the mass; and at the following Christmas the admired preacher, brother Adrian, who had distinguished himself in his sermons at the abbey by his invectives against the new doctrines, to the great alarm of the confraternity, made a public recantation, and declared his abhorrence of the errors of Papacy *.

In a sequestered valley, surrounded by lofty mountains, near a fall of the Steinach, the abbey of St. Gallen had been founded about the middle of the seventh century, under the auspices of Pepin de Heristal, Mayor of the Palace in France, who placed it under the immediate patronage of his sovereign. It took its name from Gallus, a Scottish saint, who with some companions had constructed their rude cells on this spot in the foregoing century, and had received a grant of the land from the Chamberlain of the Austrian court. While the first abbots and brethren were engaged in the holier task of instructing the barbarous natives in the revealed way of salvation, they did not neglect the interests of learning. In their library were preserved some scarce and valuable manuscripts of the classics, with works on grammar, history, and geography; and the foundation itself became a venerated seat of piety and erudition, while its domain was aggrandized by the policy or superstition of the Alemannic lords. In process of time, luxury, ostentation, sensuality, and ignorance succeeded. A town, which had gradually been formed around the ecclesiastical edifice, rose to such a degree of prosperity as to contemn the authority of the abbots.

* Scultetus, Dec. 2, p. 143:

Contests occurred between the townsmen and the ecclesiastics, in vindication of their respective rights; and in the fifteenth century, the political situation of both underwent a change; the Abbot forming an union with Zurich, Lucern, Schwitz, and Glaris, by which he bound himself and all his vassals, between the lakes of Constance and Zurich, to assist the confederates within these limits, and to submit to the arbitration of the four cantons in his disputes with his neighbours; the citizens on their part soon after establishing a perpetual league with the same cantons, with the addition of Berne and Zug.

At the time of the Reformation, the abbey was harassed with opposing relations and conflicting interests. The difference of religious sentiments served but to increase the ancient jealousies between the members of the foundation and those of the municipality. The monks heard with apprehension and concern of the progress of the new doctrines, among their vassals and farmers in the Thurgau and Tockenburg, and in the canton of Appenzel. On the death of one of their abbots, the cantons of Zurich and Glaris took some steps towards the secularization of the abbey, which were resisted by their coadvocates Lucern and Schwitz, and political distrust was inflamed by theological innovation.

The burghers had hitherto forborne to irritate the churchmen by insisting on the removal of the images from the Grand Minster. But on the 23d of February, 1529, the Senate having discussed the expediency of requiring this conformity with the general measures, and refused the earnest supplication of the Dean, all the altars, thirty-three in number, were overturned; the statues taken down from their shrines and pedestals, and conveyed in forty waggons out of the city, where they were devoted to the flames. On the 7th of

March, service was performed in this antient sanctuary, in the presence of three thousand persons, according to the new ritual; and a sermon was preached by Dominic Zilli, a respectable clergyman and schoolmaster; while, in place of the old unmeaning chaunting of the mass by the exclusive voices of the brethren of the monastery, its columns reverberated the sounds of praise, ascending from the mingled notes of young and old, male and female, as they sung the appropriate language of the fifty-first Psalm..

This reformation in the church of St. Gallen led to the detection of monkish fraud. A large cross, silver gilt, was exhibited to the populace, which had been reported to contain many relics of saints, and regarded with peculiar veneration by the Romish devotees. But when the Consul and his attendants proceeded to gratify their curiosity by an inspection of its contents, they found nothing but mean shreds and old rags. There was also a golden horn, which had been preserved with the greatest care, and esteemed particularly sacred on account of a stone from the holy sepulchre, of which it was the presumed casket; but when it was opened in the presence of the deputy from Glaris, they found a piece of tortoise-shell. Prior to this discovery, the deputy had been a most bitter Papist; but he was so much disgusted at the flagrant imposture, as to become from that hour a strenuous supporter of the Reform.

Schappeler at this season proposed a disputation to be held at St. Gallen, on forty-two propositions against the Papists. In these, he utterly rejected all human atonements, and monastic vows; asserted, that monasteries were not houses of God, as had been erroneously supposed, but receptacles of ignorance and superstition; and observed, that within five hundred years more than fifty sects had arisen of different orders. He also

demonstrated, that the dealings and instructions of the monks were, for the most part, contrary to the word of God; especially as to their celebration of the abominable and venal sacrifice of the mass, with their empty chaunts, and unreasonable clamours in public worship.

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While the cause of pure and undefiled religion was thus prospering, under the care of Vadianus, in the neighbourhood of the Lake of Constance, a great portion of the Helvetic confederacy heard with delight the discourses of those apostolic characters, who promulgated with zeal and affection the glad tidings of celestial truth. Thousands of the Swiss peasantry, as new-born babes, desired the sincere milk of the word, that they might grow thereby." But the progress of the Reformation was retarded by secular interests and political jealousies, as well as by the conquest obtained over the Evangelical by the Catholic cantons, in the dispute between Lucern and Zurich, aided by their respective allies. The Abbot of St. Gallen, who had retired from his minster during the prevalence of hostility, was reinstated, and received from the burgesses an indemnification of ten thousand florins; while many communities in the Thurgau relapsed to the Romish confession.

In 1551, the Consul, finding his strength much decayed in consequence of protracted indisposition, called a meeting of the clergy and magistracy, at his own house, on the 28th of January; in which he addressed them at some length on his reasons for embracing the reformed faith; declaring his adherence to its tenets, and commending the concerns of the church to the watchful care of the pastors. Then directing his discourse more immediately to the leading statesmen, he exhorted them to an upright administration of its affairs. He delivered to them a catalogue

of his books, requesting that they might be deposited in a public library, for the benefit of his fellowcitizens. Afterwards he endeavoured to withdraw his mind from earthly cares by prayer, meditation, and perusal of Scripture. When he lighted on a passage replete with consolation, he clasped his hands, looked up to heaven, and thanked the Father for his mercy bestowed on man in Jesus Christ. He desired those chapters to be read which contain our Lord's last discourses to his disciples, with a portion of the Epistle to the Hebrews. As Kesler, a minister of St. Gallen, was standing by his side, he put a New Testament into his hand, saying,

"Ac

cept, my friend, of this book, than which nothing is dearer to me, as a lasting pledge of our friendship." Soon after, his voice failed him; but he intimated his trust in the Saviour by motions of his head and hand. His spirit took its flight on the 6th of April, about noon, in the 66th year of his age. Such men are the choicest boons of Providence to the age in which they appear. They exhibit the fair alliance of genius with devotion, and power with humility. The virtues, the charities, and the muses, grouped round the sepulchre, as religion mourned the loss of "the beloved physician" and accomplished magistrate of St. Gallen.

TO MY PARISH CHURCH.
[FROM POEMS BY A CLERGYMAN.]

EMBOSOM'D deep in consecrated shade,

That seems for heavenly contemplation made,
Sweet Church, thou stand'st!—for me, a lovelier spot
Earth in her ample bounds possesseth not.

Oft do I gaze on thy sequester'd pile,

When the sun gilds thee with its parting smile,
And steal insensibly to that repose,

That the soft summer eve around thee throws,
Bright'ning the dark green mantle of thy walls,
That clust'ring o'er thy hoary turret falls,
Which thus to Fancy's eye, at twilight hour,
Seems from yon point a bower within a bower.

Far from a busy world's distracting din,
A stillness reigns without, like that within;
No sound is heard save of the river's trill,
That gently winds beneath the church-yard hill,
Or the reed shaken by the passing wind,-
Sounds such as aid the contemplative mind;
And with each object that surrounding lies,
Combine at once to soothe and harmonize,—
Lending their gentle influence to prepare
The heart for holiest work-the work of prayer.
Oh! 'tis a spot the moralist should tread,
And pause and ponder o'er each narrow bed,

Where many a troubled one on earth's sad scene
Sleeps peacefully, beneath the covert green.

Pain, want, and woe! an unrelenting band,
That wring the heart and enervate the hand,

"There cease from troubling"-there they quit their hold,
And their prey sinks into its native mould:
"Ashes to ashes" then the strife is o'er,

“The weary is at rest"- "the plague" is felt no more.

No. IX. THE VILLAGE PASTOR, No. IX.

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"HE," says St. Paul, "who desires the office of a bishop desires a good work." Good, undoubtedly, such an office is in itself; and good in its effects on mankind; and good to the pastor's own soul, when entered into from proper motives, and discharged as in the sight of God, according to the abilities given for its exercise. But among those who desire and enter upon the office, there are few, comparatively speaking, even among the pious and well-intentioned, who, at the time of their ordination, are aware of many of those trials and discouragements which are found by experience to attend their course. In the day when they embark in this arduous undertaking, we may conceive the great Bishop and Shepherd of souls addressing them as he once did his disciples when on earth: I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." Yes, there are many lessons to be communicated, many exercises of soul to be passed through, and many obstacles and discouragements to be encountered in future and successive periods, which, if set be fore them at the day of their ordination, would present so disheartening a picture as to deter most men from approaching the altar to minister in the priest's office. Among those numerous trials which are sure to occasion much and constant anxiety, and not unfrequently to afflict the pastor's heart, may be named the falling away of those young people who for a time seemed to run well; and whose conduct had raised his expectations, and cheered his hopes, that shortly they would be useful and ornamental members of Christ's church here, and finally become his crown of rejoicing hereafter. True, it is a secondary, but it is not an inconsiderable motive of action on the part of the flock, to endeavour so to NOV. 1823.

conduct themselves in the world and towards God, as not willingly to grieve and oppress the heart of the pastor, who loves them, and watches over their course as one that must give an account. Yet this motive ought to have some weight. Could those young persons, indeed, enter into half the anxieties, half the cares, and fears, and sorrows, which their ministers feel for them, they would sometimes halt and say, "How can I do this great folly, and wound the feelings and afflict the heart of my best friend!" This would especially have been the case with those young women who have so often grieved the writer of this paper, and many of his brethren in the ministry throughout the villages in the kingdom. I say throughout the villages, because those pastors who reside in such situations cannot but know and enter into the cares of all their flock. The children grow up in their schools, and advance to years of maturity under their inspection, and gain upon their affection and esteem as they draw nearer to that period when they are to launch into the world, and act their several and respective parts on the stage of life, to the comfort or distress of those who have endeavoured to conduct them into the way of peace; who for a long course of time have urged on them the duty and privilege of choosing life, that their souls might live.

Satan has his snares and enticements suited to every age, and rank, and station, and sex. Dress and finery are undoubtedly the most common and successful temptations with which he assaults the girls of our villages, and by which he leads an awful number of them captive at his will. After a little more time has passed over their heads, he sends young men in their way, first to gain their affections, and then, by the influence they

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