the alliance, "for the godless opinion of Zwingli should never be defended." The agreement came
to nothing.
Philip of Hesse stood alone. He was enthusiastic for an alliance, because he half sympathized
with the Zwinglian theory, and deemed the controversy to be a battle of words. He hoped that a
personal conference of the theological leaders would bring about an understanding.
After consulting Melanchthon personally in Speier, and Zwingli by letter, the Landgrave
issued formal invitations to the Reformers, to meet at Marburg, and offered them a safe-conduct
through his territory.^853
Zwingli received the invitation with joy, and hoped for the best. The magistrate of Zuerich
was opposed to his leaving; but he resolved to brave the danger of a long journey through hostile
territory, and left his home in the night of Sept. 3, without waiting for the Landgrave’s safe-conduct,
and without even informing his wife of his destination, beyond Basel. Accompanied by a single
friend, the Greek professor Collin, he reached Basel safely on horseback, and on the 6th of September
he embarked with Oecolampadius and several merchants on the Rhine for Strassburg, where they
arrived after thirteen hours. The Reformers lodged in the house of Matthew Zell, the preacher in
the cathedral, and were hospitably entertained by his wife Catharine, who cooked their meals,
waited at the table, and conversed with them on theology so intelligently that they ranked her above
many doctors. She often alluded in later years, with joy and pride, to her humble services to these
illustrious men. They remained in Strassburg eleven days, in important consultation with the
ministers and magistrates. Zwingli preached in the minister on Sunday, the 12th of September, in
the morning, on our knowledge of truth, and our duty to obey it; Oecolampadius preached in the
afternoon, on the new creature in Christ, and on faith operative in love (Gal. 5:6). On the 19th of
September, at six in the morning, they departed with the Strassburg delegates, Bucer, Hedio, and
Jacob Sturm, the esteemed head of the city magistrate, under protection of five soldiers. They
travelled on horseback over hills and dales, through forests and secret paths. At the Hessian frontier,
they were received by forty cavaliers, and reached Marburg on the 27th of September, at four
o’clock in the afternoon, and were cordially welcomed by the Landgrave in person.^854 The same
journey can now be made in a few hours. On the next days they preached.
Zwingli and Philip of Hesse had political and theological sympathies. Zwingli, who was a
statesman as well as a reformer, conceived about that time far-reaching political combinations in
the interest of religion. He aimed at no less than a Protestant alliance between Zuerich, Hesse,
Strassburg, France, Venice, and Denmark, against the Roman empire and the house of Habsburg.
He believed in muscular, aggressive Christianity, and in rapid movements to anticipate an attack
of the enemy, or to be at least fully prepared for it. The fiery and enthusiastic young Landgrave
freely entered into these plans, which opened a tempting field to his ambition, and discussed them
with Zwingli, probably already at Marburg, and afterwards in confidential letters, till the catastrophe
at Cappel made an end to the correspondence, and the projected alliance.^855
(^853) The letters of invitation in Monumenta Hassiaca, tom. III., and Neudecker, Urkunden, p. 95.
(^854) The 27th is given by Hedio in his Itinerary, as the day of their arrival, and is accepted by Baum, Erichson, and Köstlin. The usual
date is the 29th.
(^855) There are still extant ten letters from the Landgrave to Zwingli, and three from Zwingli to the Landgrave, to which should be added
four letters from Duke Ulrich of Württemberg to Zwingli. They are published in Kuchenbecker’s Monumenta Hassiaca, in Neudecker’s
Urkunden aus der Reformationszeit, and in Zwingli’s Opera, vol. VIII., and are explained and discussed by Max Lenz in three articles
quoted in the Literature. The correspondence began during the second Diet of Speier, April 22, 1529 (the date of the first epistle of Philip),