A SHORT AND CLEAR ExprosiTioN or THE CHRISTIAN FarTH PrEACHED BY HULDREICH ZWINGLI, WRITTEN BY ZWINGLI HiMwsELF SHORTLY BEFORE His DEATH TO A CHRISTIAN King; THUs Far Nor PRINTED BY ANYONE AND Now FOR THE First TIME PUBLISHED TO THE WORLD. MATTH. 11: “CoME Unto ME,” ETC., 1536.
(Written July, 1531.) [christia- Nae Fidei a Huld- Rycho Zvinglio Prae-
DICA- tae, brevis et clara expositio, ab ipso Zuin- glio paulo ante mortem eius ad Regem Christianum scripta, hactenus a ne- mine excusa et nunc primum in lucem aedita. Matth. 11. M. D. XXXVI. 88 octavo pages, numbered by leaves 2-43. Signed p. 58, Tiguri Mense Julio, Anno 1531; pp. 59-85, containing an appendix: De Eucharistia et Missa, pp. 86-88 blank. Printed also in Opera Zwinglii, Tom II, fol. 550b-564b; Schuler and Schulthess ed., Vol. IV, pp. 42-78. A German edition, printed by Froschauer without date, but apparently in the same year, had the following title: Eyn kurtze klare sum vnd erklirung des Christenen gloubés, von Huldrychen Zwinglin geprediget, vnd vnlang vor synem tod zu eynem Christenen Kiinig geschriben. At the end: Getruckt zu Zürich by Chris-toffel Froschouer. 144 octavo pages, numbered by leaves; on pp. 3-6 a dedication of Leo Juda to Werner Steyner. A copy of this edition is in the library of Union Theological Seminary, New York City. A partial modern German translation in Ulrich Zwingli eine Auswahl aus seinen Schriften, Zurich 1918, pp. 797-816. The following English translation, made by Mr. Henry Preble, was revised by the editor.
As early as 1526 Zwingli had commended the reform of the Church to King Francis 1 of France, in the letter prefixed to his Commentary on the True and False Religion. From the beginning of the year 1530 the French ambassadors Paisrigault and Maigret were in negotiation with the magistrates of Zurich, both for the purpose of avoiding a religious war and in the hope of luring them into an alliance with France. These ambassadors appeared to favor the Reformation. In the hope of opening a wider field for the Reformation in France, Zwingli entered into the scheme and pre-
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pared an outline of the advantages to be gained by the cities of Protestant Switzerland making an alliance with the French King for fifteen or twenty years for the defense of the Christian religion.
When Maigret asked Zwingli to send the King an exposition of his teaching, in order to remove the prejudice against it which had taken possession of the King’s mind, Zwingli complied with his request. This exposition was taken to Paris in the summer of 1531 by Rudolph Collin, delegate of Zurich. Simmler in his collection of manuscripts, Vol. XXIX, has a note upon a copy of this book to the effect that the original copy written by Zwingli still exists in the Royal Library in Paris. “At the suggestion of Master Maigret, Royal Ambassador to the Swiss, an exposition of the Christian Faith was written by Zwingli in the month of July, 1531. It was published by Bullinger in the month of February, 1536.”
Because Zwingli in this pamphlet counted among the saints in heaven even heathen of noble character and called them blessed and holy, the pamphlet caused great offense to the theologians of his own time as well as to those of later times. Luther was among the most severe in branding this view as infamous, while few besides Bullinger and the Swiss Reformers praised it.
A copy of the “Exposition,” at one time belonging to the library of J. J. Breitinger, the distinguished antistes of Zurich, 1613-43, contains some additions, taken from an autograph ms. of Zwingli. These, noted at their proper places by Schuler and Schulthess, have been retained.
H. Bullinger, Zwingli’s successor, who after Zwingli’s death published the booklet in 1536, prefixed to it this prefatory note:
To the Pious Reader Greeting
Though that most faithful herald of the Gospel and most steadfast champion of Christian liberty, H. Zwingli, was clear, careful, and transparently plain in all he said, yet in this pamphlet he surpassed himself, as it were, and sang a sort of swan-song upon the true faith when near his death. He sets forth lucidly and briefly what true faith and pious religion are. He also makes answer to slanderers who defame the evangelical faith and preaching, and furnishes unto all Christian kings and princes a kind of complete defense of the true faith and religion. I was not willing to deprive you of so rich a treasure; do you receive in candid spirit what is offered with sincerely good purpose. The whole work has been copied from the autograph manuscript of the author himself. This I state, because the pamphlet comes out five years after its author’s death. It has all been faithfully copied. Farewell. Zurich, in the month of February, of the year 1536.]