Account by Huldreich Zwingli of the engagements between the French and the Swiss hard by Ravenna and Pavia and in other places, and of the Convention at Baden in Switzerland, in the year 1512
(Autumn 1512)
[[De gestis inter Gallos et Helvetios ad Ravennam, Papiam aliisque locis,]
[et conventu apud Thermas Helveticas anno 1512 relatio Udalrici Zwinglii.]
[Autumn 1512. In Schuler and Schulthess ed.,iv., 167-72. In Egli and Fins-]
[ler ed.,i., 30-7. Translated by Mr. Henry Preble. The Baden alluded to was]
[in Canton Aagau, and only 14 miles north of Zurich.]
[The ‘““Account’” was sent in October 1512 to Joachim Watt, then in]
[Vienna, by the hand of Zwingli’s brother James, who was about to enter the]
[Scotch monastery there (it was so called because founded by the Irish monks]
[who came to the Continent under Columbanus in the sixth century). The]
[” Account” was one of those exhibitions of Latin composition made by Human-]
[ists for their scholarly friends. “They were often declared by their authors to]
[be poor affairs and written at great haste, so that their faults must be forgiven]
[—whereas they may have spent much time in elaborating them and were the]
[best they could do. This particular ” Account” was derived from such reports]
[as had come in Zwingli’s way, especially from parishioners who had come back]
[from the war. The Swiss had been the allies of the Pope. Opposed as]
[Zwingli was to the mercenary service, and to war in general, he thought at that]
[time that it was even commendable to aid the Pope. He changed his mind]
[later. In 1513 and 1515 he was in Italy as chaplain of the Glarus contingent.]
[Immediately preceding the ”Account” in the editions is the following]
[letter to Vadian, written because he had not acknowledged it:]
[Huldreich Zwingli to Joachim Watt, the philosopher, greeting:]
[Icould not have wondered enough at the tardiness of your writing, my dear]
[Joachim, if I had not known the interruptions to which you are subject and]
[the press of business under which you labour. For my affection for you is of]
[such a character that it thirsts for as many letters from you as the Danube]
[has drops of water; and if they are not forthcoming it pants continually as with]
a burning fever. I have sent to you a certain report [the “ Account] roughly drawn up and hastily written, which you will make allowance for as you know I wish. For you know that I belong to that kind of men whom you destroy if you do not make allowance for them. For poor and worthless trifles are set down at their first suggestion and with no polishing, just as they fall.
I beseech you to be as kind to my brother [James] and to the other, Valentin [Tschudi], as you can, if they are with you. Another one also is sent, Ludwig Roesch, by his brother, pastor of the parish of Wye [St. Gallen], [he is] the grandson by his daughter of my little old chaplain; and he is commended to your sound judgment. Whatever kindness you do him you shall receive a return for; it shall not be in vain.
If you wish to know what news there is with us, there is a good deal going on, but all is uncertain. Every day we receive messengers from the Pope or Casar [the Emperor], the Milanese, the Venetians, the Savoyards, and the French, and send others to them. I will attempt to write you these in such good shape (if I only can) as not to greatly disgust you, I trust, although my workshop brings forth nothing except what belongs to the moment.
I am applying my ignorant self to the study of Greek and Latin. So take good care that your toil and labour do not come to naught. What is to be taken in hand after the ‘Introduction” of Chrysoloras [so he calls, as was usual, the ’ Erotemata,’’ 1. e., interrogatives, which was the first Greek grammar in use in the West, and whose earliest edition appeared in Venicein 1484. The author lived c. 1355-1415] is done? I do not know who has stirred me up to the study of Greek unless it is God; for I do not do it on account of glory, for which I do not look, but solely for the sake of sacred literature. I commemorate Arbogastus [Strubius] with my little praises without conceit. If the laurel pinches the hair, soften it with a laurel cake, 1. e., a trifle (try something easier in the same line), for Henry Loreti of Glarus has been crowned with the poet’s wreath by the Emperor [Maximilian] at Cologne.
From our house, Feb. 23, 1513.] Since the defamation of our Brothers-in-arms’ is constantly flying abroad on swift wing, and since that which the event itself stamps with approval as rightly and justly done is undergoing most unfair distortion through the slanderous words of wrangling detractors, I have determined to sketch for you with laconic brevity and thus all the more vigorously the true position of our commonwealth. Let me pass by, therefore, the terms under which a treaty was entered upon and concluded between the Most Blessed Vicar of Christ, Julius Second, and our allied forces; I call them Brothers-in-arms and Allies all the more gladly because it is reported that some fool or worthless wretch (a Pytha- The Swiss.