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.
gorean ferule ought to be laid upon him for his early ripe impertinence in thus venturing to wag his tongue) has stated that we should more strictly be denominated traitors and conspirators than allied forces. I might throw a morsel to this snarling cur and, since he is pleased to draw inferences from the individual to the general and universal, I might say: “ Does it follow that because a certain man has shown himself the assassin of his mother country, all his townsmen are or ought to be called matricides?” Could anything more ridiculous be said? But be it enough to show how the King of the French” (who, having laid siege to the Church of Christ, has been most incontinently flattered all this while with the honorary title ’ Most Christian”) has worried and subdued the Venetians in a protracted war of many battles, and those no child’s play either; how he has ravaged or taken away their cities, and has crowned his reckless insolence by engaging in hot encounter with the Most Blessed Head of Christendom, setting up an antipope at the instance of the Devil, as they say, and taking away Bologna, that mother of learning and nurse of pontifical law, as well as various other noble cities. Last Easter His Most Excellent Majesty, the King of Spain? (whom they now style “Most Christian King”, seeing that the bark of St. Peter was being tossed by the waves to the danger point, took pity upon the Church to such a degree that he hurriedly got together the best army he could and sent it forthwith to reinforce the troops of the Pope, which were still tarrying in the middle of Italy as during their winter quarters. This force—such is the delight as well as the skill of the race in war—made straight for Ravenna. When the lord of the French discovered this, he immediately gathered together the great forces that he had in the field against the Spaniards and their allies, the Venetians, and sent them to Ravenna. As soon as the
[Louis XII. his was a mistake. It is true, however, that a French ecclesiastical]
[council in 1510 resolved to refuse obedience to the Pope.? Ferdinand the Catholic.]
Spaniards got sight of them, they eagerly accepted battle and their courage was raised all the higher by the cunning of an engineer whose cleverness was worthy of Archimedes or Daedalus. He devised some light carts armed with scythes, and upon each of these he placed a small cannon, and they pushed these carts ahead of them by their hands or feet.
The French army was commanded by a Grand Master (a dignitary among the Lombards), who stationed the lancers [German mercenaries, Lanzknechts] in the van with the Swabians and Gascons next them, and flanked them with an imposing body of horsemen. He remained in the rear with the reserves.
The Spanish army was smaller than the Venetian, for they had been battered in many conflicts and few were left, but they were united with a force of brave young warriors. Made one army, the two numbered thirty thousand men. Pushing their cannon forward when the signal for battle was given, they touched them off and rained forth a shower of balls. Thereupon, as the enemy’s lancers hesitated, they say - the Grand Master cried out: “What are you waiting for? Are you put there to be imbedded with iron balls like a target? O that you were now that unflinching band of allies who at sight of the foe roar like savage lions and charge with a rush. Up, soldiers, up; refuse not victory, ye who have so long been wont to conquer and have not learned defeat! Rout the lines so often put to flight, break their ranks, give them swords and lances and javelins for their shot!” The rain of balls had now let up a little, and the Frenchmen began to advance on the double quick. The Spaniards lighted their rolling cannon and pushed them down with all their might into the midst of the enemy, inspiring the greatest terror in the lancers and hope of victory in themselves. Thus they came into close quarters so compactly and with such fire and valour that, though neither line yields, each 1s forced to stop frequently to take breath. Again and again they withdraw the wearied ranks and replace them with Gaston de Foix, Duke of Nemours and nephew of Louis XII.
new ones, and so, giving and taking wounds, accompany the sun from his rising to his going down.
Seeing how stubborn a fight it is to be, the Spaniards dash in so savagely that the contest becomes forthwith one of swords hand to hand where the battle is hottest. They maim and slash and butcher the Gascons and the cavalryfor of the lancers the larger part had already fallen, while a few had escaped by flight—till eight thousand men are slain. At this sight the Grand Master, raising his eyes to heaven, ground his teeth and cried: Either this day shall be my last or I will not suffer the Spaniards thus to win a bloodless victory.” Then, putting spurs to his horse and followed in a mass by the reserves, he charged so recklessly upon the foe that he was overwhelmed and fell fighting nobly. The rest, pitted against an enemy now thrown out of order and fearing nothing less than a fresh army, put him to flight and, winning the victory and the town, shut out the Spaniards and Venetians, who had gone forward some distance in their onslaught. Night put an end to the battle. Hannibal did not inspire the Romans and Italians with greater alarm after the disaster of Cannas, such were the lamentations on all sides at the French supremacy hanging over their heads, and such the prayers for mercy and help and comfort.
Accordingly the allied forces, contemplating the situation of the Mother of Christians, thought it would be a bad and dangerous precedent if they should allow the first best monarch to rage so far as to trample with impunity upon the common mother of the Faithful of Christ. With sudden zeal they began to hold meetings and determined to repair energetically the damaged affairs of Italy and the Church. THe Cardinal of Santa Potentiana [Matthias Schinner?]
[Matthias Schinner, here mentioned, was born in Mühlebach, in Upper]
[Valais, Switzerland, in 1456, educated at Zurich and Como and became bishop]
[of Sian (Sitten) in 1500. In 1509 Pope Julius II. appointed him legate in]
[Switzerland, and he induced the Swiss to send troops to the Pope. But he]
[subsequently lost their favour and was compelled to leave the country For]
[his services the Pope made him a cardinal in 1511. He belonged to the fight-]
(legate a latere) attended the conference and with entreaties and protestations urged them in the name of their compact to take the field at once. He had only money enough to give a pound to each soldier, yet, incredible as it seems, an army of twenty thousand of the choicest infantry was enrolled in six days and hastened under arms through the Tyrol, over the Adige (for passage had been granted by the Emperor, but secretly, because he was anxious to have the remainder of the agreement of Treves duly carried out), and past its bluffs and fortifications (they call them enclosures) to Verona, occupied as it was by the French and the lancers alike. The French abandoned the city before the Brothers-in-arms reached it. Thus the Emperor casually, yet in accordance with his purpose, paid the King of the French, through the flight of his men, the two hundred dollars—crowns they call them—which he had borrowed. Going in search of the enemy the army receives with great honour the Cardinal of Santa Potentiana (he is bishop of Sion), and there they take counsel, having learned what had befallen the army of the Venetians. Presently these arrive with seven hundred cuirassiers and nearly five hundred light-armed foot-soldiers. They were Rascians, a Venetian tribe, and at sight of our forces showed such joy that it was a sort of premonition of success. Onward they marched, therefore, to a river (its name I did not hear and so do not know it),’ across which could be seen a formidable French encampment. The banks, of different elevation, were joined by a bridge, and the farther bank, Valleggio by name, had three very strong towers at the head of the bridge filled
[ing parsons, even as the Pope did, for he led the Swiss in person in the battle]
[of Marignano in 1515, which was a bad defeat to the Swiss, and the Allies]
[against the French in 1521, which resulted in the defeat of the French. In]
[the early days of the Reformation he was on friendly footing with Luther and]
[Zwingli, but like so many other prelates who had yielded intellectual assent]
[to the theology of the Reformers, he could not bring himself to leave the Old]
[Church, and in course of time advocated violent measures to suppress the]
[Reformation. He died in Rome on September 30, 1522. It was the Mincio. 15 miles south-west of Verona.]
with armed men, while a neighboring height, strengthened by a solid and strongly garrisoned castle, still further secured the camp. There a shower of projectiles was kept up for some time from both sides until the cannon of the Venetians proved superior. The French were driven from the castle and towers and camp and our soldiers were supplied with an abundance of provisions.
Marching on from there they came to a place called Pontevico’ [French Pontevin] and found it occupied by the French. A castle in the middle of the stream is connected by a double bridge with the two banks. The storming of the place had been made difficult by the cutting down of the bridge on the side where the army was approaching. Thereupon (so vigorous for any kind of task is the youthful band of the Brothers-in-arms) they make a feint of swimming across in sight of the enemy and building a bridge under cover of the Venetian cannon. Then some of the best of them climb down the bank and, finding no one to prevent them, swim across, launch the enemy’s boats, and cross over the bridge thus extemporized. But the enemy had already fled and they caught only such as they reached with the cannon from afar. After this place I understand that another was captured, strong enough in men but not in courage. For, having an unjust cause, the French easily lost heart and furthermore had been deprived of the support “of the Germans.? They knew, too, with what sort of enemy they had to deal provided they should come down to battle. Seeing no chance to trust themselves safely to the open field anywhere, they shut themselves up in Pavia,^ to try what the chances of fate might bring, and began to collect there all the supplies possible. Then the most vigorously impetuous of the allied forces intercepted a great number of their fatted oxen and furnished the whole army with fresh
[19 miles south-south-west of Brescia. The Oglio. 3The Lanzknechts had been ordered by the Emperor Maximilian to]
[return home. 4+ On the Ticino, which joins the Po 314 miles south-south-east of Pavia.]
meat for many days. Huldreich von Sax, leader of the army of the Brothers-in-arms, a man as universally prudent as courageous, determined to lay siege to the city since to storm it seemed impracticable. They had already reached the bank of the Po when the French made a second attempt to prevent their crossing. But no obstacle is insurmountable to him who really works. I must describe here an episode which, though hard to believe, is still true as well as amusing. There were among the French eight hundred of the Lancers, survivors of the disaster of Ravenna. When some of our men swam across the Po to fix the first supports for a bridge on the farther bank, these Lancers rushed out to stop the undertaking. Meanwhile all the youthful band of Brothers-in-arms, being practised swimmers, runners, and jumpers, had thrown off their clothes and, clinging to their spears, were swimming naked across the Po, to engage with the foe, who seemed to be given them by God for constant practice in the art of war. For they always burst forth into a warlike laugh whenever they have to engage with the Lancers, - not because these are unwarlike and defeated without effort, but because they have much oftener defeated them than been defeated by them, and yet it is always part of that force that is sent to confront them. The Lancers took to their heels and got themselves back into the town, though they saw the shining whiteness of our bodies. Thus the Po was crossed without hindrance, and they made vigorous preparations to besiege the city. After a few days’ siege it was captured in the following manner. A few challenges indicate to their unsuspecting minds how things are likely to turn out. Six Frenchmen at once challenge four of the Brothers-in-arms and are slain, then two call out onepleasant news to hear—and that a man of Glarus. He, being used to hunting the wild beasts of the mountains, carried an arquebuse on his shoulder, and having made the battle equal by killing one of his antagonists with the bullet from his gun, attacked the other with his sword. Then, as Tt should be the Ticino, a branch of the Po.
they fought, another Brother came up and finished the almost conquered Frenchman. Then the French, losing confidence in their defences, their forces, and their courage, begin to meditate a retreat as soon as a fit opportunity offers, and see that it can be accomplished by means of the lancers. They address them in these words:
“You see, excellent fellow fighters, that either by chance or by the hand of fate, the fortune of our French arms is growing daily worse. Therefore we must take measures for our escape, since we cannot for victory. You see there is no hope left. You see nothing remains to us short of death save flight alone. Ah, how vigorously you have laboured in these days to have the palm of victory bestowed upon you! Add valour to your valour now, though the day be your last. Let us heavy-armed and light-armed infantry guard the way as long as the part of the city that looks towards the Mincio’ is free from the foe, that the means of getting out may not be cut off, and that we may all be restored to safety together. Be it enough for those who could not win to save their lives, 1n order (I use an expression of Demosthenes) to win another day. We leave all the engines of war in your hands, that none may think himself betrayed; for in them is our best hope of safety.”
The unsuspicious Lancers suffered the French to retire with whatever they chose, thinking that they would make good their words by their deeds, but they no sooner got across the Mincio’ than, plunging into full flight, they abandoned the Lancers. When the people of Pavia saw this, they began to promise a month’s pay to both the soldiers of the Venetian army and the Brothers-in-arms, on condition of not being plundered. Our soldiers were possessed with a desire to fight with the Lancers, and some of them got thereby all they wanted. The cannon had been posted in the zoólogical garden outside the city. A hundred men from the differ- It should be the Ticino,
ent divisions were detailed to watch these, and it was not yet noon when the women and old men, whom the Lancers had not viewed with the least suspicion, began to slip out first. They set up ladders against the walls and signalled to our soldiers to enter. The hundred who had been set to guard the cannon run up rashly enough, mount the ladders with a few others, leap the walls, and form themselves in line within the city unknown to the whole army, for eagerness for battle kept every one busier fighting than spreading news. Thereupon they would have all been cut down to a man had not the chance to fight been taken from the Lancers as well as from themselves by the very narrowness of the streets. They had their cannon, while the invaders had nothing but the weapons in their hands and their fiery courage, and they were often forced to dodge into some corner as the balls went flying about. They devote their special energies to capturing some piece of ordnance. Presently they succeed in turning about two, all ready to light, and, firing them into the enemy, drive them back more and more. Then some one scaled the wall and cried out: Victory! The city is ours!” But the army refused to believe the soldier, and forbade approaching nearer the wall. ”The day was lost,” they said; “they were not aware there were any friends in the city.” At length some, shaken by the stentorian uproar, mount the walls and crushing forward the vainly resisting Lancers drive them into the river. Only fifty of the eight hundred were taken alive. Meanwhile the Brothers-in-arms are let in through the gates. The Venetian cavalry dash swiftly ahead to see if they can come up with any stragglers among the retreating foe, but catch very few. Then a shout was raised in the whole town, proclaiming Julius and the Swiss victorious. The castle still held out, but was taken two days later and with it eight heavy cannon, ten long ones (so-called Dragons) and ten field-pieces, some of which had belonged to the Venetians. When they saw them they embraced them, wet them with their tears, and kissed the image of St.
Mark, so much to heart had they taken their long-suffered disgrace. The remaining cities that had not surrendered, sent envoys and surrendered themselves into the power of the Cardinal and the Allies. Meanwhile the Spaniards took Genua by storm, and Asti begged suppliantly for peace, and surrendered to the Holy Alliance. Thus, freed by the Brothers-in-arms, all Italy, both the Ligurian coast and Lombardy, proclaimed that they owed as much to the allies as Greece set free once owed to Titus Quinctius. All through the cities and towns and country trumpets were sounded, bells were rung, teachers, monks, and orators mounted the platform to publish the Allies as God’s People to punish the enemies of the Bride of the Crucified Lord. The nobles flock together from all sides to see the victorious army, and send gifts of wine and grain, and all the world shows great gratitude with dancing and merry-making. The victorious army remained several days at Pavia and put to rest an insurrection that had begun to raise its head. I refrain from describing it since it ended thus quietly. Then envoys were sent from both sides to settle the affairs ofthe Milanese. Three hundred of the Florentines who were with the French obtained from the Cardinal and Huldreich von Sax permission to depart unmolested after the French had disappeared in scattered flight over Mont Cenis, but afterwards, having got a glimmer of hope that they were going to renew hostilities, they turned to follow them in contravention of their oath, and were captured by the Venetians, who were in friendly alliance with the region. Several strongholds are still occupied by the French garrisons, which it is hoped will be driven out in a few days, when they see that no confidence is to be placed in their monarch.
A convention was ordered to assemble at Baden,? the general municipal headquarters of the Allies. Here there came
[tI. e., Schinner. Flamininus, the conqueror of Philip of Macedon in the second Mace-]
[donian War, 197 B. C., and “‘the liberator of the Greeks.” 3 In August-September, 1512.]
together the envoys of His Holiness the Pope, Julius II., the Emperor, the Cardinal of Santa Potentiana [Schinner] (Delegate a latere), the King of Spain, the King of the French (but that was kept secret), the Duke of Savoy, the Duke of Lorraine, the Venetians, and the Milanese, each with their special demands. There you might see the caution and cunning of mankind, how some twine one thing into another and get at their object indirectly, others say the opposite of what they mean, because the earlier words of another lord seem likely to hinder them from blocking him off. ‘The Emperor himself caused the greatest confusion of all, for when it had been agreed upon in secret that Maximilian, the son of the banished Duke Louis Sforza, should be restored to the throne, he declared, to the great astonishment of everybody, that Lombardy, as an imperial province, ought not to receive a ruler from any one but the Empire. “This the Allies took very ill, declaring that the Emperor had promised to send cavalry but had kept only the letter of his promise; the brunt of the war had been borne by themselves and the Pope and the Venetians. The Emperor now wanted to swallow up what he had contributed nothing to win. “These controversies did not, however, degenerate into conflict. Another delegation arrived from the Holy Father Julius and the Cardinals, saying that the Brothers-in-arms had been included in the book of Rescuers of the Church.” His Holiness was grateful and would grant whatever they wanted. The majority, nay all, ask for the right to carry on their banners the picture of the Crucifixion; the Men of Glarus, the picture of the Resurrection. In final assembly it was decreed that Maximilian, son of Louis, be restored to his father’s throne, etc.
I should have written more (for this is not a hundredth part of the whole), beloved Joachim, had not urgent matters called me to other things. I hope you will read in
[Α reference to the papal Bull Ets? Romani in which the Swiss are called]
[“Rescuers of the Church.” A German translation of the Bull is in W.]
[Oechsli, Quellenbuch zur Schweizer-Geschichle, i., 259 sq., and of the Account,]
[here given, pp. 255-259.]
← 4. I B. The Fabulous Poem of the Priest · Contents · 6. III. The Missing Dialogues →