Reply of Huldreich Zwingli to Jerome Emser Defender of the Canon of the Mass
(August 20, 1524)
[The first edition, printed by Froschauer, has the title: ADVERSVS HIE RONYMVM EMSERVM CANONIS missae adsertorem Huldrychi Zuinglij Antibo- lon. Then a woodcut: Christ, standing, with a crown of thorns and halo. Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis & onerati estis, & ego requiem uobis praestabo. Matth. 11. TIGVRO AEDIBVS CHRIS-TOPHORI Froschouer Anno M.D.XXIIII. Mense Augusto. —44 unnumbered quarto pages. Signed at the end of the address to Emser: Vale ez Tiguro, etc. MDXXIIII. XIII. Kalendas Septembris. A copy is in the library of Union Theological Seminary, New York.
Printed in Opera Zwinglii, tom. I, fol. 192a-201b; Schuler and Schultess ed., vol. III, pp. 121-144; Egli-Finsler ed., vol. III, pp. 241-287.
A German edition, translated by Leo Jud and printed by Froschauer in 1525, has the title: Ein gegenwurff und widerweer Hulderych Zuinglins, wider Hieronymum Emser des Canons in der Mass beschirmer. At the end, on p. 66; Getrucht zu Zürich durch Christophorum Froschouer, im jar M.D.XXV. 68 unnumbered pages. Another German edition, of which the translator, printer, and place of publication are unknown, has the title: Huldrichen Zwinglens antwort wider Hieronimum Emser den schutzherren des Canons oder Stillmess… M.D.XXV.
The following English translation was made by George W. Gilmore. It has been revised by the editor.] NOT far were you, most nimble Emser (for wild goats should be more nimble than stags), from tearing me away from the very clear light of the celestial word and bringing me over to the side of the Roman Pontiff by that threatening pamphlet of yours against my confutation of the Canon of the Mass which I thrust forth rather than published. It is so grandiloquent that no one can understand its difficult periods unless he descends into a well; so fortified with things more
[Cf. p. 345. TEmser’s Canonis missae contra Huldricum Zuinglium defensio. iZwingli’s De canone missae Huldrychi Zuinglii Epichiresis.]
solid than the Scriptures, namely, legends of the saints and trifles more foolish than old wives’ tales, that no one can take it by storm unless he is well equipped with gourds, pumpkins, and rotten cabbage. Besides, the snares which you cleverly spread, because of their unexpectedness, terrify me more than their real importance warrants; for you did not, as a Christian especially ought, give any warning; you sent no herald with a demand for satisfaction; and you attacked suddenly, not in front but from the rear, one who suspected no such thing; nor did you engage at close quarters, so that at least the clash of arms might give notice of an enemy’s presence, but you skirmished in quite remote parts. Consequently, not even a rumor of the wrathful ibex who was rashly laying everything waste could have reached me, if it had not by mere chance happened that George Vadian, a man of marked piety and culture, was journeying on certain business in the parts where you were tearing around. While he was at first not a little disturbed by the strangeness of your conduct, yet, having obtained one of your pamphlets—a prisoner, as it were, from your army—he promptly transmitted it to me, and I have treated it a little more kindly than you treated mine. For I did not make a sudden attack upon it, but, though it spoke not courteously, I listened to it courteously, waiting meantime to see whether you would yourself say anything. But now four months have passed without my hearing from you; and so, out of pity for the prisoner I have decided to free it from its long period of distress by sending it back to you, though in a manner far different from that in which I received it; for I send along a companion that will show how well that booklet of yours has been treated by me, and that will do it lovingly and benignly. It will not threaten with scourges or tyrants or crosses, as yours boastfully did; for it is well aware that a disciple of Christ ought to be so equipped as to prefer to experience those things rather than to threaten them, and that this is a battle not of armed men or of lictors, but of truth and piety, which have ever been so hated by the children of this world that they have never put forth their heads without peril to themselves. However, I am using “peril” from your point of view, according to which you think it hurtful if punishment befalls the pious; for unless you
thought so you would not threaten it in such a haughty manner. And yet those who not only have not listened to the truth but have busily endeavored to exterminate it with the greatest ignominy may find that they have at length caused themselves damage. Nor, again, will this booklet of mine for any light cause cry out, speak evil, and revile; indeed it will not be able to, since yours has used up all the shades of evilspeaking and refinements of reviling, so that, now that you have left none of these unused, it is forced willy nilly to abstain from them, lest it resemble yours. The one and only benefit I have derived from your booklet is this: that, since you have raved so unseasonably and so tastelessly, I, seeing how little this becomes you, pursue another course. For what, pray, would be the result if to all your revilings I should retort with revilings? Would not the book deserve to be called a rhapsody of revilings? though I could truthfully do it, whereas you do it not truthfully. But why should I rake up the base charges, rather than odes, that you once spewed out against the Swiss? At the time, you narrowly escaped (for I myself was present then, though hardly more than a boy) being compelled to eat your very shameless words—words that besides were rude, impure, and wicked. Why should I mention the whoredoms and adulteries that not seldom compelled you to change your place of residence? Why should I upbraid you for the vain, frivolous, gross things said so impudently, imprudently, and mendaciously in your pamphlet? Why speak of the obstinacy, stupidity, ignorance, malicious dissimulation, carelessness, fury, impiousness, and quarrelsomeness, to say nothing of the deceit, distortions, and such like artifices? Here are instances of such things: You assume the role of a David and go forth against the uncircumcised one, even though you suffer from gout. Wild goat that you are, you brandish your horns against one who has seen so many of those animals that he does not fear their look at all. You attempt to prove something by the rules of the Chanceryt, and you tell a pretty tale about the missals See Introduction, p. 345-346.