Page 14 - 08 Luther Before the Diet
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power  of  fanaticism  and  superstition  was


               being broken.



               The authorities of the church were not blind


               to          the           work              which              Zwingli                was


               accomplishing;  but  for  the  present  they


               forbore to interfere. Hoping yet to secure him


               to their cause, they endeavored to win him by



               flatteries;  and  meanwhile  the  truth  was


               gaining a hold upon the hearts of the people.



               Zwingli's  labors  at  Einsiedeln  had  prepared


               him for a wider field, and this he was soon to


               enter. After three years here he was called to


               the  office  of  preacher  in  the  cathedral  at


               Zurich.  This  was  then  the  most  important


               town  of  the  Swiss  confederacy,  and  the


               influence exerted here would be widely felt.


               The ecclesiastics by whose invitation he came


               to  Zurich  were,  however,  desirous  of


               preventing  any  innovations,  and  they
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