He was helped financially by a papal pension of fifty gulden per annum.
His first published work was a fable.

[Sidenote: 1510] The lion, the leopard, and the fox (the Emperor, France, and Venice) try to drive the ox {150} (Switzerland) out of his pasture, but are frustrated by the herdsman (the pope).

The same tendencies--papal, patriotic, and political--are shown in his second book, [Sidenote: 1512] an account of the relations between the Swiss and French, and in _The Labyrinth_, [Sidenote: 1516] an allegorical poem.

The various nations appear again as animals, but the hero, Theseus, is a patriot guided by the Ariadne thread of reason, while he is vanquishing the monsters of sin, shame, and vice.

Zwingli's natural interest in politics was nourished by his experiences as field chaplain of the Swiss forces at the battles of Novara [Sidenote: 1513] and Marignano.