Huldrych Zwingli

Huldrych Zwingli (born January 1, 1484, Wildhaus in the Toggenburg, Sankt Gallen, Switzerland—died October 11, 1531, near Kappel) was the most important reformer in the Swiss Protestant Reformation. He founded the Swiss Reformed Church and was an important figure in the broader Reformed tradition. Like Martin Luther, he accepted the supreme authority of the Scriptures, but he applied it more rigorously and comprehensively to all doctrines and practices.

Early life and career

Zwingli was the son of a free peasant who was a village magistrate. His mother, Margaret Meili, was the sister of the abbot of Fischingen in Thurgau, and his uncle Bartholomäus Zwingli was priest of Wildhaus and later dean of Wesen. Huldrych went to school at Wesen, then Basel (1494), and Bern (1496), where his master, Heinrich Wölflin, inspired in him an enthusiasm for the classics and a love of music. The Dominicans were interested in his musical gifts and almost enticed him to enter a convent. But his father and uncle dissuaded him, and, instead, he moved on to university studies at Vienna (1498) and then Basel (1502), where he graduated in 1504.

Supported by teaching, he read theology and was deeply influenced by the lectures of the teacher and reformer Thomas Wyttenbach. Ordained to the priesthood, he went in 1506 to Glarus, where he proved a good pastor, encouraged education, commenced studying Greek and even Hebrew, and read widely in the Church Fathers. He was sympathetic toward the Renaissance movement and valued his correspondence with Erasmus. Service as chaplain with the Swiss Army led him to oppose the mercenary system. His stand provoked hostility at Glarus, and in 1516 he moved to a new charge at Einsiedeln, where he enjoyed both wide opportunities for preaching to the many pilgrims and fine facilities for study at the convent. Zwingli afterward dated his evangelical understanding of the Scriptures from the period of transition to Einsiedeln. The difficulties at Glarus gave to this development a more than academic significance.

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Beginnings of reformation

Zwingli at once began to preach his new convictions. Apart from topical criticism of abuses, he did not at first attack traditional positions, being content to expound the regular Gospel passages. A minor indulgence crisis arose in 1518, but Zwingli’s witty castigation of the abuse found ecclesiastical favour and, finally, a titular honour by the papacy, from which he also drew a chaplaincy pension.

In 1518, despite much opposition, he was appointed people’s priest at the Grossmünster (Great Minster) at Zürich. The post gave him little income or official influence but great scope for preaching. He commenced a series of expositions of the New Testament enlivened by topical application. Serious plague in 1519 found him faithful in his ministry, and his own illness and recovery, followed by his brother’s death in 1520, deepened the spiritual and theological elements in his thinking and teaching that had hitherto been overshadowed to some degree by the humanistic. In 1520 he secured permission from the city’s governing council to preach the “true divine scriptures,” and the resulting sermons helped to stir revolts against fasting and clerical celibacy that initiated the Swiss Reformation (1522). In pursuance of his view of the supremacy of Scripture, Zwingli preached his now famous sermons at the Oetenbach convent, and, despite local opposition to many of his ideas, he secured fresh authorization from his bishop to continue preaching. A tract On Meats and a printed version of the Oetenbach addresses, The Clarity and Certainty of the Word of God, appeared in 1522.

Victory of the Zürich Reformation

The year 1523 was crucial in the Zürich Reformation. In preparation for a disputation with the vicar general of Constance (Konstanz), arranged for January in the town hall of Zürich, Zwingli published his challenging 67 Artikel. His main contentions were adopted by most priests in the district and, in consequence, the celibacy of clergy came to be flouted, liturgical reform was begun, and a plan for the reform of the Grossmünster was drafted. A key part of this program was the reconstitution of the cathedral school as both a grammar school and a theological seminary to train Reformed pastors. The question of removing the images from the churches provoked a second disputation in October, in which Zwingli and his most intimate friend and fellow reformer Leo Jud carried the day. Successive steps taken during 1524 and 1525 included the removal of images, the suppression of organs, the dissolution of religious houses, the replacement of the mass by a simple Communion service, the reform of the baptismal office, the introduction of prophesyings or Bible readings, the reorganization of the ministry, and the preparation of a native version of the Bible (the Zürcher Bibel appeared in 1529). Zwingli fostered the movement not only by his preaching and influence on the council but also by his various writings—e.g., On Education, On Baptism, On the Lord’s Supper, and especially the comprehensive Commentary on True and False Religion (1525). He was publicly married to Anna Reinhard on April 2, 1524.