Ulrich Zwingli
Ulrich Zwingli was one of the most instrumental magisterial Reformers of his day, being sometimes referred to as the great unknown of the Reformation. Swiss by birth, he quickly proved to possess a brilliant mind. He pursued learning with vigor and passion. He studied at some of the best institutions Europe had to offer. He was a humanist scholar by educational training, even being personally acquainted with Desiderius Erasmus, visiting him while he was in Basel. It was in Basel that Erasmus published the first Greek New Testament on the printing press. Zwingli was there and left with one of the first personal copies. He was so devoted to reading the Scripture in the original languages that he memorized all of the Apostle Paul's letters in Greek. He also made a personal copy by hand of most of the New Testament in Greek. He also became quite capable in Hebrew, a rare achievement in his day. It was his reading of Scripture that effected Reformation change in the churches he ministered to; first Einsiedeln and then Zurich. At Zurich, he would be the first Reformer to reject the Roman Catholic liturgy and preach the New Testament from the original, verse-by-verse, starting at Matthew. He soon fell under tremendous opposition. He self-published a document entitled Sixty-Seven Articles or Conclusions, in preparation for an official disputation with the Roman Catholic Church in Zurich. This document proved to be the earliest doctrinal creed of the Reformation. Those who debated with Zwingli could not contend with the document or his clarity and persuasive power to convince of truth from the authority of Scripture. Zwingli would eventually win the favor of the city of Zurich, to the point where they would rule in favor of abolishing all Roman Catholic liturgies and order that all churches in their region preach expositionally from the Scripture. Reformation was powerfully alive in Zurich, with refinements taking place in just about every detail of the church service and everyday life. Icons, statues, relics, and every man-based feature of the church was removed. Morals and ethics were changing. The city was going through a new birth. But the opposition did not come lightly. Not all of the cantons of Switzerland were in agreement with Zwingli and the Reformation. After years of disagreement and a few skirmishes, five Roman Catholic cantons finally came against Zurich with unexpected and unrelenting military force, crushing the ill prepared city. Zwingli was among the fatalities, as he remained faithful to fight for truth to the very end. He was a shepherd who cared for God's flock entrusted to his oversight, even if it meant taking up arms in defense of the lives of their families. Zwingli died on the battlefield at forty-seven years old.
In time, he is often eclipsed by the great German reformer Martin Luther, an immediate contemporary. In place, he is often overshadowed by John Calvin, the great French reformer and systematizer of reformed theology ministering chiefly from Geneva, Switzerland. The enormous contribution and immense influence of Luther and Calvin need not be weakened in order to appreciate the substantial and unique contributions of Zwingli—the profundity of God's providential work through these men is not mutually exclusive between them.
From Wildhaus to Glarus
Ulrich (or Huldrych) Zwingli was born on January 1, 1484, a few weeks after Luther, in the mountain village of Wildhaus in the Toggenburg. His father was a shepherd and the village bailiff, and his mother taught her children the stories of the Bible.1 He studied at Basel, at Bern under the classical scholar Heinrich Wölflin, and at Vienna, and took his master’s degree at Basel in 1506. There Thomas Wyttenbach “instilled into his pupil that system of evangelical truth which he afterwards developed and defended.”2 Zwingli later credited Wyttenbach with turning him against indulgences.3
In 1506 he was ordained and became parish priest of Glarus, where he served for ten years and read widely.2 He went with the soldiers of Glarus into Italy as their chaplain and saw the slaughter of the Swiss at Marignano in 1515.4 In these years the writings of Erasmus worked on him. A poem in which Christ complains that men do not seek all good from Him struck him to the heart. “All!” he repeated. “Christ is our only treasure.”5
Einsiedeln and Zurich
In 1516 he moved to Einsiedeln, a shrine of the Virgin visited by thousands of pilgrims each year, and there he began to preach against the folly of pilgrimages.2 When Zurich called him to be people’s priest at the Great Minster, he told the canons plainly what he meant to do:2
The life of Jesus has been too long hidden from the people. I will preach on the whole gospel of St. Matthew, chapter by chapter, following the mind of the Holy Spirit, drawing only at the well-springs of Scripture.6 Ulrich Zwinglito the chapter of Zurich, on accepting his call
He began on January 1, 1519, his thirty-fifth birthday.7 “It is to Christ,” he told the people, “that I wish to conduct you; to Christ, the true source of salvation.” Some were troubled by the novelty, but many went home saying, “We never heard anything like this.”6 When a seller of indulgences approached Zurich, Zwingli preached against him and persuaded the council to keep him out of the city.2
In the summer of 1519 the plague broke out in Zurich and killed some 2,500 people in less than six months. Zwingli visited the sick daily until he was struck down himself in September and brought to the verge of the grave. In his sickness he wrote three hymns of submission to the will of God. The first, in an English version, begins:8
Lo! at my door / Gaunt death I spy, / Hear, Lord of life, / Thy creature’s cry.8 Ulrich Zwinglithe plague hymn, 1519
The Reformation of Zurich
In Lent 1522 some of his parishioners broke the fast by eating meat, and Zwingli, finding no warrant in Scripture for the ban, joined them and defended their liberty from the pulpit.7 Challenged by the bishop’s party, he asked the council for a public hearing. It met on January 29, 1523, and he came prepared with sixty-seven articles. The first declared: “All those ... who maintain that the Gospel is nothing without the confirmation of the Church, blaspheme God.”9 The council ruled that he should continue his preaching as before.7 The full text is on our page, The Sixty-Seven Articles. The images remained in the churches until June 1524, and the Mass was not abolished until Holy Week of 1525, for Zwingli would wait for the Word to do its work rather than force the pace.10
He married Anna Reinhard, a widow of Zurich, though at first he kept the marriage private, a delay Merle d’Aubigné calls “a culpable weakness.” He spoke of marriage as “a most holy alliance”: “As Christ ... died for his people, and gave himself to them entirely, so ought husband and wife to do and suffer every thing for each other.”11
Marburg
In October 1529 Philip of Hesse brought Zwingli and Luther together at Marburg, hoping to unite the Protestants against the emperor. They agreed on fourteen of fifteen articles and parted on the fifteenth, the Lord’s Supper.7 Luther chalked Hoc est corpus meum, “This is my body,” on the table before him and would not move from the words. When the Swiss asked to be owned as brethren, the Wittenberg men answered, “You do not belong to the communion of the Christian Church: we cannot acknowledge you as brethren!” Yet at last both sides shook hands, and the articles they held in common were signed and printed.12
Kappel
The Catholic cantons of central Switzerland would not tolerate a Reformed Zurich. After an uneasy peace, their army marched on Zurich and fell on its troops at Kappel on October 11, 1531. Zwingli rode with them as chaplain. Stooping to comfort a dying man, he was struck down, rose, and was struck down again. Merle d’Aubigné records his last words:13, 2
They can indeed kill the body, but they cannot kill the soul!13 Ulrich Zwinglion the field of Kappel, October 11, 1531
Found alive after the battle and refusing a priest, he was killed by a soldier of the victors. A boulder marks the place where he fell.2 He was forty-seven. His young friend Heinrich Bullinger succeeded him as chief pastor of Zurich and held the office for more than forty years.14
Cautions
Zwingli defended the baptism of infants and tried to refute the Anabaptists of Zurich from Scripture. Under a law of 1526 the council had Felix Manz drowned in January 1527, a dark chapter told on our page on the leaders of the Radical Reformation.15 Timothy George also notes that Zwingli speculated that some “pious heathen,” such as Socrates, were among God’s elect, a view that troubled Luther and that Calvin did not share.16 His death in armor at Kappel, though a pastor’s death among his people, has always raised questions about the mingling of sword and pulpit.
Major contributions include:
- Biblical exegesis and expository preaching
- A high view of Holy Scripture (sola scriptura)
- A high view of God as specifically sovereign
- A high view of and a vastly accentuated dependence on the Holy Spirit
- Centrality of Christ in the church (solus Christus)
- Emphasis on the Gospel in all ministry (sola gratia)
- Pastoral ministry and compassionate care for God's people
- Memorial view of the Lord's Supper
- Beginnings of believer's baptism
- Eradication of religious superstition
- First to publish a Reformation creed
Ulrich (or Huldrych) Zwingli possessed a number of qualities and convictions that were distinct from Luther, sometimes even going beyond what Luther had contributed. Zwingli unfortunately often takes a backseat to Luther and Calvin, when indeed Zwingli was a pioneer and first-rate contributor in several ways. One historian states, "The true father of Reformed Protestant theology is Ulrich Zwingli" (Olson, 399).
