Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531)

Although of peasant stock, Huldrych Zwingli's family was well off, and he received a first-rate education, culminating in a master's degree at the University of Basel in 1506. In that year he became parish priest in Glarus, where his pastoral duties led him to question the sending of Swiss youth as show more mercenary soldiers to Italy. Despite his doubts, he served as chaplain to the Glarus contingent of the pope's armies in 1513 and 1515 and earned a papal pension for his good work. Because he was in the good graces of Rome, his earliest movements for reform were not opposed by the church. He pursued his interests in classical studies and music, corresponded with the famous humanist Erasmus, and by 1516---a year before Martin Luther wrote his Ninety-five Theses against the traffic in Indulgences---had probably reached what came to be Protestant convictions about the role of Scripture and justification by faith. After serving for two years as pastor in Einsiedeln, he was called to the office of people's priest at the Great Minster in Zurich, although some objected to his passion for music, and others to his passion for a young girl he was said to have seduced (and probably had). In 1520, his reforming views having become stronger, he persuaded the city council to back him in a move requiring scriptural support for all the affairs of the church. Since the Bible does not explicitly require celibacy for church leaders, Zwingli was free to marry, which he did in 1524. As it became clearer that Zwingli, like Luther, was breaking with Rome, opposition to him began to harden. On the one hand, some former supporters now wanted more radical reformation: they wished to sever connections between church and state and insisted on believers' baptism. After many debates, a number of such opponents were arrested and one even put to death, ironically, by drowning. On the other hand were those Swiss cantons that wanted to remain Roman Catholic. Their opposition led to military conflict, and Zwingli, once more acting as chaplain, was killed during an intercantonal battle at Kappel in 1531. He was succeeded as pastor by his son-in-law Heinrich Bullinger, whose writings probably had a much greater influence on the subsequent progress of the Reformation, especially on its Reformed side. In 1529, two years before his death, Zwingli had met at Marburg with Luther and other reformers in an attempt to mend their differences. Only the question of the Eucharist proved beyond agreement. Luther insisted that the risen Jesus gives his flesh to those who receive Communion, taking the words "This is my body" with a literalism that Zwingli, ever the rational humanist, could not accept. The break was unmendable. (Bowker Author Biography) show less