Ulrich Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation

Ulrich Zwingli led the Swiss Reformation in Zurich in the early sixteenth century. Like many of the other reformers, Zwingli was a harsh critic of the abuses in the church. While Calvinism, discussed in previous articles, dates to the later part of the sixteenth century, Zwingli and Luther were near contemporaries, and should be seen as such.

Zwingli was from a wealthy, but not noble family. He had the opportunity to study in Basel and Vienna as a youth and was ordained as a priest in 1506. In 1516, he read Erasmus' Latin translation of the Greek New Testament, and began on the path to life as a reformer. In 1519, Zwingli was appointed priest at the cathedral in Zurich. In 1523, the city-state of Zurich became officially protestant. By 1524, Zwingli had officially broken with the church, an action marked by his marriage. Zwingli and the reformation were openly accepted in Zurich, and Zwingli served as not only a religious leader, but a civic and political one as well.

Zwingli, like many of the other reformers, stressed the primacy of scripture, and particularly the importance of personal biblical study. While Luther forbade only that which the Bible forbade, Zwingli forbade all practices not specifically ordained or allowed by the bible. This was the fundamental foundation of Zwingli's theology, and one that has remained an important basis for many protestant sects even today. Zwingli condemned not only indulgences, but Lenten fasting as unchristian.

How has Zwingli's theology influenced modern Christianity? The modern world is familiar with Christian sects that adhere to a literal rather than allegorical reading of both the Old and New Testaments. The literal interpretation of scripture has its origins in Zwinglian theology. Also, while both Luther and the Catholic church believed in transsubstantiation, the changing of the bread and wine of communion into the body and blood of Christ; Zwingli believed that the bread and wine only symbolized and remembered Christ's sacrifice. Transsubstantiation did not occur.

While both Luther and the Catholic church saw Christ as both divine and human, Zwingli and many later Protestants defined Christ as purely divine. The differences in theology between Luther and Zwingli led to not only religious differences, but political ones as well.

The two men met, and Luther thought Zwingli a fanatic. Zwingli thought Luther Catholic. Zwingli perhaps understood what Luther did not. There would be no reconciliation of Protestantism and Catholicism. There would be no reunion of the church.

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