Zwingli is not a well-known figure like Martin Luther
in the Reformation narrative. Yet he is an important person and the leader of
the Reformation in Switzerland, who gave up his life fighting the Catholic
church. It is interesting to know that Swiss Reform was born with the “Affair
of the Sausages,” that happened in Zurich, on March 9, 1522. The Catholic
church had proclaimed a 40-day period of penitence, and spiritual discipline,
in view of the Lenten period. The people were to get busy with prayers,
moderate their consumption of alcohol and avoid eating meat. At the printer’s
workshop some rebels gathered including Zwingli, a priest, and on Ash
Wednesday, at the start of the Lent, they broke the rules by eating sweet
pastries and Swiss smoked sausages. Though Zwingli did not eat the sausages, he
was very much a part of this rebel gang. This affair exploded into a
full-fledged rebellion against the wrong doings of the Catholic church.
Born in a respectable family, in January 1484, at
Wildhaus in Switzerland, Zwingli grew up in comfort, raised to be respectable
and a reputable member of society. He and his siblings helped the family in
farm work, and also in cooking, cleaning and herding cattle. He grew up to love
the country side and nature. Observing his intellect and keen interest in
studies, his father sent him to his uncle, and then to Bartholomew’s school in
Wesen for further studies. He was taught Latin, reading, writing and simple
arithmetic. On his 10th birthday, he was sent to Basel for his
secondary education. There he took to debates and excelled in it. He continued
his secondary education in Berne, where he was taught classical literature. He
started to compose poems.
With his ability as a speaker and writer, excelling in
music and poetry, the Dominican monks eyed him and wanted to recruit him to
their order, to gain prestige and also to earn more revenue to their order. But
his father would hear nothing of this and removed his son from Berne and admitted
him to University of Vienna to study Philosophy, along with astronomy, and physics.
But midway, he left Vienna and entered the University of Basel in 1502, taking
literature and humanism. He went on to pursue his Master’s in scholastic
theology. He was 20 years old and was something of a miracle-boy, well versed
in many musical instruments, and brought forth melodious music out of the
instruments. People thronged to listen to him.
In 1506 he
obtained his master’s degree and was ordained as a priest and started to
preach. He served in the city Glarus for ten years. Gradually Zwingli realized
that the church was distorting the message of the Scripture and recognized the deficiencies
of the Catholic clerics. He started to reeducate the people and preserve the
sanctity of the Scriptures in all earnestness. His rhetorical skills attracted the
people. He was not happy with the practice of recruiting soldiers to serve as
mercenaries to fight foreign armies, a practice in existence since 13th
century and almost 12% of Swiss population were employed as mercenaries. However,
since he sided the Pope Julis II in the war against French, he was rewarded and
appointed as a military chaplain in 1513 with a hefty pension. He was
dispatched to the battlegrounds in Italy during the Battle of Novara in 1513
and the Battle of Marigano in 1515, but the Swiss lost to France. He was
appalled by the killings and death and the savagery of war all around him. He
left his post and went to Einsiedelm in 1516.
Zwingli
started to oppose the mercenary system. But he was also involved in a few
sexual scandals of his own. Keeping concubines and having affairs with women
was common among the Catholic clergy in those days. Between 1516 and 1518 he
devoted to the scrutiny and analysis of the Bible. He educated himself in
Hebrew and Greek so that he could read Bible in the original languages. He also
listed out a detailed list of the Church’s failings and abuses. Around 1516 he
met with Erasmus, the famous Dutch Humanist, and Catholic theologian and the
mutual admiration was inevitable. They corresponded for years, but later on Erasmus
got uncomfortable with Zwingli’s radical views.
By 1518
Zwingli had become a celebrity and was posted to the prestigious post of
People’s Priest at Zurich on 1.1.1519; he was just 35. His superiors suggested
to him to earn more money for the church and also to coax the congregation to
pay their rent and tithes to show their love for Church. That was their chief
motive in appointing such an eloquent preacher to the post! Once Zwingli
realized it, he put even more efforts to teach his congregation every book of
the New Testament. He taught them from the Bible and not on random biblical
passages.
He was very
methodical in his daily routines. Till 10 am he gave himself to reading,
critical study and writing. Till lunch time, he listened to people and
counselled. He walked and talked with his friends in the evenings. Then he
resumed to his studies. After supper, he took a short walk and wrote letters
until midnight. He had a great rapport with his audiences and the common
people. He visited market places and invariably people gathered around him and
he gave impromptu sermons for their benefit. He was becoming extremely popular.
In 1519 he worked
among his parish people serving them in the Black Death that afflicted them. He
himself became sick and was at his death bed, but was miraculously healed and
restored. He started to preach with renewed vigor, this time exposing the
wrongs of the clergy, even bishops, naming them and accusing them from the
pulpit. He denied the existence of purgatory, the practice of ex-communication,
the mandatory tithes, sale of indulgences, lavish gifts, and monetary
donations. He preached repentance, improvement of life, Christian love and
faith in Christ. He rebuked vices among people like idleness, excesses in drinking,
eating, gluttony, suppression of the poor, pensions and wars. In 1521 he was
appointed canon/priest of Grossmunster in Zurich, a coveted position, which he
used fully to propagate his views against the Catholic church and its
practices.
Two months
after the sausage affair, Zwingli preached that no where in the Bible it is
written that all Christians were to abstain from food and drink on any special occasion.
There were no food laws in Christianity. These were all man-made traditions. Not
that he was against fasting, taken as a religious practice by sincere believers,
but not on compulsion by church. Subsequently, Zurich abolished religious
pensions, conducting services in Latin and compulsory fasting. In 1522 in
violation of celibacy rules, he married a widow, who had three children and
together they had four more children. He was castigated by Catholics for such
heretical preaching and writings. He presented a defense of his views in a disputation
called, “First Zurich Disputation” in 1523, January, attended by 600 clerics. Zwingli
prepared “Sixty-Seven Articles,” upholding the truths of the Gospel and the
Scriptures. As a result, the Zurich Council permitted all priests to preach
nothing but what is written in the Scriptures.
Unfortunately,
some churches started to destroy and break all paintings and statues of saints
and martyrs, as objects of idol worship, even relics and musical instruments. Conservative
Catholics rose up in arms. Violence was in the air. A second disputation was
held in October, 1523, against icons and saintly worship. Once again Zwingli convinced
the council of his views. In 1524 purge of icons was enacted in Zurich and by
1525 pilgrimages and sale of indulgences were abolished, and also the sacraments
of penance and extreme unction (the anointing of the sick). Reforms moved very quickly
and Zwingli will not slow down. With the appropriation of the church tithes,
the city council was able to enact Poor Law to take care of the poor, widows
and the marginalized.
Zwingli, now
a paid official of the city council Zurich, was opposed also by Anabaptists or “Re-baptizers,”
who insisted that only adult Christians who had fully confessed were eligible
for sacraments. There was clash between the two groups and many Anabaptists
were arrested and executed. By 1525-1526, Catholics from five States within Switzerland,
joined together and challenged Zwingli. Disputations followed. The Five States partnered
with Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and a war broke out between these two
groups by 1529. A meeting was held between Martin Luther and Zwingli in October
1529 to join forces between the two reformer groups. But Luther refused to join
due to his different understanding of the Holy Communion. Luther held that the
presence of Christ was in the wafers and wine, the doctrine of “Transubstantiation,”
whereas Zwingli held that this sacrament was just a celebration and remembrance
of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
In 1531 war
broke out between Zwingli group and the Five Catholic States. In the war at Kappel,
on 11th October 1531, Zwingli was killed and his body mangled beyond recognition.
He was just 47 years old. He paid with his life for the truths he stood for.
Martin Luther, John Calvin and others had gained prominence in Reformation, but
no one can forget that Zwingli played an important role and worked tirelessly
to weed out corruption and abuses of the Catholic Church in Switzerland. His
role in reformation can never be forgotten nor overshadowed.
What a life! Do
we not need a second reformation to cleanse today’s church of corruption, nepotism
and deceit? Where are the reformers – in the Methodist church, in the CSI, in
the Wesleyan, the Protestant churches in general? Will the Lord raise someone
before His Second Coming to cleanse the church, or will He come first, punish
the evil-doers and establish His kingdom and rule with justice and equity? Let
us pray for the cleansing of our churches and the return of our Lord early. Let
His will be done, Amen.
