Ulrich Zwingli: The Swiss Reformer

 

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 10^th 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 due course, he was disappointed with the life style of the priests in the church, and that the sermons were given in Latin, which were not understood by the laity. In 1505 he met the brilliant professor Wyttenbach who urged the youngsters not to give up church, but to study for themselves the ancient doctrines of the Church as given in the Scriptures. Zwingli understood that Christ was the only mediator between God and man, and that the only hope of remission of sins is Christ’s atoning death on the cross.

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 13^th 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.