Timeless Christians

Zwingli, Ulrich

As a boy Ulrich Zwingli loved books and music, and so his family earmarked him for the church. Born January 1, 1484 at Wildhaus, Switzerland, he became a notable reformer.

One of his teachers during his school years was Dr. Thomas Wyttenbach. This man studied the New Testament and rejected old ways of study that relied too heavily on authority rather than on reason. Wyttenbach criticized Roman Catholic teaching regarding the sacraments, monastic vows, and papal indulgences--all things that Zwingli would fight in later life. Zwingli became a teacher.

Zwingli was twenty-two in 1506 when the bishop of Constance ordained him. For the next ten years he served as a priest in the church at Glarus. There he began the study of Greek that he might "learn the teaching of Christ from the original sources." He also read the Church Fathers and became known as "the undoubted Cicero of our age."

Glarus eventually became too hot for Zwingli. At that time, the Swiss hired their young men as mercenaries. Zwingli opposed this practice and argued against alliances with France. French sympathizers stirred up trouble for him. In 1516 Zwingli was glad to accept the post of people's priest at Einsiedeln.

In Einsiedeln he began to preach the Bible rather than the philosophy and theology of the Roman Church. The pope tried to shut him up by offering him important positions, but he saw the bait and rejected it; he was determined to follow the truth. Switzerland was democratic and he was more concerned to win the support of the city council than of Rome.

Zwingli's move away from the Roman church accelerated when he denounced Rome's politics of fighting wars with other Christians for political advantage. He had gone to Italy three times as an army chaplain and was horrified at the worldly character of the popes. He also began to attack the superstitious reverence of relics, and the pilgrimages people made to see them. He denounced indulgences. And instead of preaching in Latin, he preached in the language of the people.

In 1518 Zwingli competed for the place of people's priest at the great church of Zurich, and got it. He made the authorities promise he could preach the truth and they agreed. In January 1519 he began a series on Matthew, the Acts of the Apostles, and Paul's letters--beginning the Reformation in Zurich. Zwingli loved God's word so much that he made a copy of Paul's letters and memorized them. That September he almost died of the plague. When he recovered, he began to preach against the wrong kind of fasting, saint worship, and the celibacy of priests. In 1522 he produced the Architeles, "the beginning and the end," in which he sought to win his spiritual freedom from the control of bishops. In a sermon of that year he contended that only the Holy Spirit is needed to make the Word intelligible, and that there is no need of Church, council, or pope in the matter. These things led to run-ins with Catholic authorities.

Things reached such a point that in 1523 the pope asked Zurich to kick Zwingli out. Zwingli convinced them to allow a public debate. At it he presented 67 theses, and with his Bible knowledge and training convinced the city council to adopt his views. Zwingli believed firmly that it is the local congregation not bishops and popes, which should represent the church. Zwingli and others who held similar views convinced Bern to join the Reformation.

Zwingli did much else for the Reformation in Switzerland. This does not mean that he was always right. The darkest blot on his record was his severe persecution of the Anabaptists. He also urged the Protestants in Switzerland to attack the Catholics, with the result that the Protestants were badly mauled and he himself killed in the battle.

Nonetheless, Zwingli's love of God's word and his attempt to act on it in practical ways gave him a name that shines among the greatest in church history.

by Dan Graves