Zwingli, Huldrych

born Jan. 1, 1484, Wildhaus in the Toggenburg, Sankt Gallen, Switz.

died Oct. 11, 1531, near Kappel

Major reformer in the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland.

Educated in Vienna and Basel, he was ordained a priest in 1506. An admirer of Erasmus, he began preaching reformist ideas in Zürich in 1518, shortly after Martin Luther made his break with the church in Rome, and became increasingly active in challenging the ritualism, decadence, and hierarchy of the Roman Catholic church. The main contentions of his 67 Articles (1523) were adopted by most priests in Zürich. As his movement spread, he rejected a number of the basic teachings of the church, declaring that Jesus alone is head of the church, that the mass is an affront to Christ, and that there is no biblical foundation for the intercession of the dead or for purgatory. He also rejected the notions of priestly celibacy, and his teachings on the sacrament of communion brought him into conflict with both Luther and the Catholic church. He was killed in a battle between Protestants and Catholics while serving as an army chaplain.

Zwingli, detail of an oil portrait by Hans Asper, 1531; in the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switz.

By courtesy of the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switz.; photograph, Schweizerisches Institut fur Kunstwissenschaft

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▪ Swiss religious leader

Introduction

Huldrych also spelled  Ulrich  

born Jan. 1, 1484, Wildhaus in the Toggenburg, Sankt Gallen, Switz.

died Oct. 11, 1531, near Kappel

 the most important reformer in the Swiss Protestant Reformation and the only major reformer of the 16th century whose movement did not evolve into a church. Like Martin Luther, he accepted the supreme authority of the Scriptures, but he applied it more rigorously and comprehensively to all doctrines and practices.

Early life and career.

      Zwingli was the son of a free peasant who was a village magistrate. His mother, Margaret Meili, was the sister of the abbot of Fischingen in Thurgau, and his uncle Bartholomäus Zwingli was priest of Wildhaus and later dean of Wesen. Huldrych went to school at Wesen, then Basel (1494), and Bern (1496), where his master, Heinrich Wölflin, inspired in him an enthusiasm for the classics and a love of music. The Dominicans were interested in his musical gifts and almost enticed him to enter a convent. But his father and uncle dissuaded him, and, instead, he moved on to university studies at Vienna (1498) and then Basel (1502), where he was graduated in 1504.

      Supported by teaching, he read theology and was deeply influenced by the lectures of the teacher and Reformer Thomas Wyttenbach. Ordained to the priesthood, he went, in 1506, to Glarus, where he proved a good pastor, encouraged education, commenced studying Greek and even Hebrew, and read widely in the Church Fathers. He was sympathetic toward the Renaissance movement and valued his correspondence with Erasmus. Service as chaplain with the Swiss Army led him to oppose the mercenary system. His stand provoked hostility at Glarus, and in 1516 he moved to a new charge at Einsiedeln, where he enjoyed both wide opportunities for preaching to the many pilgrims and fine facilities for study at the convent. Zwingli afterwards dated his evangelical understanding of the Scriptures from the period of transition to Einsiedeln. The difficulties at Glarus gave to this development a more than academic significance.

Beginnings of reformation.

      Zwingli at once began to preach his new convictions. Apart from topical criticism of abuses, he did not at first attack traditional positions, being content to expound the regular Gospel passages. A minor indulgence crisis arose in 1518, but Zwingli's witty castigation of the abuse found ecclesiastical favour and, finally, a titular honour by the papacy, from which he also drew a chaplaincy pension.

      In 1518, despite much opposition, he was appointed people's priest at the Grossmünster (Great Minster) at Zürich. The post gave him little income or official influence but great scope for preaching. He commenced a series of expositions of the New Testament enlivened by topical application. Serious plague in 1519 found him faithful in his ministry, and his own illness and recovery, followed by his brother's death in 1520, deepened the spiritual and theological elements in his thinking and teaching that had hitherto been overshadowed to some degree by the humanistic. In 1520 he secured permission from the city's governing council to preach the “true divine scriptures,” and the resulting sermons helped to stir revolts against fasting and clerical celibacy that initiated the Swiss Reformation (1522). In pursuance of his view of the supremacy of Scripture, Zwingli preached his now famous sermons at the Oetenbach convent and, despite local opposition to many of his ideas, he secured fresh authorization from his bishop to continue preaching. A tract On Meats and a printed version of the Oetenbach addresses, The Clarity and Certainty of the Word of God, appeared in 1522.

Victory of the Zürich Reformation.

      The year 1523 was crucial in the Zürich Reformation. In preparation for a disputation with the vicar general of Constance (Konstanz), arranged for January in the town hall of Zürich, Zwingli published his challenging 67 Artikel. His main contentions were adopted by most priests in the district and, in consequence, the celibacy of clergy came to be flouted, liturgical reform was begun, and a plan for the reform of the Grossmünster was drafted. A key part of this program was the reconstitution of the cathedral school as both a grammar school and a theological seminary to train Reformed pastors. The question of removing the images from the churches provoked a second disputation in October, in which Zwingli and his most intimate friend and fellow Reformer Leo Jud carried the day. Successive steps taken during 1524 and 1525 included the removal of images, the suppression of organs, the dissolution of religious houses, the replacement of the mass by a simple Communion service, the reform of the baptismal office, the introduction of prophesyings or Bible readings, the reorganization of the ministry, and the preparation of a native version of the Bible (the Zürcher Bibel appeared in 1529). Zwingli fostered the movement not only by his preaching and influence on the council but also by his various writings—e.g., On Education, On Baptism, On the Lord's Supper, and especially the comprehensive Commentary on True and False Religion (1525). He was publicly married to Anna Reinhard on April 2, 1524.

Zwingli's theses.

      From the city of Zürich the movement quickly spread not only to the canton of Zürich but to neighbouring cantons as well. Aided by the learned Roman Catholic theologian Johann Eck (Eck, Johann), the five forest cantons of Luzern, Zug, Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden resisted the new trend, but important centres like Basel and Bern declared for Zwingli. Zwingli himself, assisted by his fellow Swiss Reformer Heinrich Bullinger (Bullinger, Heinrich), took part in a disputation at Bern (1528) that formally introduced the principles of the Reformation to that city. The main theses he put forth were (1) that the church is born of the Word of God and has Christ alone as its head; (2) that its laws are binding only insofar as they agree with the Scripture; (3) that Christ alone is man's righteousness; (4) that the Holy Scripture does not teach Christ's corporeal presence in the bread and wine at the Lord's Supper; (5) that the mass is a gross affront to the sacrifice and death of Christ; (6) that there is no biblical foundation for the mediation or intercession of the dead, for purgatory, or for images and pictures; and (7) that marriage is lawful to all. With the friendly cantons of Basel and Bern, Zürich negotiated a Christian Civic Alliance (or League) based on the treaty by which Basel had been received into the Swiss confederacy but also including a common profession of faith.

Controversies.

      From 1525 Zwingli's work was hampered by disagreements, both within Switzerland and with the Lutherans outside. In Zürich itself an extremist group quickly became dissatisfied with the Zwinglian program, desiring the abolition of tithes, a severance of the state connection, the creation of a pure or gathered church of true believers (those who have experienced a conversion according to the moral beliefs and precepts of the New Testament), and the consequent ending of infant Baptism. Disputations were held with the leaders of the Anabaptist group in January and March 1525, but these were abortive. The first rebaptisms took place in February, and widespread propaganda was initiated. Seeing its authority flouted, the council imprisoned the leaders and finally, after a further useless disputation in November 1525, brought them under a capital sentence. In theological refutation of the movement, Zwingli wrote a special work, On Baptism (1525), in which his main emphasis was on the significance of water Baptism as a covenant sign. During the following years he devoted many other tracts to the subject, culminating in his Tricks of the Catabaptists (1527).

Relations with Luther.

      Meanwhile, his thinking and practice in relation to the mass had led to a sharp disagreement with Martin Luther (Luther, Martin). The two agreed in rejecting the eucharistic sacrifice. They also agreed in rejecting the medieval notion of a change of substance in the sacrament. Luther, however, felt himself bound by the words “This is my body” to teach the real presence of Christ's body and blood not in place of, but in, with, and under the bread and wine. Zwingli, on the other hand, convinced that the word “is” has the force of “signifies,” did not maintain a “real” presence but simply the divine presence of Christ or his presence to the believer by the power of the Holy Spirit, as signified by the elements. He stated his views in two Latin tracts (1525) and the more popular work, On the Lord's Supper (1526). Luther and his supporters responded with much acrimony, refusing to see in the Swiss movement a true work of evangelical reformation. Through the good offices of Philip the Magnanimous, landgrave of Hesse, the Colloquy of Marburg (Marburg, Colloquy of) (1529) was arranged with a view to reconciliation; Luther, Zwingli, and Martin Bucer all participated. Cordial agreement was reached on most issues, but the critical gulf remained in relation to the sacramental presence, and Luther refused the hand of fellowship extended by Zwingli and Bucer.

      Zwingli would undoubtedly have welcomed agreement with Luther for political as well as theological reasons, for he saw a growing danger in the isolation of the Reforming cantons. The forest cantons had organized themselves against the alliance, and there was a real threat of imperial intervention. In offensive defense, the alliance attacked the forest cantons at Kappel, 10 miles south of Zürich in 1529, and enforced terms on the opposing districts. Attempts also were made to link up with Strassburg and allied reforming cities, but these were at first unsuccessful despite the help of Hesse. The results of division were seen at the Diet of Augsburg (1530), in which the evangelical groups presented three different confessions, including Zwingli's Fidei Ratio.

      Lacking other friends, Zwingli turned to Venice and France, partly in view of their political hostility to the empire, partly in the hope of persuading the rulers to accept evangelical views. His Exposition of the Faith (1531) was addressed to Francis I of France to clear up misunderstandings and enlist his sympathy. The project faded, however, and in 1531 Zwingli urged on the alliance a further reduction of the forest cantons. Instead, Bern initiated a useless policy of economic sanctions that simply provoked the foresters to attack Zürich in October 1531. In the resultant Second War of Kappel (Kappel Wars), Zwingli accompanied the Zürich forces as chaplain and was killed in the battle, the spot where he fell being now marked by an inscribed boulder.

Contributions.

      The later preoccupation of Zwingli with ecclesiastical politics should not obscure his true contribution to faith and order. He accepted the supreme authority of the Scripture, although he applied it rigorously to all doctrines and practices. He laid influential stress on the divine sovereignty, though this was tempered by a milder view of original sin and a wide hope of salvation. His rejection of the sacraments as means of obtaining grace and as forms of intervention between the soul and God underlay the deepened conception of other Reformation leaders such as Bullinger, Pietro Martire Vermigli, and John Calvin. If he accepted lay authority in church government as exerted through the council, his personal influence averted both the subservient Erastianism (the supremacy of lay authority in ecclesiastical matters) of Lutheranism and exhausting conflict, as at Geneva. Obvious defects of disjointedness and intellectualism mark his writings. Behind them, however, lay an open, warm, and friendly disposition, and they embody a boldly striking attempt to rethink all Christian doctrine in consistently biblical terms.

Geoffrey W. Bromiley

Additional Reading

Editions of Zwingli's works include the Opera, published at Zürich in four volumes (1545 et seq.); the Werke, edited M. Schuler and J. Schulthess, published at Zürich in eight volumes (1828–42); and the Huldreich Zwinglis sämtliche Werke in the Corpus Reformatorum (Berlin, 1904 et seq.). English translations available include Selected Works of Huldreich Zwingli, edited and with notes by S.M. Jackson (1901); Latin Works and the Correspondence of Huldreich Zwingli, edited by Jackson and others and published in three volumes (1912–29); and Zwingli and Bullinger in the “Library of Christian Classics” (1953).The standard works (all entitled Huldreich Zwingli) are by J.M. Schuler (1818); R. Christoffel (1854; Eng. trans., Zwingli; or, The Rise of the Reformation in Switzerland, 1858); and R. Stähelin, 2 vol. (1895–97). Among the best modern biographies is that of O. Farner, 4 vol. (1943–60), who also wrote a briefer account in 1918 (Eng. trans., Zwingli the Reformer, 1952, reprinted 1968). Perhaps the most comprehensive biography in English is G.R. Potter, Zwingli (1976); another ambitious English version was written by S.M. Jackson, Huldreich Zwingli, the Reformer of German Switzerland (1901, reprinted 1969); a fourth interesting life is J.H. Rilliet, Zwingli, le troisième homme de la Réforme (1959; Zwingli, Third Man of the Reformation, 1964). For Zwingli's theology, see W. Köhler, Zwingli und Luther (1924); and J.M. Usteri, Zwinglis Tauflehre (1882). A deeper appreciation of Zwingli the theologian rather than the humanist may be found especially in A. Rich, Die Anfänge der Theologie Huldrych Zwinglis (1949). For a brief but penetrating study of Zwingli's liturgical contribution, see F. Schmidt-Clausing, Zwinglis liturgische Formulare (1970). Among the various specialized studies of Zwingli, see especially C. Garside, Jr., Zwingli and the Arts (1966); R.C. Walton, Zwingli's Theocracy (1967); and F. Schmidt-Clausing, Zwinglis Humor (1968).

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