The trip to Zurich is to visit the home of Ulrich Zwingli, the leader of the Reformation in the German speaking Swiss Cantons, chiefly centered around Zurich. Of the three Reformers, he, by far, gets the least press.
Luther and Calvin dominate the Reformational scene, but Zwingli should be recognized for the significance of his bringing reform to the Swiss.
He was born two years before Luther, in 1481, and trained classically to be a priest. He eventually became the head of the church in Zurich. As a Catholic priest, he found himself - like Luther - opposing the sale of indulgences (those pay-your-way-out-of-purgatory certificates sold by the church). But, perhaps, what most affected his "re-looking" at Catholic doctrine was in witnessing the deaths of 1000's of Swiss soldiers who were bought by the Pope to fight his wars.
By 1519, two years after Luther's 95 theses were nailed to the church door in Wittenberg; but before Luther was tried at Worms, Zwingli was leading a reform movement in Zurich.
Zwingli had a sort of awakening when he was struck with the plague in 1520. Nearly two-thirds of Zurich's population died (before the plague it was a city of 12,000 and after, only about 3,000 remained). Zwingli somehow survived and after he recovered, he fought for a simple theology:
"If it can't be found in the Bible, don't believe it and don't do it."
He decisively began to reform. He broke the traditional Catholic laws on Lent, having a Sausage party for his students. He took the statutes and paintings of the cross and Mary out of the churches. Eventually he abolished the Mass and replaced it with a simple service that celebrated Communion and the preaching of the Scriptures. He said,
"For God's sake, do not put yourself at odds with the Word of God. For truly it will persist as surely as the Rhine follows its course. One can perhaps dam it up for awhile, but it is impossible to stop it."
The reform in Switzerland took hold as he led the churches in Zurich. Eventually, like the other reformers, he married - a widow with three children, and then went on to have four more of his own.
Two significant events shaped his life, and the reason why He is often forgotten in Reform circles.
1. Phillip of Hesse, the German Prince who saw in the Reformation a cause to defend, felt that the German Reform under Luther, and the Swiss Reform under Zwingli needed to unite. Hesse was certain the Papacy would eventually strike back to seek to take Reform lands by force if need be (and he was right, they did). Hesse called a "colloquy" - a meeting to discuss - matters that pertain to the two reform movements in Margburg, Germany. Zwingli and Luther met at this place and agreed on 13 of the 14 articles. They could not agree on the meaning of the Lord's Supper, and it divided the two movements.
Luther believed Christ's words, "This is my body" meant Jesus was actually present during the sacrament of communion. Zwingli said the phrase meant "This signifies my body", so that the bread and wine were only symbolic. They had agreed on many other doctrines during the conference, from the Trinity to justification by faith to the number of sacraments, but they could not come together on communion. Luther reportedly refused to shake Zwingli's hand at the end of the meetings.
2. The second event is shaped around Zwingli - the ardent Swiss nationalist. The Reformed movement spread among the Cantons (Switzerland is a confederation of small states); but not in all of the Cantons did it take hold. Zwingli decided to put pressure on the ones that wouldn't change and eventually a war broke out. The end result was that Zwingli was killed in battle - it was 1531.
We visited the Church Zwingli preached in, in Zurich.
The rain was falling and yet this simple Protestant church gives testimony almost 500 years later of Zwingli's faithfulness to the Gospel.
Peace to you
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