March 12 - Switzerland

March 12 – Switzerland

While things were hot and heavy among the reformers in Germany, the reformation was beginning to grow in Switzerland.

Ulrich Zwingli spent a great deal of time in Scripture and saw how far the Catholic church had gotten from God’s word. He was a parish priest in Glarus, Switzerland and dealt as chaplain for young Swiss mercenaries. He hated to see them selling their fighting services for the country. When he was the priest in Einsideln, he immersed himself in the New Testament and began preaching an evangelical gospel. In January of 1519, he was the pastor at Zurich’s main church. In defiance of the church, instead of using the standard lectionary, he announced he would preach on the Gospel of Matthew. The time was coming, but not yet.

That year, the plague hit Zurich. He did his best to minister through it until he fell victim. During his three month recovery, he learned about depending on God. He preached the Bible, even when it was different from the rituals and doctrines of the church. In 1522, some of his parishioners chose to eat meat during Lent and Zwingli preached a sermon on freedom in their support.

The government in Zurich essentially took the church in its own hands, offering chances of debate. Zwingli’s views prevailed and was allowed to remain in the pulpit to proclaim the gospel. Over the next two years, reform occurred rapidly, priests and nuns married, Catholic images were removed from the church and soon the mass was replaced by a much simpler service.

In 1529, Luther and Zwingli were brought together in an attempt to unify the Reformed movement. There were fifteen issues that they discussed at Marburg. They agreed on fourteen. They could not come to agreement on the communion elements. While both agreed that transubstantiation was not right (transubstantiation is the belief that the communion elements become the body and blood of Christ), Luther believed that Christ’s body is present with the visible elements (because Christ said “This is my body”) and Zwingli believed that Christ’s words meant ‘This symbolizes my body.’

In 1531, there were many small religious wars breaking out between the Catholics and the Reformers. At the battle of Kapel, Zwingli was caught in a religious war and killed, his body hacked to pieces. These religious wars would last for at least another hundred years.