Religion

Ulrich Zwingli

artin Luther's revolutionary teachings, in the meantime, were spreading to Switzerland, which then consisted of 13 small city-states, or cantons. When Luther's reforms crossed the German border into Switzerland, various cantons became decidedly Protestant. A most influential canton, Zurich, was the first to do so due to her highly influential leader, Ulrich Zwingli (1484 - 1531).

Zwingli was highly popular in Zurich, partly for resisting to be of military service in foreign wars, and due to his opposition to indulgences. He increased and improved Luther's reforms by bringing into it education, especially an education in Erasmus' teachings and Northern Humanist beliefs.

In 1519, Zwingli was appointed the highest church position in the city - "People's Priest" - after working himself up the Catholic Church's power ladder. In that very same year, though, he was fully supportive of the Protestant movement and was preparing to shift the city's support to Protestantism. Zurich's city officials eventually adopted Protestantism in 1523. Zurich was now the first Protestant state outside Germany, and numerous cantons soon joined the revolution thereafter.

Zwingli followed a very simple theology, and unlike Luther or Calvin, who had prolific and varied arguments and beliefs, he had a single belief that knit all his arguments together. His basic theology rested on the concept that if a Christian theory was not completely supported by the literal reading of Christian scriptures, then no believer should follow or support such a theory. Also, if something was explicitly supported in the Bible, then it should be blindly adhered to. This was Zwingli's reason for objecting to Indulgences so severely. He even went as far as objecting to the fast at Lent. He opposed this traditional Catholic practice as the New Testament didn't explicitly support, or even mention such a fast, thus not making it a Christian necessity.

This revolutionary concept of the absolute literal reading of the Bible proved to be of much consequence. From now on, the Bible would no longer be a difficult set of scriptures with archaic mannerisms to comprehend. Concepts covered in the scriptures could now be taken at face value, and this spelled an alternative to trying to understand the scriptures in a metaphorical sense.

By the time Zwingli was busy creating a militant Protestant civilization, he and Luther were having serious disagreements. Luther was not willing to give up certain Catholic issues he still held to and adopt the radical new belief of Zwingli. A major dispute was the Eucharist, which is a Christian sacrament in which believers receive bread and wine and which embodies Christ's forgiveness of the partaker's sins.

Luther followed the Catholic belief was both man and God, thus allowing the Eucharist (wine and bread) to be transformed spiritually into the physical body of Christ.

Zwingli, following a strictly literal meaning of the Bible, deduced that Christ was never of a human form but only a spiritual entity, and any suggestion that Christ was or is a man is incorrect. Thus, according to Zwingli's concept, the Eucharist is never transformed to the physical body of Christ but merely symbolically represents the body and blood of Christ. This dispute put Luther, Zwingli and their respective followers in antagonistic opinions on the nature of Christ.

This religious disagreement was seen as a severe political crisis, as these two religious leaders' disagreements threatened any political co-operation between their respective countries.

Nevertheless, Philip of Hesse (1504 - 1567), the Landgrave of Hesse, Germany, knew that a political alliance with Switzerland was imperative and would prove beneficial. Also, leaders of Protestant states and cantons were wary of the threatened position they had, being geographically surrounded by Catholic states. However, no matter how beneficial a political alliance between Germany and Switzerland would be, it would be severely marred by the ongoing theological dispute.

Thus, Philip invited Luther and Zwingli to his castle in Marburg in October 1529 to discuss their differences and hopefully come to an agreement about a basic theology. The meeting proved fruitless. Luther thought of Zwingli as a madman who had lost touch with reality and spirituality. Zwingli's opinion of Luther was that he was a hopeless case, supporting archaic and unreasonable Catholic teaching.

After this meeting, the hopes of having a united Protestant front were dashed, and from this point onwards Protestantism remained as separate entities, not the unified church Luther had hoped to create.

Zwingli died shortly thereafter in 1531.