History
Swiss Reformation
The Swiss Reformation was a religious movement in Switzerland during the 16th century, led by figures such as Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin. It resulted in the establishment of Protestantism as an alternative to Roman Catholicism in several Swiss cantons. The movement emphasized the authority of the Bible and the priesthood of all believers, leading to significant changes in religious and social structures.
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8 Key excerpts on "Swiss Reformation"
eBook - PDF- R. Po-chia Hsia(Author)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
This undoubtedly was an important precondition of the Reformation. The Swiss Reformation began in Zürich. Its earliest public advocate of some stature was Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531), who had been a common priest at the city’s Grossmünster church since December 1518. The simultaneous discovery of St. Augustine’s theology, knowledge about Martin Luther’s quest for reform, and expe-rience of the plague of 1519, turned him into a reformer eager to combine ecclesi-astical reform with social reform, as became apparent, for example, in his fierce opposition to the mercenary system so dear to many Swiss contemporaries. To the common people, especially those from the Alpine regions, the mercenary system was often an indispensable source of income, for the ruling class – chiefly of central Switzerland – one of considerable wealth, as Thomas More amongst other contem-poraries knew well, when he castigated the venality of the Swiss in his Utopia of 1516. 88 kaspar von greyerz The leading Zürich reformer differed from Luther in the way he linked inner and outer reform. The two churchmen were reared in differing theological traditions, the Wittenberg reformer in the via media (nominalism), Zwingli, like most other Upper German and Swiss reformers, in the via antiqua (realism). It is not surprising, there-fore, that they should also differ in their theology of the Eucharist, a difference that was to become the symbol for all points of doctrinal contention separating Protes-tants of the Reformed (Zwinglian and, later, Calvinist) persuasion from those of Lutheran faith. While Luther insisted on Christ’s physical presence in the Eucharist, Zwingli, in the wake of Cornelis Hoen, as well as Erasmus, interpreted the Lord’s Supper as a communal remembrance of Christ’s suffering. Zwingli’s marked advocacy of ecclesiastical and social reform soon won him not only a following in Zürich but also a number of influential opponents among the local clergy as well as amidst the city’s councilors.
- R. W. Scribner(Author)
- 1988(Publication Date)
- Hambledon Continuum(Publisher)
THE REFORMATION AS A SOCIAL MOVEMENT In recent years it has become common to speak of the social dimensions of the Reformation, to relate it to social historical phenomena, and to adopt socio-logical terminology in its analysis *. This trend has gathered such momentum that some church historians have begun to call for a reversal of its course, to argue that the Reformation as a religious phenomenon should be rescued from the in-cursions of the social historian 2 . This is highly ironic, for serious social analysis of the Reformation has scarcely begun. We could have no clearer proof of this than the frequent use of the term movement (Bewegung) to describe the Refor-mation as some kind of popular social event. The term is rarely defined precisely, and the social historical implications of its use less rarely evaluated3. In this paper I want to examine more closely the nature of the Reformation as a move-ment and to bring out some of these implications. The term movement is most commonly applied to the beginning of the Reformation in Wittenberg in 1521—22 4 . I should like to give a brief resume* of these well-known events in order to establish a more precise understanding of how they constitute a movement. The events can be divided into those which were public and those which were private. Thus during the autumn of 1521 the implications of the religious revival sparked off by Luther's ideas were hotly 1 See, for example, the use of the notion of legitimation in P. Blickle, Die Revolu-tion von 1525, Miindien 1975; the argument for the use of historical sociology in Thomas A. Brady Jr., Ruling Class, Regime and Reformation in Strasbourg 1520— 1555, Leiden 1978, pp. 19—47; and the more extended application of sociological therory in O. Rammstedt y Sekte und soziale Bewegung, Koln 1966, and id., Stadt-unruhen 1525, in: H.-U. Wehler (ed.), Der deutsche Bauernkrieg 1524—1526, Got-tingen 1975, pp.
eBook - PDFWestern Civilization
A Brief History, Volume II: Since 1500
- Jackson Spielvogel(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
The Zwinglian Reformation In the sixteenth century, the Swiss Confederation was a loose association of thirteen self-governing states called can-tons. Theoretically part of the Holy Roman Empire, they had become virtually independent in 1499. The six forest cantons were democratic republics, while the seven urban cantons, which included Z € urich, Bern, and Basel, were governed pri-marily by city councils con-trolled by narrow oligarchies of wealthy citizens. Ulrich Zwingli ( OOL-rikh TSFING-lee ) (1484–1531) was ordained a priest in 1506 and accepted an appoint-ment as a cathedral priest in the Great Minster of Z € urich in 1518. Zwingli’s preaching of the Gospel caused such unrest that the city council in 1523 held a public disputation or debate in the town hall. Zwingli’s party was accorded the victory, and the council declared that “Mayor, Council and Great Council of Z € urich, in order to do away with disturbance and discord, have upon due deliberation and consultation decided and resolved that Master Zwingli should con-tinue as heretofore to proclaim the Gospel and the pure sacred Scriptures.” 6 Over the next two years, a city council strongly influenced by Zwingli promulgated evangelical reforms in Z € urich. It abolished relics and images, removed all paintings and decorations from the churches, and replaced them with whitewashed walls. A new liturgy consisting of Scripture reading, prayer, and sermons replaced the Mass. Monasticism, pilgrimages, the ven-eration of saints, clerical celibacy, and the pope’s authority were all abolished as remnants of papal Christianity. As his movement began to spread to other cities in Switzerland, Zwingli sought an alliance with Martin Luther and the German reformers. Protestant political leaders attempted to promote an alliance of the Swiss and German reformed churches by persuading the lead-ers of both groups to attend a colloquy (conference) at Marburg to resolve their differences.
eBook - PDF- C. Scott Dixon(Author)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
This approach reached its apogee in the thought of the Spiritualists, thinkers such as Caspar Schwenkfeld and Sebastian Franck, who believed that all truths of the faith must be distinguished by the spirit. In the eyes of the more conservative clergy, Catholic and Protestant alike, it seemed a totally subjective, whimsical and dangerous approach, and it left little room for dialogue. It also led to a marked tone of apocalypticism – for visions and vague language, in order to have a sense of urgency, must have a sense of ending. Hans Hut, for instance, began his work On the Mystery of Baptism with the claim that ‘the last and most dangerous age of this world is now upon us’ and later took this message to the rural parishioners of upper and central Germany, Austria and Moravia (Baylor, 1991, p. 152). In this apocalyptical theology, the persecuted community found both the language and the ulti-mate message for its ideals. Another general characteristic of the radical Reformation was the close association between religious ideas and social context. In essence, the movement first emerged as a social phenomenon in the rural parishes of Switzerland and southern Germany, and recently historians have made much of the ‘significant connec-tion’ between the Peasants’ War and the growth of Anabaptism (Stayer, 1994, p. 86). The same themes of social justice and reli-gious purity surfaced, the same attack against tithes, the same demands for communal control of the church, often penned and preached by the same men. All of the radical reformers set out to renew Christian society, and all believed that there was (and must be) a direct and dependent relationship between the norms of the Gospel and social reality. As a result there was a 94 The Reformation in the Parishes marked stress on moral improvement, an ongoing conviction that the reform of belief must entail a reform of life.
eBook - PDFWestern Civilization
A Brief History, Volume I: to 1715
- Jackson Spielvogel(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
It was a foretaste of the issues that would divide one reform group from another and eventually lead to the creation of different Protestant groups. In October 1531, war erupted between the Swiss Protestant and Catholic cantons. Zürich’s army was routed, and Zwingli was found wounded on the battlefield. His enemies killed him, cut up his body, burned it, and scat-tered the ashes. This Swiss civil war of 1531 provided an early indication of what religious passions would lead to in the sixteenth century. Unable to find peaceful ways to agree on the meaning of the Gospel, the disciples of Christianity resorted to violence and deci-sion by force. When he heard of Zwingli’s death, Martin Luther, who had not forgotten the con-frontation at Marburg, is sup-posed to have remarked that Zwingli “got what he deserved.” 13-3 THE SPREAD OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION Q Focus Questions: What were the main tenets of Lutheranism, Zwinglianism, Anabaptism, and Calvinism, and how did they differ from each other and from Catholicism? What impact did political, economic, and social conditions have on the development of these four reform movements? For both Catholics and Protestant reformers, Luther’s heresy raised the question of how to determine what constituted the correct interpretation of the Bible. The inability to agree on this issue led not only to theologi-cal confrontations but also to bloody warfare as each Christian group was unwilling to admit that it could be wrong. 13-3a The Zwinglian Reformation In the sixteenth century, the Swiss Confederation was a loose association of thirteen self-governing states called cantons. Theoretically part of the Holy Roman Empire, they had become virtually independent in 1499. The six forest cantons were democratic repub-lics, while the seven urban cantons, which included Zürich, Bern, and Basel, were governed primarily by city councils controlled by narrow oligarchies of wealthy citizens.
eBook - PDFWestern Civilization
A Brief History, Volume II since 1500
- Jackson Spielvogel(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
It was a foretaste of the issues that would divide one reform group from another and eventually lead to the creation of different Protestant groups. In October 1531, war erupted between the Swiss Protestant and Catholic cantons. Zürich’s army was routed, and Zwingli was found wounded on the battlefield. His enemies killed him, cut up his body, burned it, and scat- tered the ashes. This Swiss civil war of 1531 provided an early indication of what religious passions would lead to in the sixteenth century. Unable to find peaceful ways to agree on the meaning of the Gospel, the disciples of Christianity resorted to violence and deci- sion by force. When he heard of Zwingli’s death, Martin Luther, who had not forgotten the con- frontation at Marburg, is sup- posed to have remarked that Zwingli “got what he deserved.” 13-3 THE SPREAD OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION Q Focus Questions: What were the main tenets of Lutheranism, Zwinglianism, Anabaptism, and Calvinism, and how did they differ from each other and from Catholicism? What impact did political, economic, and social conditions have on the development of these four reform movements? For both Catholics and Protestant reformers, Luther’s heresy raised the question of how to determine what constituted the correct interpretation of the Bible. The inability to agree on this issue led not only to theologi- cal confrontations but also to bloody warfare as each Christian group was unwilling to admit that it could be wrong. 13-3a The Zwinglian Reformation In the sixteenth century, the Swiss Confederation was a loose association of thirteen self-governing states called cantons. Theoretically part of the Holy Roman Empire, they had become virtually independent in 1499. The six forest cantons were democratic repub- lics, while the seven urban cantons, which included Zürich, Bern, and Basel, were governed primarily by city councils controlled by narrow oligarchies of wealthy citizens.
eBook - PDFA Short History of Europe
From the Greeks and Romans to the Present Day
- A. Alcock(Author)
- 2002(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
In 1523 Ulrich Zwingli, a military chaplain in Zurich, got his city to adopt a programme of reform based on prohibition of all Cath- olic forms of worship ± processions, relics, images. There was to be state control of church attendance, morality and care of the poor. Predestination was also emphasised. Zwingli's ideas were accepted in other Swiss towns such as Basel, Bern, St. Gall. and then in Strasbourg. Although he was killed in 1531 in a war between Zurich and the Catholic Swiss Cantons his views would influence one who would rival Luther as Protestant idealogue ± John Calvin. John Calvin (1509±64) was a Frenchman from Noyon in north- ern France who settled in Geneva in 1536. In 1541 he organised the first Calvinist church there, and Geneva soon gained the reputation of being the centre of a radical international movement that threa- tened to destabilise western Europe, inspiring the same fear in the sixteenth century as Moscow and communism in the twentieth 8 century. Reformation, Counter Reformation and Religious War 129 In many important respects Calvin's doctrines were very different from those of Luther: First, Calvin saw society as a religious community which should govern itself through the election of representatives to all spiritual offices ± pastors, doctors, elders, deacons. Second, the duty of the state was to help the religious community and see that its rules were obeyed, rather than the other way round. Among these rules were obligatory church attendance, prohibition of dancing and gambling, and the removal of all images, altars and candles. Third, the sovereignty of the people was supreme, and because they had a covenant with God, prior and superior to that with any earthly rulers, they had a right to revolt against bad government or tyrants. Indeed, Calvin's successor in Geneva, Theodore Be Áze, developed the theory of justifiable tyrannicide. Fourth, the individual was predestined to salvation or damnation.
eBook - ePubGod Hovered Over the Waters
The Emergence of the Protestant Reformation
- dePrater(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Wipf and Stock(Publisher)
4The Reformation in Switzerland
Huldrych Zwingli The Early YearsC hief among the German- speaking Swiss reformers was Huldrych (or Ulrich) Zwingli. Zwingli was born to Ulrich and Margaretha Zwingli in 1484 , on a farm in the small eastern Swiss village of Wildhaus. His father was the village bailiff and a shepherd, and therefore Zwingli grew up under comfortable circumstances. While tending sheep with his father on the beautiful steep slopes of the Alps, Zwingli developed a love for his country that he would express through his deep sense of patriotism. An uncle, the dean of Wiesen, saw that Zwingli had the opportunity to receive the finest humanist education. Zwingli therefore studied for two years at the University of Vienna, followed by studies at the University of Basel at which, in 1506 , he was awarded a master’s degree. Following his academic theological studies, he was ordained as the parish priest of his boyhood church, the Glarus parish in Zurich. Zwingli was well suited for his congregation, and he took his priestly duties very seriously.Zwingli’s Pastoral MinistryOver the years, foreign rulers had come to recognize the Swiss military as among the best in the world. They therefore sought after their service as mercenary troops. In 1513 , as a reward for his affirmation of Swiss troops serving as mercenaries in support of the pope’s military campaigns, the pope granted Zwingli financial aid. As their field chaplain, in 1512 and 1515 , Zwingli accompanied the young men in his parish during several papal military campaigns. The French king likewise sought to employ Swiss mercenary troops for his own military ventures. Yet Zwingli spoke out against using Swiss troops in the service of other nations. In retaliation for Zwingli’s outspokenness, French government supporters stirred up discontent within Zwingli’s Glarus parish. Recognizing the extent of the discontent, he also assumed preaching duties at the historic shrine at Einsiedeln. In 1516
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