Zwingli’s theses of Huldrych Zwingli

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, 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, 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 Confederation 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. 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 (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, 16 kilometres (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, 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.