ZWINGLI, tsving'1. ULRICH or blumartEicit (1484-1531). The leader of the Protestant Ref ovulation in Switzerland. He was born at Wild haus, in the Toggenburg Valley, where his father was the Altmann of the village, a man of sub stance, who gave his son the best available edu cation. Zwingli was directed from an early stage to the liberal humanistic methods of study, and formed his taste and judgment in this en lightened school. He spent two years at the University of Vienna and then studied at Basel, where he took his bachelor's degree at twenty and his master's degree at twenty-two. In 1506 he was made parish priest at Glarus and held this place for ten years. Glarus was one of the most important centres for the recruiting of young men for the various armies of Europe, and Zwingli entered into this foreign service as a field chaplain. This experience gave him at once an intimate acquaintance with Swiss public life and a settled conviction that the service in for eign armies was ruining the character of his countrymen. He opposed it so vigorously that he roused the enmity of all those classes who were thriving on this industry and was compelled to leave Glarus. At Einsiedeln he found new oppor tunities for study and began to shape his views on the questions afterwards to be of most im portance in the Reformation. His conclusions on these matters were reached quite independently and before Luther had begun to express himself publicly.
In comparison with other Reformation leaders Zwingli appears primarily as the man of plain common sense, repelled by the abuses of the Church, inclined to remove from the daily prac tice of religion whatever seemed to interfere with the purity of original Christianity as he under stood it, but, on the other hand. steadily oppos ing every form of fanaticism. llis feeling of identity with his people was intenseandgoverned his action throughout his life. 11 is first oppor tunity to express his views of reform came, as it did with Luther, on the preaching of an indul gence. It is eharacteristic of the popular char acter of the Swiss reform that Zwingli was re quested by the Bishop of Constance to preach against the abuse, and he did it with such effect that the commissioner was obliged to leave the canton. In 1519 he accepted a call to become
`priest of the people' at the Gross-Miinster in Zurich, a place of much importance, where his novel method of preaching according to the Scripture itself rather than according to for mulas derived from the Fathers attracted the widest interest. Again he succeeded in driving out the Papal indulgence agent, and such was the dependence of the Papacy on the own of Switzerland for its troops that the Pope especial ly authorized them to send the offender back to Italy and did not attempt to renew this form of exaction in the cantons. Thus supported by the temporal authorities, Zwingli was enabled to continue his studies and to enlarge the circle of his connections in such ways as would best con tribute to the advance of the ideas of the Reform. No thought of a permanent separation from Rome seems to have occurred to him as yet, but his language in regard to the Papal power and the usages of the Church became increasingly liberal. An exhortation to support the position of Luther, written in 1520, is probably his work. and may be regarded as the first open declaration of hostility to Rome. Instead of laying down certain general principles and bringing the issue directly on these, Zwingli began to suggest definite measures of reform, speaking of the diminution of tithes, the revision of the breviary, the folly of fasts, the evils of image-worship, and above all the right and duty of the priests to marry openly, rather than to live, as he frank ly confessed he was himself doing, in secret con cubinage. The Swiss Diet was slow to accept these suggestions, but they commended them selves at once to the great body of the people, and this approval was soon reflected in the action of the and general governments. Zwingli was easily the leader of the nation in religious mat ters, but he found himself warmly supported by the strongest elements among the men of learn ing everywhere except in the original Forest Cantons, where the devotion to the ancient faith and to the political practices that went with it remained practically unshaken.