Part IIIOctober 6, 2009

Although the German Reformation was the first, they were not the only areas where the church was being challenged

Switzerland and France also had their own independent movements.

Switzerland of the early 1500’s was a loose confederation of 13 states, or CANTONS.

Some became Catholic while some became Protestant

And a few had both.

Switzerland also had a thriving mercenary business

Ulrich Zwingli was a humanist educated man

He credited Erasmus more than Luther for setting him on the path to reform.

He was a critic of the use of the Swiss mercenary service all over Europe

He also opposed the sale of indulgences

He ran for the post of people’s priest in Zurich.

After winning, he petitioned for the ending of clerical celibacy and for the right of clergy to legally marry, which was practiced in all Protestant lands

The Reformation passed from the hands of theologians into the hands of rulers

They began to change reform from merely slogans to laws which must be obeyed.

This began the politicization of religious reform.

Zwingli engineered the Swiss Reformation in March of 1522 when he was a party to breaking of the Lenten fast.

His reform guideline was simple: Whatever lacked literal support in Scripture

was to be neither believed or practiced. This raised questions about traditions such as

fasting, transubstantiation, the worship of saints, pilgrimages, purgatory, clerical celibacy and certain sacraments

Zwingli and Luther had bitter theological differences.

In the Eucharist, Zwingli believed in a symbolic interpretation of the Eucharist (this is my body…) while Luther believed in a literal interpretation of it.

Luther thought Zwingli to be a dangerous fanatic

Zwingli thought Luther was still mired in medieval superstition

Civil war broke out between the Protestant and Catholic cantons between 1529 and 1531.

Zwingli was wounded, executed and hacked into pieces and the pieces scattered so his followers would have no relics to inspire them

The civil war ended with the guarantee that the cantons could choose their own religion.

Anabaptists Spiritualists Antitrinitarians

In the second half of the 16th century, Calvinism replaced Lutheranism as the dominant Protestant movement

The emperor attempted for many years to force Catholicism back into the German States….he failed.

At the Peace of Augsburg, he finally recognized the authority of the ruler of a land to determine its religion.

This cemented the division in Christendom forever