Ulrich Zwingli (Also, Huldreich) 

Founder of the Reformation in Switzerland, born at Wildhaus in 
Switzerland, 1 January, 1484; died 11 October, 1531. Zwingli came 
from a prominent family of the middle classes, and was the third 
of eight sons. His father Ulrich was a district official of the 
little town of Wildhaus, and a cousin of his mother, Margaret 
Meili, was abbot of the Benedictine monastery in Fischingen in 
Thurgau. A brother of the elder Zwingli, Bartholomew, was pastor 
of Wildhaus until 1487, but then became pastor and dean of Wesen 
on the Walensee. Zwingli received his early education at Wesen 
under the guidance of this uncle, by whom he was sent, at the age 
of ten, to Gregory Bunzli of Wesen who was studying at Basle and 
also teaching in the school of St. Theodore, which Zwingli 
henceforth attended. For his higher studies he went to Berne, 
whither the celebrated Swiss Humanist Schuler was attracting many 
students for Classical studies. Zwingli's name is entered on the 
roll of the University of Vienna for the winter term of 1498-99, 
but he was excluded from the university. The reason for his 
exclusion is unknown. Zwingli appears, however, to have overcome 
the difficulty, for he was again matriculated in 1500. Two years 
later he returned to Basle, where, among others, Thomas Wyttenbach 
encouraged him to devote himself to the serious study of theology. 
In 1506 he completed his studies and received the degree of Master 
of Theology. Shortly before his graduation the parish of Glarus 
had selected him as its pastor, although he had not yet been 
ordained priest. Apart from his exclusion from the University of 
Vienna, his student life presents no unusual features, though his 
later friends and followers relate much that is laudatory about 
this period. His studies at Berne, Vienna, and Basle, where 
Humanism was eagerly cultivated, made Zwingli one of its zealous 
supporters. 

As pastor of Glarus from 1506 to 1516, the continuation of his 
humanistic studies was one of Zwingli's chief occupations. He 
studied Greek, read the Classics and the Fathers of the Church, 
and entered into familiar intercourse with the Humanists of the 
time, especially with Heinrich Loriti (Glareanus), Erasmus,and 
Vadian. He also engaged in teaching, and the later chroniclers 
Aegidius and Valentine Tschudi were his pupils. In public life he 
was chiefly conspicuous for his political activity, in this 
respect following the example of many ecclesiastics of his day. In 
the Italian campaigns of 1513 and 1515, when the Swiss won the 
victories of Novara and Marignan, he acted as army chaplain. His 
earliest literary attempts - the rhymed fables of the ox (about 
1510), "De Gestis inter Gallos et Helvetios relatio" (1512), "The 
Labyrinth" (1516?) - are all concerned with politics. These works, 
which reveal Zwingli as the devoted adherent and champion of the 
papal party, won him the friendship of the powerful Swiss cardinal 
Matthew Schinner and an annual pension of fifty gulden from the 
pope. So zealously indeed did he then espouse the cause of the 
pope that his position in Glarus became untenable when the French 
party became predominant there in 1516. Diebold von Geroldseck, 
the administrator and sole conventual in the Benedictine monastery 
at Einsiedeln, entrusted him with the position of a secular priest 
there, and at the end of 1516 Zwingli left Glarus. 

As secular priest at Einsiedeln, the celebrated place of 
pilgrimage for Switzerland and South Germany, Zwingli's chief 
office was that of preacher. For the fulfilment of this task he 
devoted himself to the study of Holy Writ, copied the Epistles of 
St. Paul, and learned Hebrew, but did not meanwhile neglect the 
Classics, a fact which won him flattering praise from the 
Humanists. Erasmus was keenly aware of the laxity of 
ecclesiastical life (the abuses in external worship, the 
degeneracy of a large proportion of the clergy), and rightly 
agitated a reform within the Church, impressing its necessity on 
the ecclesiastical authorities. Zwingli worked in the same spirit 
at Einsiedeln from 1516 to 1518. In disputing Luther's priority, 
Zwingli later claimed (and most historians have supported his 
claim) that while at Einsiedeln he already preached against the 
old Faith. His claim is, however, negatived by the facts that he 
continued to draw his pension, that at the end of 1518, at his own 
petition, he was appointed by the pope acolyte chaplain of the 
Roman See (cf. the document in "Analecta reformatoria", I, 98), 
and that his friendly intercourse with Cardinal Schinner still 
continued when he was engaged at Zurich in 1519. 

Towards the end of 1518, when the post of secular preacher at