Huldreich Zwingli

The Reformer of German Switzerland

1484–1531

by

Samuel Macauley Jackson

professor of church history, new york university

together with

An Historical Survey of Switzerland before the Reformation, by Prof. John Martin Vincent, Johns Hopkins University; and a Chapter on Zwingli’s Theology by Prof. Frank Hugh Foster, University of California

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

The Knickerbocker Press

1901

Copyright, 1900

by

samuel macauley jackson

HULDRICH ZWINGLI

from a mezzotint by r. houston.

to

my brother

Preface

IN 1872 or 1873, the author, who was at that time a student in the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, heard that most inspiring teacher, Professor Roswell Dwight Hitchcock, say, in passing, while lecturing on Church history, that Zwingli’s theory of the Lord’s Supper was “a low, thin view,” and that Zwingli himself was “a much-neglected man.” These remarks turned the author’s attention to Zwingli, and ever since he has been interested in him.

In 1895, the author projected the series upon “The Heroes of the Reformation.” It was taken up by the present publishers in January, 1896. The author began this book on the 10th of February of that year, but composition upon it has been frequently interrupted and the manuscript laid aside for months at a time. Its sources are fully revealed in the references and notes. Of these sources the chief have been the letters by and to Zwingli, filling two volumes in the modern edition of his complete works; the contemporary history of the Reformation in Switzerland by Heinrich Bullinger, the successor of Zwingli; the Acts of the Council of the City of Zurich during the period covered by the volume, and the similar collection of the Acts of the Councils in other cities for the same period. These scource-studies have been made independently but under the direction of the three biographies of Zwingli worthy of the name and of their theme, viz., those by Raget Christoffel (Elberfeld, 1857; excellent English translation by John Cochran, Edinburgh, 1858), by Johann Caspar Moerikofer (Leipzig, 1867–69, two volumes), and by Rudolf Staehelin (Basel, 1895–97, two volumes); and to these works the author would here pay his tribute of profound respect. He could not have written this book without them. Like Staehelin he has built his book upon the Zwingli correspondence, but he had adopted this plan before he began to read Staehelin. Much help has also been afforded by the monographs quoted in the notes, and especially by Zwingliana (Zurich, 1897, sqq.), the semi-yearly organ of Zwingli studies, started and ably carried on by the enthusiastic and thoroughly competent Zwingli student, Professor Egli, of the University of Zurich.

This book is a biography of Zwingli. The text is intended to give to the general reader the principal facts of his life, while the numerous notes, excursus, and references are intended for special students. It is also as much as possible matter of fact. Few statements ...