references to the short time available for mobilization and inadequate military tactics and strategy. The defeat was, in fact, a foregone conclusion; as Zwingli predicted, the chain had been made whole again. Five hundred men of Zurich fell in less than an hour. Zwingli’s view of history—that the almighty God would lead the Reformation to its final victory—explains the catastrophic defeat at Kappel. The catastrophe consisted not in military weakness and tactical errors, but in God’s refusal to smash