Zwingli And The Reformation

The Reformation was not bound to any one class, nor any one place in the world. Each man who led a following to change some aspect in the church was a step in the church’s transition to more modern ideals. The church was entering a time where change was occurring; people were beginning to think differently and express their opinions more. This all made the church vulnerable to verbal and physical attacks from different men in different countries; leading the Swiss Reformation, Hueldrich (Ulrich) Zwingli, was no exception. The point of the Reformation was to change parts of the church, bringing up new ideals even if they weren’t widely accepted, and that’s what Zwingli did. Zwingli supported the idea of “The Freedom of the Christian.” Worshiping …show more content…
To run the church, Zwingli took great strides in attempting to improve the men in power. Zwingli “[. . .] did not want preachers who were sectarians [. . .] but men who were well equipped scholastically [. . .] in the minutest detail of the Holy Scriptures, under the guidance of spiritual tutor [. . .]” This started with training theologians to better teach at a Cathedral College but could be brought over into preaching in a church. Zwingli just wants people who will have the courage to devote their lives, even if only to their children and families, to teaching those the word of God exactly from the scriptures. He sees the scriptures as free from any interpretation. What is written in the scriptures is meant to be believed in entirely while what is not written is meant to be doubted. For instance, Zwingli sees little belief in the pope because Peter was not mentioned as a pope in scriptures. He does not want people changing the meaning of the scriptures to fit their own thoughts. It made sense then why Martin Luther bothered him. Luther took out necessary parts of the scriptures, favoring the upper class. Zwingli especially does not want these people, like Luther, leading a church service to only give people false information. His views stemmed from how he was taught, now wanting to teach others the same way. From early on he was “[. . .] taught to think in terms of the Fatherland.” He was taught to understand his ancestors have been on the same land he was born on for many generations before him, so he must respect and follow tradition. This goes along with him wanting to have the church transformed to worship God for giving them everything they have because without Him they would be nothing in this world, not even existing. He wanted the church to go back to its roots Jesus was once at with simplicity of spreading the