Zwingli

Often compared to Luther, Zwingli was among the many reformers of the early sixteenth century. He was a charismatic preacher more concerned with a social reformation than the salvation of individual souls; resulting in many arguments with Luther. Zwingli was well educated, like Luther. Unfortnately, he was said to be a mere imitation of Luther, however Zwingly was preaching for a deviation from harsh and unjust Catholic law a year before Luther even wrote the 95 Theses.

Zwingily maintained that everything should be up to the individual and that if the Bible did not explicitly spell something out then it should not be a rule. He believed that the Eucharist was merely symbolic, in no way did it transform into the body and blood of Christ. He still felth the Eucharist was an important aspect of church services, and that it was important to have a symbol of Christ's salvation. If the Old or New Testament did not say something explicitly and literally, then no Christian should believe or practice it.

His ideas gained recognition in 1518 during Lent (which conveniently began this week). He and his followers promoted eating meat during a time associated with fasting and self denial in the Church. He did not believe that devout Catholics should be forced to fast because the scripture never explicitly spelled out that rule. He said that individuals should not be forced to deny themselves, but if they wanted to follow Christ then fasting then they were encouraged. Interestingly, he fasted and remained celibate; but mainained that everyone should be allowed to govern themselves through and through.

Because Zwingli felt that individual choices were imperative to knowing God, he believed in adult batism. It was the only legitimate way to be batisbed because it was a choice. From this spawned the anabaptist church.

All of Zwingli's writings are very straight forward. He wants to be clear and conscise because that is how he thinks religion should be.