What was the Swiss Reformation?

The Swiss Reformation occurred in the early 1500s when many churches in Switzerland separated from the Roman Catholic Church. In 1517, Martin Luther sparked upheaval in Europe when he published a list of criticisms of the Catholic Church. He challenged the Pope’s authority and the Catholic Church’s teachings on grace and salvation. Luther’s questioning of the Catholic Church and the papacy quickly spread to other European countries. Ulrich Zwingli led part of the Swiss Reformation from Zurich. John Calvin, a French theologian, moved to Geneva in 1536 and helped guide the Reformation from the other side of Switzerland.

Switzerland lies high up in the Alps between modern Germany, France, and Italy. Northern and eastern Switzerland speak German, whereas the western part of the nation speaks French. The nation’s mountainous landscape separated the Swiss from their neighbors. They enjoyed a degree of independence from the Emperor in Germany. As the Protestant Reformation spread to Switzerland around 1520, the nation contained thirteen cantons. Each canton or region of Switzerland had its own government and debated Martin Luther's ideas separately.

Zwingli helped lead the Swiss Reformation in the city of Zurich. Zwingli worked as a Catholic priest, but he began publicly criticizing the church around 1519. He questioned the high taxes the church levied on Switzerland and condemned the immorality of certain priests and bishops. At the heart of his break with Rome, however, was his disagreement with the Catholic Church’s teaching on the Mass and grace in salvation.

Before the Reformation, the Mass was the highlight of each church service. During the Mass, each Catholic drank wine and ate bread in honor of Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus Himself instituted the practice of drinking wine and eating bread in memory of His sacrifice on the cross (Luke 22:14–23). Zwingli participated in the Mass, but he thought it should be done in remembrance of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The Catholic Church argued that the bread and wine truly became the body and blood of Jesus during Mass. Zwingli argued that the Catholic teaching sacrificed Jesus’ body and blood at every Mass. Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Therefore, in Zwingli’s view, the Catholic practice of Mass disregarded Jesus’ proclamation that His death and resurrection finished His work. Instead, the Mass trapped people into depending on a priest for God’s forgiveness. Yet Jesus offered His grace freely to all who believed in Him (Ephesians 2:8–9). This issue, among others, motivated Zwingli to lead the churches in Zurich to reform.

Not all the Swiss cantons followed Zurich’s lead in leaving the Catholic Church. The Protestant and Catholic areas of Switzerland threatened one another and sought outside support. In 1529, Zwingli met with Luther in the town of Marburg to unite Protestants across Europe. Zwingli and Luther agreed on all their theology except the Lord’s Supper. Luther also disliked the Catholic notion of the bread and wine literally turning into Jesus’ body and blood during the Mass. However, he strongly disagreed with Zwingli’s teaching that the bread and wine merely represented Jesus’ body and blood. Luther and Zwingli failed to resolve their disagreement on the Lord’s Supper and went their separate ways. The lack of allies hurt Zwingli. He died at the Battle of Kappel in 1531 when Swiss Catholics attacked Zurich.

At the time of Zwingli’s death, the French-speaking regions of western Switzerland were beginning their Reformation. In 1536, Calvin traveled to Geneva on his way to the city of Strasbourg. The Protestant leaders in Geneva convinced Calvin to stay in the city. For almost thirty years, Calvin led the Reformation in Geneva. He wrote commentaries on almost every book of the Bible and published The Institutes of the Christian Religion, which served as an introductory work to Protestant theology and proved popular around Europe. Calvin built on the foundation of Zwingli’s preaching and teaching in Switzerland. Zurich and Geneva became two of the leading centers of Protestant theology during the Reformation.