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Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1528)

Zwingli led the Reformation movement in the northern part of Switzerland. He was well educated and went to the University of Vienna. Zwingli became convicted of the state of the Roman church. Because of his studies he was also aware of the discrepancies between the teaching of the Roman church and the Scriptures themselves. He was strongly influenced by the writings of Wycliffe and Huss.

In 1519 Zwingli became a preacher in Zurich. He preached the true gospel of Christ and crowds flocked to hear him. The city was hit by the plague and there were many deaths. Zwingli himself caught the plague and was very ill for three months.

A new church, the Reformed Church, was set up and many of the regions within Switzerland adopted it. But those regions which remained Catholic and they persecuted the Protestants. In 1531 a civil war broke out and an army of Catholics invaded Zurich. Zwingli himself died. He was injured but he refused to allow a Catholic priest to hear a confession. Because of this he was killed by a sword and his body quartered and burnt. But the seed had been sown and the reformed faith made remarkable progress within Switzerland.