Zeitgeist in Zurich Trivia Quiz

Answer: Desiderius Erasmus

Zwingli studied at the University of Basel in Switzerland, which was a bastion of humanist teaching. The writing of Erasmus influenced him while he was still Catholic, but once Zurich gave him their confidence, he began to perform Mass according to his own prerogatives.

Erasmus later lived in Basel, which was a part of Switzerland, and Zwingli actively tried to court him to his cause. However, Erasmus rejected his overtures and condemned Zwingli's religious teachings as radical, just short of heretical. The condemnation was said to upset Zwingli greatly. Eventually, Protestantism ruled in the city of Basel and Erasmus was forced to flee.

Answer: Reformed

The Reformed Church in Switzerland certainly had its roots under Zwingli and with later reformers such as John Calvin and Heinrich Bullinger. The traditions of the church weren't labeled as Calvinism until much later when Lutherans wanted to distinguish themselves from the Reformed movement. Even early on, Zwingli was not afraid to separate himself from some of Luther's teachings, though he did admire the other man.

Answer: Affair of the Sausages

Ulrich Zwingli had increasingly preached that the Bible ought to be the only source of religious law, and that rules conceived outside its mandate were irrelevant. He believed that fasting from meat during Lent ought to be voluntary since there was no biblical explanation for the rule.

The Affair of the Sausages took place in Zurich at the house of Christoph Froschauer, a printer who printed Zwingli's translation of the Bible. While Zwingli didn't consume any sausage himself, he vociferously defended those who had consumed the meat. Strangely, it was this event that forever shattered any ties between Zurich and the Catholic Church.

Answer: Hiring out Swiss mercenary troops

It had long been a tradition of the Swiss to hire out mercenaries to foreign armies. This practice made landowners and established families as very rich at the expense of their poor subjects. Zwingli had preached against the practice long before his conversion, but once he came to power in Zurich, he actively discontinued the practice.

The Catholic areas relied on the hiring out of mercenaries as their major source of income and outlawing the practice would effectively impoverish them. This threat to their existence and power meant that they would resist any attempts at conversion.

Answer: The adherence to seven sacraments

As with most Protestant religions, Zwingli was against the ornateness of Catholic churches as well as the tradition of the Catholic Mass. He also disapproved of the ban of clerical marriage and he even, himself, married.

Zwingli was, however, against the adherence of the traditional seven sacraments, which he said were not all found in the Bible. Instead, only baptism and the taking of the Eucharist were kept as sacraments.

Answer: Anabaptists

The Anabaptists criticized Zwingli for not including the concept of adult baptism into the Swiss Reformation. For many Christians, the Anabaptists were the most radical of all the Protestant movements, though some believe it was a separate movement altogether. Zwingli rebuked them, believing that the Bible said nothing of "re-baptism" and that one baptism was enough. Anyone who performed re-baptisms in Zurich was forced to flee or was executed.

Answer: The Archduchy of Austria

Ferdinand I of Austria was happy to promise his fellow Catholics protection; however, the civil bickering of the usually autonomous Swiss Confederation was not a problem he wanted to commit to militarily. When Zurich and the other Protestant cantons raised an army to attack the Catholic cantons, Austria didn't come to their aid, which led them to surrender without a shot fired.

Answer: Bern

After the Catholics had executed the preacher Jacob Kaiser, Zurich was furious and wanted to end the predominance of Catholicism in the holdout cantons. Austria's subsequent abandonment of these Catholic cantons allowed the Protestant cantons to win the war without incident, which was to the benefit of the canton of Bern.

Bern wished to solve the religious problems of the Swiss Confederacy diplomatically as they were located near many larger Catholic nations and were subject to invasion. They allied themselves with Zurich only tenuously, and weren't reliable to be called on to fight militarily to eliminate Catholicism from Switzerland.

In the Second War of Kappel, the Catholic cantons raised an army and surprise-attacked an ill-prepared Zurich, who couldn't raise a sufficient army in time. In the battle that ensued, Zwingli was killed and the dream of complete Protestant unity across the Swiss Confederation had been lost.

Answer: The interpretation of Christ in the Eucharist

Papal authority, the sale of indulgences, and the excesses of clergy were three ideas in which the varying Protestant sects were mostly in agreement in terms of reform. It was in the interpretation of the Eucharist that the two Protestants disagreed.

While Catholicism held that the bread and wine were changed into the physical body and blood of Christ, Luther believed only that there was a "real presence" of the blood and body of Christ, as he was present everywhere. Zwingli was one step removed from even that position, believing that the bread and wine only signified the body and blood, having no real presence of Christ in it.

Answer: Geneva

John Calvin had difficulty at first preaching in Geneva, and was forced to leave. After reforming the churches in Strasbourg for a time, he was welcomed back to Geneva with open arms. Geneva had become a powerhouse for the Swiss Reformation movement.

Calvin successfully established himself as a force for the Protestant Reformation on par with Martin Luther. The Reformed faith soon became synonymous with Calvinism. "Zwinglism" would not catch on as a way to describe the Reformed faith.