Zwingli: God’s Armed Prophet
F. BRUCE GORDON
(YALE university press, 376 PP, £25)
Tablet bookshop price £22.50 • tel 020 7799 4064
During the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in 2017, a deluge of books and television documentaries appeared on the German arch-reformer Martin Luther. Many Swiss observers looked on bemused, wondering what all the fuss was about. After all, so some claimed, their man Huldrych Zwingli (inset) had set the ball rolling earlier. In reality, the two heresiarchs were contemporary competitors, demonstrating how the reformation was not one but a multiplicity of events. In his superb new biography, Bruce Gordon sets out to ensure that Zwingli is no longer a prophet without honour.
Luther was a colourful and dramatic character, but Zwingli (1484-1531) was a true firebrand priest and radical. Like so many of his compatriots, he joined the army, not as a notoriously tough Swiss pikeman, but as a chaplain on the side of the Pope. He was later to put his martial experience to use in his home country when it experienced Europe’s first intra-Christian conflict, in which Zwingli enthusiastically saw himself as God’s armed prophet.
