1519–1531

Huldrych Zwingli and the Reformation in Zurich

In January 1519 the humanist-Erasmian Huldrych Zwingli was appointed preacher in Zurich. He began a programme of reform grounded in the "clarity and certainty of the Word of God". Scripture alone was to be the basis of faith.

In 1522 the "Froschauer affair" (breaking the Lenten fast) and the dispute over clerical marriage showed the need for a formal mechanism to settle disputes. In January 1523 the First Zurich Disputation confirmed the city council's right to decide what accorded with Scripture. The Second Disputation (October 1523) dealt with the mass and images.

By 1525 images had been removed, the monasteries dissolved, and the mass abolished. Zwingli increasingly saw the Reformation not as an educational process but as the work of divine providence.