The Mountain Boy's Quest
Ulrich Zwingli
Seven-year-old Ulrich Zwingli dangled his feet from an Alpine ledge, while his brothers herded the flock together. He gazed across the snow-topped mountains toward Zurich, not dreaming of the part he would play in the city's future.
"Let's go, loafer. The sun is sinking fast," one of his brothers called from below.
"Let me admire the work of God a little longer," he pleaded.
"Time enough for that at mass."
Ulrich sighed as he picked up the short shepherd's staff his father had whittled for him. He thought of the monotonous Latin chanting of the village priest, which none of the people understood. As he followed his brothers reluctantly down the narrow path, he murmured aloud, "I can see more of God here than I can in church."
The following year, Ulrich's father sent him to study with an uncle who was a priest. Two years later, he was sent to a private school at Basel, Switzerland, where he studied Greek and Latin.
By his thirteenth birthday his interests included music, writing, and poetry. The Dominican monks
Page 24
saw the budding young genius and begged him to enter the monastery.
"I'm not so sure that's what God wants me to do," the precocious boy replied. "How can I find God while I'm shut up in a castle?"
An urgent message from his father advised, "Come home at once. Don't let the monks influence you."
Ulrich's father was beginning to question the teachings of Rome, so instead of entering the monastery, Ulrich went to study at the University of Vienna. He enjoyed his classical studies there, but he complained that he was learning too much about heathen poets and not enough about Christ.
In the year 1507, he received his master's degree in theology. He was only twenty-two. Still he wanted to acquire more religious knowledge.
"Thomas Wyttenback can teach you the Scriptures," a student friend assured him.
Wyttenback turned out to be a bold reformer. He showed Ulrich how purgatory, prayers to saints, and the rule of priests were not in agreement with the Bible.
"But if I can't trust the church, whom can I trust?" Ulrich lamented.
"You can trust Christ," his teacher retorted. "He alone bore your sins, not the priests."
Ulrich Zwingli studied his Latin Bible late into the night. When he returned to the teacher, his convictions were shaped. "I have put my trust in Christ for the forgiveness of my sins," he declared.
It was obvious how much this decision meant in the years ahead. After further studies, Ulrich Zwingli boldly stepped out in opposition to the Roman church.
Page 25
In 1520, while serving as pastor in Zurich, he proclaimed, "The Word of God will take its course as surely as does the Rhine; one may dam it up for awhile but its flow cannot be stopped."
The Word of God did take its course. Across the Alps in Germany, Martin Luther took his stand, not unaware of Zwingli's impassioned preaching. Thirteen years later, John Calvin made known his convictions on justification by faith. Two years after that, Menno Simons joined the ranks of the Reformers. Then came John Knox, the Scottish firebrand, his convictions also tempered by the writings of Zwingli.
These five — Zwingli, Luther, Calvin, Simons, and Knox — shook all of Europe during the sixteenth century. But the mountain boy, Ulrich Zwingli, who became the Reformer of Switzerland, was the first among them to trust wholly in Christ.
