Basic HTML Version
Chapter 9—Light Kindled in Switzerland
A few weeks after the birth of Luther in a miner’s cabin in
Saxony, Ulric Zwingli was born in a herdsman’s cottage among the
Alps. Reared amid scenes of natural grandeur, his mind was early
impressed with the majesty of God. At the side of his grandmother
he listened to the few precious Bible stories she had gleaned from
the legends and traditions of the church.
At the age of thirteen he went to Bern, which then possessed the
most distinguished school in Switzerland. Here, however, a danger
arose. Determined efforts were put forth by the friars to lure him
into a monastery. Providentially his father received information of
the designs of the friars. He saw that his son’s future usefulness was
at stake and directed him to return home.
The command was obeyed, but the youth could not be long con-
tent in his native valley, and he soon resumed his studies, repairing,
after a time, to Basel. It was here that Zwingli first heard the gospel
of God’s free grace. Wittembach, while studying Greek and Hebrew,
had been led to the Holy Scriptures, and thus rays of divine light
were shed into the minds of the students under his instruction. He
declared that the death of Christ is the sinner’s only ransom. To
Zwingli these words were as the first ray of light that precedes the
dawn.
Zwingli was soon called from Basel to enter upon his lifework.
His first labor was in an alpine parish. Ordained as a priest, he “de-
voted himself with his whole soul to the search after divine truth.
[110]
The more he searched the Scriptures, the clearer appeared the
contrast between truth and the heresies of Rome. He submitted
himself to the Bible as the Word of God, the only sufficient, infallible
rule. He saw that it must be its own interpreter. He sought every help
to obtain a correct understanding of its meaning, and he invoked
the aid of the Holy Spirit. “I began to ask God for His light,” he
1
Wylie, bk. 8, ch. 5.
101