Episode Details

Move over Luther and Calvin—this week on pplpod, we are heading to the Swiss Confederation to explore the life of Huldrych Zwingli, the often-overlooked "Third Man of the Reformation" . Join us as we examine how a humanist priest kicked off a religious revolution, not with a hammer and nails, but by eating smoked sausages during Lent.

In this episode, we cover:

• The Affair of the Sausages: How a rebellious dinner party in 1522 defied fasting rules and sparked the Reformation in Zurich.
• Bible over Tradition: Zwingli’s radical decision to abandon the church lectionary and preach through the Gospel of Matthew verse-by-verse.
• The Marburg Colloquy: The dramatic face-to-face showdown with Martin Luther, where the two reformers failed to agree on the Eucharist—specifically whether the body of Christ was physically present in the bread.
• Feuds and Fractions: Zwingli’s crackdowns on religious images, his secret marriage, and his deadly conflict with the radical Anabaptists, which led to the first Anabaptist martyrdom in Zurich.
• The Warrior Priest: Zwingli’s ultimate fate on the battlefield of the Kappel Wars, where he died as a soldier-chaplain defending his city.

Tune in to learn how this musician, scholar, and soldier shaped the Reformed tradition and left a complicated legacy that survives to this day.