Huldrych Zwingli was the originator of the Reformed branch of Protestantism. Independently of Martin Luther, Zwingli came to a reforming posture early in the 1520s. Under his leadership the Zurich church established its independence from Rome, created a new church order and discipline, and developed an evangelical theology and worship. Zwingli was a Swiss patriot, a humanist, and a theologian. First and foremost, however, he was a Reformer.

Zwingli was born in Wildhaus, in the Toggenburg Valley fifty-five miles east of Zurich, on 1 January 1484, the third of ten children. His father, also named Huldrych, was a successful farmer and local magistrate; his mother was Margaretha Meili. At the age of five Zwingli went to study with his uncle Bartholomew, a cleric in the village of Weesen on Lake Wallen, southwest of Wildhaus. In 1494 he went to Basel for further schooling; three years later he studied at Bern for...