500: An Affair of Sausages

Introduction to 500 series

At this point, Zwingli’s preachings, though deviating from Church teachings, have not aroused too much condemnation. The Church, in dealing with Luther, is reluctant to make statements against a priest pushing the boundaries, hoping that they can contain him rather than creating outrage and fracturing.

However, during Lent of 1522, Zwingli and about a dozen parishioners consciously broke the fasting rules. They distributed two smoked sausages. Zwingli preached the following Sundays that rules on food and fasting were not derived from the Bible and therefore to break the rules of fasting were not sins. This became known as the Affair of Sausages and is marked the start of the Reformation in Switzerland.

The Diocese of Constance felt that it had to react to Zwingli's blatant disregard of Church teachings. A delegation was sent to Zurich. In May, the bishop admonished Zwingli, the participating parishioners, and the city council. In turn, in July, Zwingli and some others petitioned the bishop to abolish the requirement of celibacy for clergy. The petition was printed in German and distributed to the public. It became known throughout the city that Zwingli had already secretly gotten married. The bishop responded, telling the Zurich government to maintain ecclesiastical order over their city.

Not only was Zurich’s relations with the Church deteriorating, but his relations amongst other Swiss cantons was as well. On Dec. 22, 1522, the Swiss Diet recommended that members prohibit new teachings, a thinly veiled attack on Zurich’s counsel, who was letting Zwingli’s popular ideas flourish. The Zurich counsel finally decided they had to take some form of action to address what was going on. In 1523, they invited different factions to share their views, and the council would render a decision on who and what ideas would be allowed in Zurich. More than 600 people attended. However, the council’s stance didn’t change much, as everyone pretty much did as they liked.

Leo Jud, a close friend of Zwingli, called for the removal of icons and statues. This led to iconoclasm across the city. Zwingli and his followers also began questioning the role of Mass itself. He claimed that the Eucharist was not transubstantiated into the Body of Christ, that it was a commemorative meal. The council held another gathering to discuss these issues; this time the diocese did not send a representative. The debates also led to questions of who should be deciding these issues: the city authorities or Church authorities?

In just three short years, the Reformation fire had taken hold of Zurich. The city council approved of reform and let Zwingli’s ideas flourish. By 1524, the council had granted the orderly removal of images and certain holy days passed uncelebrated. The bishop tried to intervene again, but Zwingli, writing on behalf of the council, responded with the city officially breaking all ties to the Church.

On April 13, 1525, the council cancelled the celebration of Mass and Zwingli celebrated communion under his own liturgy, introducing a new order of worship to the canton. There was no music, and the memorialist communion was to be celebrated only four times a year. The council secularized church properties and abolished religious orders. Some monasteries were converted into hospitals.

Despite the swift changes taking place in Zurich, breaking with the Church far more than the Lutherans were, there was a growing group of reformers who felt that Zwingli's changes didn't go far enough. By introducing a theology based primarily on scriptural interpretation, Zwingli opened the door for groups to splinter over and over again as differences of interpretation develop.