How did a couple of sausages in 1522 lead to the denominational divide of a country, religious civil wars, and the eventual establishment of the Swiss federal state 300 years later? The Swiss Reformation permanently changed the course of Switzerland's history, introducing the rivalrous Reformed Protestant denomination to the Roman Catholic Church, and leading to the dissolution of Christianity's political power. Let's look at how the Swiss Reformation caused such irrevocable change to Switzerland.
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Jetzt kostenlos anmeldenHow did a couple of sausages in 1522 lead to the denominational divide of a country, religious civil wars, and the eventual establishment of the Swiss federal state 300 years later? The Swiss Reformation permanently changed the course of Switzerland's history, introducing the rivalrous Reformed Protestant denomination to the Roman Catholic Church, and leading to the dissolution of Christianity's political power. Let's look at how the Swiss Reformation caused such irrevocable change to Switzerland.
So when did the Swiss Reformation occur? And how did Switzerland change as a result? Let's dig in!
Below is a timeline outlining the key events of the Swiss Reformation.
Date | Event |
1518 | Huldrych Zwingli became the people's priest of the Grossmünster in Zürich. |
1522 | The Affair of the Sausages marked the beginning of the Swiss Reformation led by Zwingli. |
1523 | January – First Zürich Disputation. Zwingli published the 67 Artikels. |
October – Second Zürich Disputation. | |
1525 | Zürich became the first Swiss canton that followed Zwingli's reforms. |
1528 | Bern became a Reformed Canton. Zwingli formed das Christliche Burgrecht. The Catholic Forest cantons formed die Christlicht Vereinigung, allied with Austria. |
1529 | The First Kappel War. |
1531 | May – Reformed cantons blockade the Catholics. |
October – The Second Kappel War. Zwingli died in battle. Heinrich Bullinger succeeds Zwingli as leader of the Swiss Reformation. | |
1536 | Swiss Reformed cantons sign Bullinger's First Helvetic Confession.Geneva declares itself Protestant.John Calvin released his Institutes of the Christian Religion. |
1549 | Bullinger and Calvin managed to unite Zwinglianism and Calvinism under the Helvetic Confession, known as the Zürich Consensus. |
1562 | Bullinger wrote and revised the Second Helvetic Confession. |
1564 | John Calvin died. Theodore Beza assumed leadership of Reformed faith, based in Geneva. |
1566 | The Second Confession was published as the confession of the Reformed Swiss Cantons and was soon adopted by other European Reformed Churches such as Hungary, Scotland, Poland, and France. |
1586 | Swiss Catholic cantons formed the Goldener Bund to oppose Protestantism. |
1597 | The canton of Appenzell splits into Inner and Outer Appenzell according to Christian denomination (Catholic or Protestant respectively). |
1618 - 1648 | The Thirty Years' War. The Swiss mercenary armies fought for the other powers, but did not fight for Switzerland itself, which remained neutral. |
1648 | Treaty of Westphalia. Switzerland and other countries gain independence from the Holy Roman Empire. Switzerland's neutrality is officially recognised throughout Europe. Calvinism (Reformed Protestantism) was granted official religious status and were no longer persecuted throughout Europe. |
The Swiss Reformation took the loosely allied Old Swiss Confederacy and created conflicting denominational borders between cantons. After a series of civil wars between Catholics and Reformed Protestants, Switzerland eventually adopted a federal system rather than a union of states in 1848. The secular federal constitution formally separated religion and politics, granting Swiss citizens freedom of religion and conscience.
However, to get to this point, the Swiss Reformation had a long road ahead. It began with Zwingli's support of the Affair of the Sausages in 1522, whereby reformers illegally ate sausages during the Lent fast in protest of Catholic tradition. Afterwards, Zwingli established Reformed Protestantism in Switzerland. As the faith found its feet, Swiss cantons either reformed, kept their Catholic faith, or accepted a coexistence of the two.
Zwingli began the Reformation wishing to aggressively expand the Reformed faith into all cantons and establish a United Reformed Switzerland. This resulted in The Kappel Wars (1529 and 1531), during which Zwingli died on the battlefield of the Second Kappel War.
When Heinrich Bullinger succeeded Zwingli, the Swiss Reformation took a different turn and introduced the idea of coexistence with Catholics, so long as their faith was recognised and freely preached. Bullinger created the Helvetic Confessions to unite the Reformed Protestant faith across Switzerland. When he allied with John Calvin, the Reformed Church was united by a common Confession of Faith across Europe, but its followers were still persecuted within the Holy Roman Empire.
Following the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the Holy Roman Empire officially recognised the Reformed faith, and Switzerland gained its independence as a neutral country. Internally, however, there was still civil conflict between Reformed Protestants and Catholics due to the unification of the religion of the cantons and their political power within the Old Swiss Confederacy.
After several religious civil wars between the 17-19th centuries, Switzerland eventually became a secular federal state in 1848 which legislated the freedom of religion throughout the country's cantons. This separated religion and politics at a national level, and the new Constitution meant that Catholics and Reformed Protestants could coexist peacefully as neither could fight for political control of the country.
Every Reformation needs a leader, and in Switzerland there were two significant reformers who took the reins of the movement: Huldrych Zwingli and Heinrich Bullinger. Each had different ambitions for how Reformed Protestantism should progress, let's take a look at these individuals.
So who was Huldrych Zwingli, and how did he start the Swiss Reformation?
After Zwingli's death on the battlefield of the Second War of Kappel, Heinrich Bullinger became the leader of the Swiss Reformation. Let's see how Bullinger continued Zwingli's work!
After the Reformed Protestant faith was developed through Bullinger's Helvetic Confessions and Calvin's Institutes on the Christian Religion, the denomination developed a strong, united following throughout Europe. In Switzerland following the Second Kappel War in 1531, the Old Swiss Confederacy declared the principle of cuius regio, eius religio which allowed each canton to decide its faith, Catholic or Reformed Protestant.
Cuius regio, eius religio
Literally translated from Latin as 'whose region, their religion', this policy allowed whoever controlled an area to decide its own faith. This meant that Reformed Protestant leaders of Swiss cantons could legally declare their canton as Reformed.
Although the Swiss Reformed Church was permitted in Switzerland, the Reformation had spread across Europe and the Holy Roman Empire, which did not allow Reformed Protestants, only Catholics and Lutherans. Reformed Protestantism, or Calvinism, was still persecuted throughout the Empire. Let's look at how the Swiss Reformation affected Switzerland.
As the Reformed faith spread throughout Europe, Switzerland was surrounded by warring countries sparked by the prospective Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, who wanted to enforce Catholicism within the Empire.
Switzerland avoided becoming a belligerent country due to its policy of neutrality. After the Swiss defeat at the Battle of Marignano in 1515, the peace treaty declared that Switzerland would not engage in warfare with France again. This policy was soon followed for future conflicts and endorsed by the Swiss Reformation as Zwingli was opposed to conflict and the mercenary system.
Switzerland's cantons divided into Protestant and Catholic during the Swiss Reformation. This meant that allying to either side of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) would have pulled the Old Swiss Confederacy apart. Therefore, Switzerland as a country continued its policy of neutrality, but the Swiss mercenary armies still fought in the employment of the belligerent countries based on alliances and shared faith.
Switzerland avoided becoming a belligerent country due to its policy of neutrality. After the Swiss defeat at the Battle of Marignano in 1515, the peace treaty declared that Switzerland would not engage in warfare with France again. This policy was soon followed for future conflicts and endorsed by the Swiss Reformation as Zwingli was opposed to conflict and the mercenary system.
The Thirty Years' War concluded in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, a series of treaties signed by the belligerent parties to resolve the conflicts.
The Treaty of Westphalia meant Switzerland gained its international status of neutrality and recognised the Reformed Protestant faith. The power of the Holy Roman Empire over Europe was broken, and the Treaty divided Europe along boundaries that are recognisable today. Switzerland was still nominally under the Holy Roman Empire, but effectively had become exempt from its jurisdiction.
Swiss Domestic Affairs after Westphalia
Despite the international neutrality, the Old Swiss Confederacy continued to have civil wars between Protestant and Catholic cantons. This was because Catholics still held a majority in the Confederacy's Tagzatsung and therefore Reformed Protestants were unable to effect change in the country. This brief timeline shows how civil war and the French invasion paved the way for new Swiss politics.
Date | Event | Victors | Outcome |
1656 | First War of Villmergen. | Catholic cantons. | Catholics still held majority in Confederacy. |
1712 | Second War of Villmergen (Toggenburg War). | Reformed cantons. | Protestants broke the Catholic hegemony. Subsequent rise in protestant liberalism caused the creation of the Catholic Sonderbund in defence. |
1798 | French invasion of Switzerland | France | France set up the Helvetic Republic as an ally whilst dissolving the Old Swiss Confederacy. This restructured Switzerland. |
1803 | Act of Mediation | Switzerland | Napoleon agreed Switzerland was naturally a federal state and relinquished the country back to cantonal control. The Swiss Confederation was born. |
1847 | Sonderbund War. | Reformed cantons and liberals. | The Liberal Protestants beat the Conservative Catholics and were able to change Swiss governance. |
1848 | New Federal State was formed. | / | The Liberals created the Federal state of Switzerland with a new constitution which separated politics and religion. |
The Swiss Reformation had created a seemingly irresolvable split in Switzerland so long as religion and politics were intertwined so heavily. Napoleon restructured Switzerland with the Helvetic Republic and allowed Swiss allies to join the country, something that was impossible beforehand due to the denominational split.
After the Helvetic Republic was dissolved in 1803, cantonal control continued, but the rise of Liberalism sought to resolve the denominational political rivalry. In 1815, long-term ally Protestant Geneva was finally admitted to the Confederacy, showing the changing attitude of Swiss politics. In 1848, a Federal state with a new Constitution created a secular Government, ending the religiously motivated civil wars in the country by removing the influence of religion on the state's politics.
Huldrych Zwingli began the Swiss Reformation with his support of the 1522 Affair of the Sausages. He then developed the Reformed Protestant faith throughout Switzerland, converting some cantons against Catholicism. Zwingli died during the Second Kappel War in 1531 and was succeeded by Heinrich Bullinger, who, with his alliance with John Calvin, helped to unite the Reformed faith throughout Switzerland and the rest of Europe. The continent engaged in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), but Switzerland remained neutral. However, with Switzerland split between denominations, the sovereignty of the Old Swiss Confederacy was unstable and eventually dissolved for a Federal State in 1848 with a constitution that allowed freedom of religion. The Swiss Reformation can be seen as having a long-term effect of splitting the religious influence of Swiss politics.
Huldrych Zwingli started the Swiss Reformation with his support of the 1522 Affair of the Sausages, and the creation of the 67 Artikels in 1523.
The Swiss Reformation began in 1522 after the Affair of the Sausages.
The Zwinglian Reformation is the period that Huldrych Zwingli led the Reformed Protestant faith in Switzerland against the Catholic Church. He wanted to aggressively spread his Reformed faith throughout Switzerland with forced conversions. This led to the Kappel Wars, during which Zwingli died on the battlefield. The Reformation was then led by Heinrich Bullinger who introduced a new era of moderation within Reformed Protestantism.
The Affair of the Sausages in 1522 can be seen as the start of the Swiss Reformation as a group of rebels broke Catholic traditional rules by eating meat during Lent. Zwingli supported the act and created a theological argument in support, known as the 67 Artikels, in 1523. The combination of the two events helped to established the new Reformed Protestant denomination in Switzerland.
Which combined philosophy did Zwingli follow which advocated for a religion-based government?
Theocracy
Which Swiss city did Zwingli first convert to Reformed Protestantism?
Zürich
Why did the Catholic forest cantons dislike Zwingli's pacifist reforms in Zürich?
They relied on the mercenary system as a main form of income
Which of these cantons was NOT in Zwingli's das Christliche Burgrecht?
Lucerne
Which Catholic country did die Christliche Verienigung ally with in 1529?
Austria
In which year was the First Kappel War declared?
1529
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