Ulrich Zwingli was born in 1484 at Wildhaus, Switzerland. He studied for two years each at Basel and Berne, and four years in Vienna, Austria. In 1502 he returned to Basel where he first encountered the New Testament. His father was a wealthy farmer and one day a neighbor said to Him:

"Friend Zwingli, thou shalt make thy son a priest."

"Yes," said his father, "I have already decided him for the schools."

After young Zwingli was graduated from the University at Berne he was ordained a priest. He served two churches for fourteen years, then was appointed to the Cathedral in Zurich in 1518. His early preaching there was devoted to expounding the words and miracles of Jesus and he came to see a contrast between the Gospel and the rules of the Roman Church.

He announced that he would no longer preach on the prescribed passages from the Bible selected for each Sunday, but instead would preach on the entire Gospel of Matthew with the Greek text in the pulpit before him. Thomas Platter was in the congregation and was so delighted to hear the Word of God complete and unadulterated that he felt he was being pulled by the hair of his head. Practical deductions were speedily made from biblical preaching, so that customs which had no warrant in Scripture were abandoned. Zwingli insisted that the teaching of the Reformers was not a departure from ancient custom but a return to the most primitive custom of all. He said: "We try everything by the touchstone of the Gospels and the fire of Paul."

Like Luther he had no intention of beginning a reform movement which would result in his withdrawal from the Roman Church. He did not question the Pope's authority but he did exalt the Word of God above the traditions of the Church. He led an independent movement.

He was great as theologian and preacher. In Zwingli more than in Luther, the Renaissance brought its gifts to the Reformation. Not by the path of religious experience as was Luther, but by his studies of the Scriptures and the Fathers, Zwingli was led to revolt against the tyranny of Rome over the human reason and conscience. After 1518 he exercised his gifts as a preacher in the interests of reform. He expounded Matthew in order to present the life and work of Jesus, and the Acts as the picture of the spread of the Gospel and of what the church should be; 1 Timothy as showing the Christian way of life; Galatians as the type of the apostolic saving faith; and Hebrews as the source of our knowledge of the mission and benefits of Christ. These sermons have not been preserved but there is abundant evidence that they exercised a great influence.

In 1523, a meeting of clerics and citizens was called in Zurich to consider the sixty-seven theses of Zwingli which proclaimed the Gospel as the only source of truth and denied validity to any practice not specified in the New Testament. The meeting drafted a resolution in his favor and within two years the Latin Mass was replaced by a German Eucharist and the minister faced the congregation across an ordinary table. As a result of his study of the Bible and his devotion to Christ, Zwingli possessed the experience of full salvation. As he grew in his knowledge of the Bible he grew in his love of the truth. He often uttered such words as: "Christ is our Sacrifice; we need no other," and "By one offering He hath perfected them that are sanctified."