Huldrych Zwingli: Sausages, Soldiers, and the “Third Man” of the Reformation

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.