Reformation in Switzerland

The Protestant Reformation in Switzerland was promoted initially by Huldrych Zwingli, who gained the support of the magistrate, Mark Reust, and the population of Zürich in the 1520s. It led to significant changes in civil life and state matters in Zürich and spread to several other cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy. Seven cantons remained Catholic, however, which led to intercantonal wars known as the Wars of Kappel. After the victory of the Catholic cantons in 1531, they proceeded to institute Counter-Reformation policies in some regions. The schism and distrust between the Catholic and the Protestant cantons defined their interior politics and paralysed any common foreign policy until well into the 18th century.

Despite their religious differences and an exclusively Catholic defence alliance of the seven cantons (Goldener Bund), no other major armed conflicts directly between the cantons occurred. Soldiers from both sides fought in the French Wars of Religion.

During the Thirty Years' War, the thirteen cantons managed to maintain their neutrality, partly because all major powers in Europe depended on Swiss mercenaries and would not let Switzerland fall into the hands of one of their rivals. The Three Leagues (Drei Bünde) of the Grisons were not yet a member of the Confederacy but were involved in the war from 1620 onward, which led to their loss of the Valtellina from 1623 to 1639.

After the violent conflicts of the late 15th century, the Swiss cantons had had a generation of relative political stability. As part of their struggle for independence, they had already in the 15th century sought to limit the influence of the Church on their political sovereignty. Many monasteries had already come under secular supervision, and the administration of schools was in the hands of the cantons, although the teachers generally still were priests.

Nevertheless, many of the problems of the Church also existed in the Swiss Confederacy. Many a cleric, as well as the Church as a whole, enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle in stark contrast to the conditions of the large majority of the population; this luxury was financed by high church taxes and abundant sale of indulgences. Many priests were poorly educated, and spiritual Church doctrines were often disregarded. Many priests did not live in celibacy but in concubinage. The new reformatory ideas thus fell on fertile ground.

The main proponent of the Reformation in Switzerland was Huldrych Zwingli, whose actions during the Affair of the Sausages are now considered to be the start of the Reformation in Switzerland. His own studies, in the renaissance humanist tradition, had led him to preach against injustices and hierarchies in the Church already in 1516 while he was still a priest in Einsiedeln. When he was called to Zürich, he expanded his criticism also onto political topics and in particular condemned the mercenary business. His ideas were received favorably, especially by entrepreneurs, businessmen, and the guilds. The first disputation of Zürich of 1523 was the breakthrough: the city council decided to implement his reformatory plans and to convert to Protestantism.

In the following two years, profound changes took place in Zürich. The Church was thoroughly secularised. Priests were relieved from celibacy and the opulent decorations in the churches were thrown out. The state assumed the administration of Church properties, financing the social works (which up to then were managed entirely by the Church), and also paid the priests. The last abbess of the Fraumünster, Katharina von Zimmern, turned over the convent including all of its rights and possessions to the city authorities on 30 November 1524. She even married the next year.

Over the next few years, the cities of St. Gallen, Schaffhausen, Basel, Bienne, Mulhouse, and Bern all followed the example set by Zürich. Bern was the first to follow Zürich, in 1528, when the aftermath of the Bern Disputation officially pronounced Bern as the second Protestant Swiss canton. Their subject territories were converted to Protestantism by decree. In Basel, reformer Johannes Oecolampadius was active, in St. Gallen, the Reformation was adopted by the mayor Joachim Vadian. In Glarus, Appenzell, and in the Grisons, which all three had a more republican structure, individual communes decided for or against the Reformation. In the French-speaking parts, reformers like William Farel had been preaching the new faith under Bernese protection since the 1520s, but only in 1536, just before John Calvin arrived there, did the city of Geneva fully convert to Protestantism. The same year, Bern conquered the hitherto Savoyard Vaud and also instituted Protestantism there.