Huldrych Zwingli

Born in 1484 during the rise of Swiss nationalism and growing distaste for the mercenary trade, Zwingli studied at Vienna and Basel, steeping in Renaissance humanism and Erasmus. He served as pastor in Glarus and Einsiedeln before landing at Zurich's Grossmünster in 1519, where he began preaching straight through Matthew - then the entire New Testament - verse by verse, a radical break from the Catholic mass. By 1522 he was attacking Lenten fasting in public; by 1525 he'd replaced the Mass with a new communion liturgy, promoted clerical marriage, and purged the churches of images. His reforms spread across the Swiss Confederation but split it: Reformed cantons lined up behind him, Catholic cantons dug in. He and Luther met at Marburg in 1529 and agreed on much, but fractured over the Eucharist. Two years later, Zwingli's alliance blockaded the Catholic cantons; they struck back when Zurich wasn't ready, and he fell in battle at forty-seven.