Zwingli

Jean Rilliet (1908-1980) was a Swiss reformed theologian. After studying in Strasbourg, Lausanne, Glasgow and Basel, he served as a pastor in Switzerland and abroad, and from 1964 at the Cathedral of St Pierre in Geneva. His doctoral thesis, on Alexandre Vinet, was completed in 1938, and in 1940 he was appointed lecturer at the University of Geneva, with research interests in Calvin, Barth and Ignatian theology. Besides his academic work, Rilliet wrote extensively on religion for the Geneva Tribune.

• Author's Foreword 9Introduction: The Swiss Background 11Part One: The Formative Years1. Childhood and Education 212. Vicar of Glarus and Chaplain in Italy 303. Chaplain A Einsiedeln: The Call To Zürich 404. Beginnings at Zürich: the ­Great Plague 48Part Two: The Reformer5. Zwingli, the Biblical Preacher 576. Ways and Means: the Temporizer 637. Lent, 1522: the Dramatic Affair of the Sausages 678. Final Attempts at Conciliation: the Rupture 71Part Three: The Protestant Revolution9. Abandonment of Ancient Practices 8310. End of Chapter and Cloisters 8711. From Mass to Lord's Supper 92

An exceedingly well planned volume, which, after an introductory essay on the Swiss people, takes the reader through every important aspect of Zwinglis career, including Marburg with all of its political and theological difficulties, and even manages to seize upon the appearance of Zwinglis Commentarius de vera et false religione (1525) to offer a descriptive review of Zwinglis theology in the course of some thirty pages. . . . A sound, eminently readable, even absorbing biography, that teaches us more about Zwingli, and does him greater justice, than any comparable volume I am aware of.