Dr. John McNiell's "History and Character of Calvinism," 18ff.

1.     Zwingli’s Education and Early Pastorates, 18-29. Zwingli, born 1 Jan 1484 and a contemporary of Luther to the north, a 3^rd of 8 children, was reared in Wildhus, Switzerland. At six, he was given to his clerical uncle for education. Despite becoming well-educated, he did not hesitate to call himself or his family “peasants,” a chop on those delighting in recalling their ancestral nobilities. At 10, he attended school in Klein-Basel and learned Latin, music and dialectics. Like Luther, he had a life-long love of music. He almost entered a Dominican monastery. He attended the University of Vienna but was dismissed in 1499. At Vienna, he met Vadianus, Loriti, Faber, and Eck. He took a B.A. in 1504 and M.A. in 1506 at Basel. His Professor Wyttenback, a humanist, schooled him, stirred his academic interests, and framed an anti-indulgence perspective and views of Romanist abuses. This is before Luther and parallel to Luther. Luther was not the first on the trail either. In 1506, he was ordained and installed as priest in Glarus. He continued his scholarly interests. He learned Greek, persisted in it, and drew inspiration from Erasmus, including studies in Jerome and Augustine. Like Oecolampadius, Bullinger and Peter Vermigli, he knew patristic literature (contrary to claims often cited by Tractarian types), perhaps more so than Luther and Calvin who were also well-equipped. Zwingli was inside Froben’s learned inner circle. Zwingli also visited Italy twice as a Chaplain with Swiss mercenary troops. He began preaching against indulgences and that Christ’s merits were sufficient anywhere, with or without pilgrimages— “the abounding love of Jesus, by which alone men are saved” (26). “Christ alone saves and that He saves everywhere” (26). He served at Einseldn as a pastor with renewed vigor in the Scripture, referring in 1522 backwards to such a determination “to devote his whole strength to Scripture study” (26). It sounds like Cranmer in parallel. Word spreads of his preaching fame. He has a moral lapse (child born out of wedlock, 1518ish?). Despite the lapse (upon which McNiell does not enlarge), Zurich is elected to Zurich’s Great Minister. He assumes his duties 1 Jan 1519, age 35. Luther is months older than Zwingli, but not much further along in our estimation. If 1519, Cranmer is 30 and is in theological studies himself at Jesus College. Post tenebras, lux. WCF 5.