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Grossmünster, Zurich
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · Grossmünster

Grossmünster, Zurich

Zwingli and the sausages · Switzerland

On 1 January 1519, his 35th birthday, Ulrich Zwingli began as preacher in the Grossmünster. Instead of following the set readings, he preached straight through the Gospel of Matthew, chapter by chapter. Step by step the city council of Zurich adopted the Reformation, and from here it spread through Switzerland. Today you can climb one of the twin towers, and the church's bronze doors show scenes from the Bible and the Reformation.

Did you know?

It started publicly with a plate of sausages: in 1522 friends of Zwingli ate meat during Lent and he defended them.

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An inspiring story

The sausage that started a Reformation

Can a plate of sausages change history?

During Lent in 1522, when eating meat was forbidden, a group of men at the house of the Zurich printer Christoph Froschauer sat down to eat smoked sausages. The pastor Huldrych Zwingli was there; he did not eat, but he did not stop them either. When the scandal broke, Zwingli preached a sermon defending them: nowhere in the Bible is this forbidden, and Christ has set people free. Why defend something as small as sausages? Because for him it was about something big: whether rules made by people may stand above the freedom God gives.

That sermon set the Reformation in Zurich in motion. Sometimes great questions begin at the kitchen table.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.Galatians 5:1

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