True History - Veritas Card #28 (Orange Card) - Ulrich Zwingly and the Anabaptists

Ulrich Zwingli and the Anabaptists - 1525

       The Reformation began in Germany in 1517, and the effects of it were being spread to different parts of Europe. In Switzerland, Ulrich Zwingli was the one heading the Reformation that was going on there. He became pastor of the church of Zurich in 1519, and he had some different ideas of the Reformation than Luther. Both Luther and Zwingli were fighting the Roman Catholic Church at the same time though. There were thirteen political districts which made up the country of Switzerland. These were called 'cantons'. The cantons in the south of Switzerland were fighting the cantons in the north because the ones in the north wanted to become Protestant, while the cantons in the south were trying to stay Roman Catholic. It was during this war that Zwingli died, in the year 1531 .
         There was also another group of people who had religious convictions about the baptism of children. These people were called 'Anabaptists'. They believed in a voluntary church and in living a pacifist lifestyle. They became under severe persecution for their beliefs. One of their members, Menno Simons, was the founder of the Mennonite denomination. So when you see a Mennonite church, he was the one who came up with the idea for that one.