# Did Zwinglie have a mistress/affair/common-law wife?



## RamistThomist

I think I read in William _______'s history of the church (his name escapes me). Something to the effect that Zwingle had a mistress or affair with some chick. Now, if it were in his pre-Reformed days, then it is all cool. But if he sort of kept her on afterwards, then there could be problems. Maybe he didn't want to pull an Augustine on her. 

But is this problematic for Protestant history apologetics?


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## Stephen

I have never heard this before, and I love church history. Many of the Popes had mistresses and committed perverted acts, but I am somewhat skeptical of this. I am not familiar with a history of the church by a Williams. I would certainly need more evidence before accepting this at face value.


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## VictorBravo

A recent book, _For the Glory of God:
How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery_
Rodney Stark, 2004, says that Zwingli secretly married his wife while a priest, and subsequently married her publicly after embracing the Reformation.



For the Glory of God: How Monotheism ... - Google Book Search

p. 92-93

On page 92 it says he had affairs before marrying his wife, all while a Catholic priest.


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## SRoper

Haven't heard that, but I have heard accusations that Beza was homosexual.


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## LadyFlynt

For the Glory of God: How Monotheism ... - Google Book Search
Page 93 states:



> By 1523 Zurich was officially Protestant, and the next year Zwingli publicly married (or remarried) his mistress Anna Reinhard.


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## VirginiaHuguenot

Source:



> Another controversy surrounding Zwingli’s life is his marriage to Anna Reinhard. Reportedly, Zwingli married Reinhard, a widow of high standing in the community, in a secret marriage in 1522. Zwingli kept his marriage a secret from all but his closest friends until he married her publicly on April 2, 1524. Some have theorized that this was because priests were forbidden from marrying in his day and he was afraid of backlash from doing so. Others have not been quite so kind and even accuse him of living with her in an unmarried state from 1522-1524 in what was called a “clerical marriage.” Regardless of the particulars, theirs was seen as a good marriage which resulted in the birth of four children, adding to the three she brought into the marriage. Their names were Regula Zwingli, born July 13,1524; Wilhelm Zwingli, born January 29, 1526; Huldreich Zwingli, born Jan. 6, 1528 and Anna Zwingli, born May 4, 1530.



For more on Anna Reinhard, see this extract from James I. Good's _Famous Women of the Reformed Church_ reprinted in _Leben_:

Leben, a journal of Reformed life


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## DTK

Ivanhoe said:


> I think I read in William _______'s history of the church (his name escapes me). Something to the effect that Zwingle had a mistress or affair with some chick. Now, if it were in his pre-Reformed days, then it is all cool. But if he sort of kept her on afterwards, then there could be problems. Maybe he didn't want to pull an Augustine on her.
> 
> But is this problematic for Protestant history apologetics?



You probably read it in Williston Walker's, _A History of the Christian Church_, and it does seem that was the case. He did marry her...


> Meanwhile, on April 2, 1524, Zwingli had publicly married Anna Reinhard, a widow, whom he and his friends, not without considerable gossip, had treated as in some sense his wife since 1522. p. 363.



DTK


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## Stephen

DTK said:


> Ivanhoe said:
> 
> 
> 
> I think I read in William _______'s history of the church (his name escapes me). Something to the effect that Zwingle had a mistress or affair with some chick. Now, if it were in his pre-Reformed days, then it is all cool. But if he sort of kept her on afterwards, then there could be problems. Maybe he didn't want to pull an Augustine on her.
> 
> But is this problematic for Protestant history apologetics?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You probably read it in Williston Walker's, _A History of the Christian Church_, and it does seem that was the case. He did marry her...
> 
> 
> 
> Meanwhile, on April 2, 1524, Zwingli had publicly married Anna Reinhard, a widow, whom he and his friends, not without considerable gossip, had treated as in some sense his wife since 1522. p. 363.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> DTK
Click to expand...



We can all attest to the power of sin in our lives before we are regenerated. Zwingli obviously was typical of the Roman Priests in that day.


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## DMcFadden

> No woman had been more respected in Zurich than Anna Reinhardt, the
> widow of Meyer von Knonau, Gerold’s mother. From Zwingle’s arrival,
> she had been one of his most attentive hearers; she lived near him, and he
> had noticed her piety, her modesty, and affection for her children. They
> young Gerold, who had become, as it were, his adopted son, drew him still
> closer to the mother. The sufferings undergone by this christian woman,
> who was one day to be more cruelly tried than any of her sex recorded in
> history, had communicated a seriousness that contributed to show forth
> her evangelical virtues more brightly. At this time she was about
> thirty-five years old, and her fortune only amounted to four hundred
> florins. It was on her that Zwingle fixed his eyes as a companion for life.
> He comprehended all the sacredness and sympathy of the conjugal state.
> He entitled it “a most holy alliance.” — “In like manner,” said he, “as
> Christ died for his followers, and gave himself entirely for them, so should
> married persons do all and suffer all for one another.” But Zwingle, when
> he took Anna Reinhardt to wife, did not make his marriage known. This is
> undoubtedly a blamable weakness in a man at other times so resolute. The
> light that he and his friends had acquired on the question of celibacy was
> not general. Weak minds might have been scandalized. He feared that his
> usefulness in the Church would be paralyzed, if his marriage were made
> public. He sacrificed a portion of his happiness to these fears,
> excusable perhaps, but which he ought to have shaken off.



D'Aubigne (_History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century _8.13) tends to whitewash the faults of the Reformers with a bit of hagiography. So, who knows what Zwingli really did. He had his first child three months after his public wedding. Reading the histories, I am not sure that his wife was entirely analogous to the mistresses taken by priests of the time (and for which they paid a special tax to the bishop). It sounds more like a secret marriage due to cowardice.


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## caddy

victorbravo said:


> A recent book, _For the Glory of God:_
> _How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery_
> Rodney Stark, 2004, says that Zwingli secretly married his wife while a priest, and subsequently married her publicly after embracing the Reformation.
> 
> 
> 
> For the Glory of God: How Monotheism ... - Google Book Search
> 
> p. 92-93
> 
> On page 92 it says he had affairs before marrying his wife, all while a Catholic priest.


 
Good book...and I recall this after you mentioned it Vic


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## Blueridge Believer

Stephen said:


> DTK said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ivanhoe said:
> 
> 
> 
> I think I read in William _______'s history of the church (his name escapes me). Something to the effect that Zwingle had a mistress or affair with some chick. Now, if it were in his pre-Reformed days, then it is all cool. But if he sort of kept her on afterwards, then there could be problems. Maybe he didn't want to pull an Augustine on her.
> 
> But is this problematic for Protestant history apologetics?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You probably read it in Williston Walker's, _A History of the Christian Church_, and it does seem that was the case. He did marry her...
> 
> 
> 
> Meanwhile, on April 2, 1524, Zwingli had publicly married Anna Reinhard, a widow, whom he and his friends, not without considerable gossip, had treated as in some sense his wife since 1522. p. 363.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> DTK
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 
> We can all attest to the power of sin in our lives before we are regenerated. Zwingli obviously was typical of the Roman Priests in that day.
Click to expand...



Some of us can attest to its power after we were regenerated.


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## PuritanCovenanter

Stephen said:


> We can all attest to the power of sin in our lives before we are regenerated. Zwingli obviously was typical of the Roman Priests in that day.



Even after regeneration our struggle with sin is no picnic.


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## Reformed Covenanter

PuritanCovenanter said:


> Stephen said:
> 
> 
> 
> We can all attest to the power of sin in our lives before we are regenerated. Zwingli obviously was typical of the Roman Priests in that day.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Even after regeneration our struggle with sin is no picnic.
Click to expand...


That is why so many believers have been helped by John Owen's books on Indwelling Sin, Mortification and Temptation. It really is a fight to the death. 

For what it's worth a friend of mine who spent a fair while at university studying Zwingli, told me about the story Jacob mentioned.


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## DTK

PuritanCovenanter said:


> Even after regeneration our struggle with sin is no picnic.



Indeed, Randy, the power of sin, and its dominion, has in principle been broken in the lives of the regenerate, but those on-going skirmishes to vanquish hell altogether from our souls is no picnic. It calls for serious, concentrated effort, and is nothing less than all-out warfare.

DTK


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## Semper Fidelis

Frank James speaks about it in his History of the Church II thing on iTunes RTS. Apparently the issue came up when he was applying to be the pastor at a city whose name escapes me and they asked him about it. To his discredit, he admitted to the sin but then blamed the woman for enticing him. One thing I appreciated about Frank James treatment of the history of the Reformers is that he spent some time revealing the warts on many of these men lest we be prone to hero worship.


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## RamistThomist

thanks, everyone!


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## Coram Deo

Here is an interesting quote:



> Zwingli apparently struggled early in life with sexual temptation. By his own admission he broke his vow of chastity on several occasions and often spoke of the shame that overshadowed his life. In fact, his appointment to the church in Zurich in 1519 was challenged based on rumors that he had seduced the daughter of an influential citizen. As it turned out, this "lady" had seduced many in Zurich, Zwingli among them. The charge of immorality was finally dropped when it was discovered that Zwingli's only rival for the post openly lived with several mistresses and had six illegitimate children! Zwingli himself lived with a widow, Anna Reinhart, and finally married her in 1524 shortly before the birth of their child.


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## BJClark

Well, I certainly can't hold this against the man, that he kept his marriage secret, for fear of how others would percieve him..I've been known to do the same thing..keep things secret for fear of other peoples reaction..for which God has convicted me--of making man's opinion more important to me than His..fearing man's reaction more than fearing God..

And I believe most of us have struggled with this at one time or another..fearing a bosses opinion or reaction, fearing a neighbors opinion or reaction, fearing a close friend or even a spouses opinion or reaction..to something we've said or done, that was not necessarily a 'sin' but that went against the court of public opinion..


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## DMcFadden

Zwingli had other warts more worisome than his secret marriage. Some of his political and military machinations (one leading to his own death in battle) showed a greater concern for political rather than theological reform than I'm comfortable with. I know it was in the era when church and state were fused. But, Zwingli seemed a little too comfortable with political solutions to theological problems.


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## Contra_Mundum

I think Dennis has a point. I think Zwingli would be very much "at home" in some of the more "politically aware" congregations in our own time. This is not to take away from his part in the Reformation era; but all things considered, he really is he godfather of the American Evangelical in more ways than one.

I say this with a sense of self-caution as well. Not because I am "politically aware" (except in a profoundly negative sense--I'm *aware* that we live in neo-Rome). But Zwingli was motivated from early on in his ministry by a deep sense of patriotism. He _loved_ his people, and his places, and some of his seeking after their best led him to oppose Roman vassalage, which led him to preaching the text _lectio continua_, and the rest is history (as they say).

Zwingli was a long-time opponent of the Mercenary profession. He was extremely distressed by seeing Rome's recruiters constantly passing through his district (and other Swiss cantons) and annually watching hundreds of poor, young men--with limited prospects, lured by promises of money and glory--enlist in the pope's armies. {If you ever wondered why the *modern* Vatican's soldiery is known as The Swiss Guard, now you know.} If they came back home ever, it was usually scarred, maimed, or drained--or all three.

And yet, there were always enough proud veterans, stories of martial glory passed around the local VFW pub, and next year a new crop of recruits--many of them leaving forever, many to die for a pope's territorial ambitions. A soldier's life has always been fraught with perils, frequently of the combat sort, more frequently of the spiritual sort. It would be an almost comical juxtaposition to set Cromwell's Roundhead army over against virtually any fighting force in history, in order to compare their "moral virtue." And without question, various degenerate popes' cohorts were not going to be known for their saintly discipline.

I guess, what I'm saying is: I think I understand Zwingli, and better now than even a few years ago. When there are SO MANY THINGS going wrong in your society, and you see the promise of the future throwing their lives away for the lies of people in power who don't care for them personally--just for what their flesh and blood can give them (for the least price)--for many ministers (who can see to the root issue) the temptation is to take on directly the political sources of the problems. To hurl invectives, or seek to get a new avenue of influence on the situation from the secular side.

Principially, I am dead set against this. But I can see and feel the attraction. Just like the "religious right's" crusades--starting in the 1970s, now entering its final stage of a generation of conflict--an epic blunder in my opinion, so also "contrarian grandstanding" is the same sort of misstep. The words of Paul were never more apt--"make it your _Ambition_...to mind your own (Christ's) business." (1 Thes 4:11).

Preachers, Christ's ministers, take heed.


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## Semper Fidelis

Great post Bruce. I heared one man say that Zwingli's patriotism was instrumental to the Reformation in a structural way in terms of getting a nation fired up about it but that Bullinger was more instrumental as a theologian. I think God used the resentment of many nations as a seedbed for the Reformation. Without the confluence of many historical events, many of which were not theological, some of the Reformers would have been killed up front and early.


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