From time to time, Mr. Gray is impressed by strange types, and for no reason or reason. Only their story. The course of their life. e.g. Swiss Ulrich Zwingli (Ulrich Zwingli).

This strange Swiss, born on the new year of the distant 1484, could appear next to the famous names of the great religious reformers, Luther and Calvin. He didn’t deserve it.

In 1506 he would receive a degree in theology and be ordained a priest. At some point, he begins to seek the truth of the gospel. However, Zwingli stands out from his two hippos. Protestantism: distinguished by a humanistic spirit. He dreams of ending Socrates, not the pope. Somehow his wish will come true…

In 1518, he emphasizes the attitude of believers to the New Testament, but dismisses the Apocalypse as unbearably gloomy and prevents the sale of “pardons” in Zurich.

A year later, the Swiss city is struck by a plague. But he will not abandon his people. He himself will suffer from the epidemic, but he will be spared. This test will lead him to a more decisive break with Rome: in 1522-23, he publishes his 67 theses against fasting, images and other religious customs, considering preaching in the church sufficient. He rejects the celibacy of the clergy and marries. In essence, it expresses the independence of the ordinary Christian from the organized Church. And if he first enters into an alliance with Luther, he soon separates his position from him.

In 1529 Zwingli turned the citizens of Zurich and Bern against the Catholic cantons. A veteran of former civil conflicts as a mercenary chaplain, the old humanist now goes to war for this very reason, in contrast to his mentor Erasmus, who denounces him directly.

In 1531, Ulrich Zwingli would lead his followers to Kappel against rival Catholics. But the fight is uneven. Shortly before his 47th birthday, he will fall along with five hundred other comrades on the battlefield.

As he said, Socrates is better than the Pope. He almost made it. But in all this he sacrificed something besides life itself: the humanistic spirit, which was also his starting point.

A tragic irony: the reform movement of Zurich, its own offspring, will be assimilated by the vulgar Calvinism that originated in another Swiss city, Geneva. Zwingli’s name will fade into the background. And for that alone, says Mr. Gray, he deserves to be remembered.