Happy 526th birthday to Who2’s unofficial mascot, Ulrich Zwingli.
The cranky Swiss theologian was born on this day in 1484.
Zwingli was “the Protestant Reformer who survived bubonic plague, had a secret marriage at age 38, and still ended up playing Avis to Martin Luther‘s Hertz.” He also proclaimed the Bible, not Catholic hierarchy and tradition, to be the sole source of Christian authority, which didn’t play too well at the Vatican. (Between the pope and Luther, Zwingli knew how to pick his enemies.) He’s also one of your few famous Protestant reformers to be wounded in battle and then slain for refusing a Catholic confessor.
To sum up: Zwingli wrestled with alligators, tussled with a whale, handcuffed lightning and threw thunder in jail. He murdered a rock and hospitalized a brick; he was so mean, he made medicine sick.
Happy 626th, Ulrich Zwingli, wherever you are!