The Spreading Flame Part 4 Winds of Change

When Ulrich Zwingli stood up in the Holy Shrine of Einsiedeln and told the pilgrims that the money they spent on indulgences was 'a foolish waste,' it more or less marked the end of his relationship with the church of his fathers.

Zwingli was a diligent student of the Bible and it was his faithful proclamation of scriptural truth which did most to bring about reform in Switzerland.

His primary object was not the overthrow of the Papacy, although that was indeed the final outcome. His chief aim was the restoration of true religion as he saw it declared in Scripture.

Under Zwingli's influence the people came to its fountain of knowledge, and as they did so the truth entered, the heart was cleansed, the understanding was liberated, and the conscience relieved from the burden of mere religious observance. All across the country towns and hamlets came out of darkness as men and women turned to the living lamp of the Word of God.

While Zwingli was changing the religious face of Switzerland, in England, the work of reformation was also advancing.

In 1525, when King Henry the Eighth, that most colorful of monarchs, wanted to get rid of his first wife in favor of a woman who might possibly bear him a son and heir, a rift with the Church of Rome was inevitable.

This predicament over the king's marriage arrangements was to be one of those winds of change that would have more effect on the nation than any of the key players could ever have imagined.

It involved the astute religious negotiation of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the wily political maneuverings of Thomas Cromwell, England's most powerful statesmen at the time.

When the dust of political and religious reform eventually settled, England was a transformed country. The chains of Papal subservience were broken, the Bible was restored to a place of moral supremacy and the light of truth was beginning to shine throughout the land. Strange .. and wonderful .. how the winds of God's providence blow in favor of the truth.