Erasmian humanism paved the way for the spread of the Protestant Reformation in the Swiss Confederation. Basel’s printing houses played a major role in the diffusion of Luther’s ideas, which were then further disseminated by preachers in other cities. Supported by Zurich’s ruling council, Huldrych Zwingli played a key role in spreading the Evangelical movement in Switzerland. Anabaptism also attracted many adherents, but persecution effectively marginalised the movement and limited it to rural areas. Central Switzerland remained staunchly Catholic, and a brief war broke out between Catholic and Protestant Confederates in 1531. The resulting Peace of Kappel rolled back the progress of reform and created a bi-confessional structure within the Confederation. The Catholic cantons formed a majority but they were countered by the powerful Reformed cities of Zurich, Basel, Bern and Schaffhausen. Through the second half of the century these cities allied with Geneva and developed a strong Swiss Reformed identity in response to both German Lutherans and the Tridentine Catholicism that spread from Italy. Confessional tensions were particularly marked in areas jointly governed by Protestant and Catholic members of the Confederation, but competing religious loyalties were never strong enough to overcome their shared political identity as Swiss.

The third part of this book deals with the emergence of Protestantism, and the various approaches to the question of justification that emerged within the various evangelical movements in the first three decades of the sixteenth century. Chapter 11 deals with the important question of whether there can be said to be a single or coherent ‘Reformation’ doctrine of justification. The chapter surveys the evidence, which suggests that a number of approaches to justification emerged within evangelical groups in early sixteenth-century Switzerland and Germany, with varying attitudes towards the perceived importance of the doctrine, and how it was to be framed. Initially, the concept of justification was not understood forensically, tending to be seen as primarily transformational. The chapter tracks the growing consensus across evangelical movements which led to consolidation of the view that justification by faith was of central importance, and that it was to be understood as a change in status rather than a change in nature. These points are addressed in greater detail in subsequent chapters.