Anna Reinhart Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation

By Simonetta Carr - Posted at Place for Truth:

Most Protestants know the story of Katharina Van Bora, Martin Luther’s wife. Many books and articles have been written about her and her impact on Luther’s life and consequently on the Reformation. Fewer people have heard about Anna Reinhart, wife of Ulrich Zwingli, although her contribution might have been just as great. This is probably due to the scarcity of information about her life.

Anna was a widow when she met Zwingli. Her first husband, Hans Meier von Knonau, was a nobleman who could have given Anna a comfortable life. But his family opposed his choice of seventeen-year-old Anna as a bride, due to her lower social status (she was an inn-keeper’s daughter). When the couple married secretly in 1504, Hans’s family disinherited him.

For a while, John maintained an important rank in society. In 1511, he was appointed to the Zurich city council, but a shortage of money forced him to join the Swiss army as a mercenary. In 1517, after a strenuous campaign, he returned home in poor health and died soon after, leaving Anna a widow with two daughters, Margaret and Agatha, and a son, Gerold.

Some reconciliation with Hans’s parents took place after his death, when Hans’s father, also named Gerold, saw his three-year-old namesake at a fish market and was immediately impressed by his good looks (he might have seen some resemblance). When he learned that the boy was his grandson, Gerold senior took him on his lap and cried.

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