Zwingli, Anna Reinhard (1487–c. 1538)

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Zwingli, Anna Reinhard (1487–c. 1538)

Swiss Protestant leader and wife of Huldrych Zwingli. Name variations: Anna Reinhard. Born in 1487 in Switzerland; died around 1538 in Zurich, Switzerland; daughter of Oswald Reinhard (landlord of the Little Horse Inn) and Elizabeth (Wynzuern) Reinhard; married Hans Meyer van Knonau (died); married Ulrich Zwingli also seen as Huldreich or Huldrych Zwingli, in 1522 (died 1531); children: (first marriage) Margaret, Agatha, Gerrold; (second marriage) Regula, Anna, Wilhelm, Huldrych.

Born in 1487, Anna Reinhard was considered a beautiful woman. However, when she married Hans Meyer von Knonau, he was disinherited by his prominent family. When he died, she was left with two daughters, Margaret and Agatha , and a son, Gerrold. She began attending the church of Huldrych Zwingli, who became known as "Switzerland's Martin Luther," and was attentive to his message. He admired her charitable ways—she was called the "apostolic Dorcas" in Zurich—and they were married privately in 1522, while he was still considered a Roman Catholic priest. In 1519, he had begun to preach against clerical celibacy, monasticism, and other practices of the church. In 1524 they publicly celebrated their marriage, a year before Martin Luther's marriage to former nun Katharina von Bora . Although rumors circulated that Zwingli married for the wealth and beauty of his wife, Anna had only 400 guilders in addition to her wardrobe and jewels. She ceased wearing her jewelry after the marriage. The Zwinglis had four children together: two daughters, Regula and Anna , and two sons, Wilhelm and Huldrych.

Zwingli became the leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, and the Zwingli home became a center for people who opposed the pope and who broke with the Roman Catholic Church. Anna Zwingli supported her husband's views and welcomed the dissidents into her home. In 1531, an army of the Catholic states in the Swiss Confederation approached Zurich. Zwingli raised a Protestant army and became its chaplain. Upon the death of her husband, Anna Zwingli remained under the care of his successor, Heinrich Bullinger, until her death seven years later, around 1538. In her mother's stead, Regula Zwingli opened her home to refugees from England, inheriting her love of people from Anna who, three centuries after her death, was still remembered as the helpmate of Switzerland's greatest reformer.