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Zwick, Johann

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preacher and Reformer in the city and region of Constance, Switzerland, was born about 1496. He studied theology and jurisprudence, being made doctor of laws at Padua, and priest about 1518. He then came under the influence of Luther and Zwingli, married, and entered on a pastorate at Riedlingen in 1522; from which he was expelled, on account of his evangelical tendencies, by the Nuremberg Diet of 1525. After a time he was associated with Ambrose Blarer as preacher, and in the conduct of the Reformation at Constance, which was brought to a successful consummation in 1531. Zwick was especially concerned with the settling of plans for the education of the young, and with the introduction of an order of discipline in the Church. After the completion of such labors, the preachers of Constance engaged in the work of extending the Reformation over surrounding regions in Wirtemberg and Switzerland, Blarer being prominent in such service, while Zwick was by that fact obliged to restrict his efforts to more limited areas.

He gave twelve years of most arduous and exacting toil to the Church, and exhausted his entire patrimony before he applied to the council (1538) that provision might be made for his support. The union efforts of Bucer engaged the attention of Zwick in common with the Protestant clergy in general, but did not commend themselves to his judgment, though Luther's personality had somewhat impressed him at the Wittenberg Concord (May, 1536); and he thought that some concessions might be made to a man so eminent, especially since a meaning which the Swiss churches could endorse might be found in the great Reformer's doctrine of the bodily presence in the sacrament. He was eventually, however, constrained to see that no true agreement was possible upon this question; and his influence, joined with that of the other clergymen of Constance, gave to that city the unpleasant notoriety of being the only one which had not replied to Luther's agreement with Bucer. Zwick was also involved in the Schwenkfeldian disputes. He obtained possession of manuscripts written by Schwenkfeld, circulated them among friends, and aided in bringing the writings of Vadian against that agitator before the public. Zwick died as the clouds of the Smalcald war began looming in the distance.

After being repeatedly unwell, he went to Bischoffszell, in Thurgvia, to minister to an orphaned congregation, in which the ravages of pestilence were carrying away from ten to thirty adults, and as many children, in each week to the grave. He was himself attacked, and lay for several weeks rejoicing in the triumphs of faith, and died Oct. 23,1542. Dr. Voegeli, the physician whom Constance had sent to care for her favorite preacher, came away from the sickbed, where, he said, he had learned how to die, and soon followed his friend into the other world. Zwick was constantly busy with his pen; but he preferred to publish the works of others rather than his own productions. He caused the publication of a Latin-German New Testament at Zurich in 1535, and wrote a preface for it. He also prepared a number of catechisms. His principal importance to literature lies, however, in the field of hymnology. He issued a hymn-book in. 1536 (?), and a second enlarged edition in 1540. A collection of Latin hymns and prayers for educated young people, entitled Rhapsodie, whose date and authorship were long unknown, has recently been found attributed to Zwick in a note of the .16th century written in the Zurich copy of the Rhapsodie. See Zwick, Works and Letters, generally unpublished; Schelhorn, Sammlungen fir d. Geschichte, 1, 41 sq.; the more recent biographies of Blarer; and Herzog, Real- Encyklop. s.v.