Leo Jud facts for kids
Leo Jud (born 1482 – died June 19, 1542) was an important Reformer from Switzerland. He worked closely with Huldrych Zwingli in the city of Zürich. His friends called him Meister Leu.
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Leo Jud's Early Life and Work
Leo Jud was born in 1482 in a place called Guémar, which is in Alsace, southwest of Strasbourg. Like many people who became reformers, his father was a priest.
He went to school in Sélestat and then to the University of Basel in 1499. There, he met Huldrych Zwingli, who would become a very important friend and colleague. Leo Jud first studied medicine, but he later changed to studying theology, which is the study of religious faith. Even though he is not as famous as some other reformers, Leo Jud had a big impact.
In 1507, Leo Jud became a priest in the Catholic Church. He worked in Basel and then in Saint Hippolyte. In 1519, he joined Zwingli in Einsiedeln, where his ideas about changing the church became very clear.
Reformation Efforts in Zürich
The 1520s were a very busy time for Leo Jud.
- In March 1522, he took part in the Affair of the Sausages. This was a protest against the church's rules about not eating certain foods during Lent.
- That summer, he helped Zwingli by translating a request from Latin into German. This request asked the bishop to allow priests to marry.
In June 1522, Leo Jud was chosen to be a pastor at Saint Peter's church in Zürich. He started his new job in February 1523. Just four days later, he was part of the First Zürich Disputation, which was a public debate about religious ideas.
Changes in the Church
During 1523, Leo Jud became even more involved in the Reformation.
- He became a pastor at a nunnery (a place where nuns live) in Zürich.
- He started preaching that priests should be allowed to marry. This led some nuns to ask to leave their vows.
- He also helped create the baptism ceremony for the new Swiss Reformed Church in German.
- In September, he preached against religious images in churches. This led to some people removing or destroying these images in Zürich. Leo Jud and Zwingli wanted all images removed to return to a simpler, early Christian church.
This idea of removing images was also popular with other Swiss reformers. However, the removal of images remained a point of discussion between the reformers and the city leaders for several years.
Dealing with New Ideas
In January 1525, a new religious group called the Anabaptists appeared. They had different ideas, especially about baptism.
- Leo Jud, Zwingli, and other reformers debated with the Anabaptists in January 1525.
- Because of the Anabaptists, the Swiss church needed a clearer statement on baptism. Zwingli created a new baptism order. This new order said that baptisms should happen in a church. It also changed how godparents were involved and connected baptism more to covenant theology (God's promises) rather than removing original sin as the Catholic church taught.
Leo Jud was also very important in creating a new statement about the Lord's Supper in 1525.
Spreading the Reformation
As the Reformation grew, more changes were made to remove Catholic influences.
- In April 1525, Leo Jud, Zwingli, and others asked the Zürich leaders to stop the Catholic mass.
- Leo Jud also helped set up the Ehegericht, which was a special court for marriage issues in Zürich. It opened in May 1525, and Jud served as a judge there.
The Prophezei
In June 1525, a new school for religious training called the Carolinum or Prophezei opened in Zürich. Leo Jud was a key figure there.
- After morning Bible lessons, Jud would give a sermon in German. This sermon combined the ideas from the morning lectures. He was like the "public face" of the Prophezei.
- In 1531, Jud helped Zwingli create the first Zürich Bible. This Bible was a result of the work done at the Prophezei.
The late 1520s were very busy for the Swiss Reformers. They were dealing with the Anabaptists, the return of Catholic ideas in some areas, and disagreements with the Lutherans about the Lord's Supper.
After the Second War of Kappel
In October 1531, a terrible event happened: the Second War of Kappel. Zwingli died fighting the Catholic forces. After this, there was a lot of anger against Zwingli's supporters in Zürich.
Leo Jud's friends told him to hide, but he bravely continued to preach in Zürich. He said that the war was God's judgment, not for leaving the Catholic faith, but for not reforming the church enough.
Even though some people wanted to harm him, Leo Jud was safe. After Zwingli's death, Leo Jud became very sad. He did not take on any leadership roles in the church. Also, because he was not from Zürich originally, some people were suspicious of him after Zwingli, who was also a "foreigner," had led Zürich into the war. Instead of Jud, Heinrich Bullinger was chosen to replace Zwingli.
During this time, some of Leo Jud's religious views changed for a while. He was influenced by a German spiritualist named Caspar Schwenckfeld. He started to think that city leaders were against the church. He also questioned infant baptism. However, by December 1534, Leo Jud returned to the main Reformed ideas and made up with Bullinger.
Working with the Zürich Council
In October 1532, Leo Jud and Bullinger gave a document to the Zürich Council. This document explained the Reformed faith. It talked about how ministers should be chosen, how they should live and learn, and how the church's governing body (the synod) should work. The Synod and the Ehegericht (marriage court) worked together to govern Zürich.
In 1534, Leo Jud oversaw the revision of the Zürich Bible. Errors from the 1531 edition were fixed, and more chapter summaries were added. After Zwingli's death, Leo Jud became known internationally as a Reformer and Bible scholar.
In December 1535, Leo Jud met with other important reformers to try and bring their ideas closer together, especially about the Lord's Supper. There were disagreements between Zwinglian and Lutheran ideas, which caused problems among the Swiss reformers. They agreed on five articles about the Lord's Supper, which seemed like a step towards peace.
In January 1536, the first council of the Reformed church was held in Basel. Theologians and leaders from all over Switzerland attended, and Leo Jud was a leading figure. The result was The First Helvetic Confession. Leo Jud was asked to translate it into German. He also added some of Zwingli's ideas to the document. His German translation was accepted throughout Switzerland more than the Latin version.
In the late 1530s and early 1540s, there were strong efforts to create a new Latin Bible. Leo Jud worked on creating the first truly "Reformed" Latin Bible. He worked on it until he became ill. After he died in 1542 in Zürich, other Swiss scholars finished his work. The Biblia Sacrosancta was published in 1543, one year after Leo Jud's death.
