Always among Us: Images of the Poor in Zwingli’s Zurich

In this elegantly written book, Lee Wandel discusses the relationship between the reform of poor relief and the Protestant Reformation in early sixteenth-century Zurich. In the introduction she traces the various ways that poverty had been evaluated, and its social and religious connotations, up to the sixteenth century. The first chapter provides a portrait of sixteenth-century Zurich. The next three chapters explore the discussion of the poor in various media of the town. The second chapter examines the sermons and pamphlets of Huldrych Zwingli, who was preaching that the poor were the true images of God. The third chapter addresses printed images depicting Christ calling beggars and other poor folk to Him, which appeared on title pages of Zwingli’s pamphlets. The fourth chapter turns to the language of legislation, and in particular the poor ordinances of 1520 and 1525.