For centuries the city of Geneva was a haven for political and religious refugees. In the mid-1500s religious exiles from continental Europe and England fled by the thousands to Geneva to escape persecution and map out the future of the Protestant Reformation. It was here that a colony of English Protestant refugees found a sanctuary where they could translate and publish a new version of the Scriptures for the people of their homeland—a version that came to be known as the Geneva Bible.
Paralleling Martin Luther's Reformation work in Germany was the Protestant movement ... in the small, independent city-states of Switzerland. The push for reform started first in the German-speaking city of Zurich, under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingli.
Zwingli was born in the mountains of eastern Switzerland. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1506. During his first pastorship, though, he came under the influence of the Dutch reformer and humanist Erasmus. This inspired him to learn Greek and Hebrew, as well as to devote himself to Scriptural study. Armed with this knowledge and fired with resentment against the abuses of the Church, he delivered, in 1519, a series of sermons that launched the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland.
