It was a quiet evening in March 1522 when a group of men gathered in a private home in Zurich, Switzerland. They were not plotting a violent coup or a political assassination. They were simply hungry. Yet, the meal they shared that night would shatter the religious unity of their country.
Their act of defiance did not involve weapons or armies, but a plate of dried meat. This seemingly minor event, known as the Affair of the Sausages, challenged the absolute authority of the Catholic Church and sparked the Swiss Reformation.
The Exhausted Printers
Christoph Froschauer was a prominent printer in the city, and his workshop at Brunngasse 18 was a hive of activity. He and his employees were working to the point of exhaustion to finish a new edition of The Epistles of Saint Paul. The work was physically demanding, and the men were drained. To restore their strength, Froschauer decided to host a dinner for his workers and several friends.
His guests included local dignitaries and Huldrych Zwingli, the charismatic pastor of the nearby Grossmünster church. The house stood just 400 meters (0.25 miles) from the pulpit where Zwingli preached, placing them right in the heart of the city’s religious life.
The Forbidden Feast
The gathering took place during Lent, the forty-day period before Easter. Church law strictly prohibited the consumption of meat during this holy time. Despite this ancient rule, Froschauer brought out a sharp, smoked hard sausage. The meat had been stored for more than one year (12 months) and was ready to be eaten.
He sliced it up and served it to his guests alongside traditional Swiss fritters known as Fasnachtskiechli. Most of the men, including the future reformer Leo Jud, ate the forbidden slices without hesitation. Zwingli sat at the table with them. He refused to eat the meat himself, but he did not stop the others. He watched as they broke the fast, knowing full well that this dinner would cause a scandal.
The Public Outcry
News of the sausage dinner spread rapidly through the narrow streets of Zurich. The act was seen as a direct insult to the Church. The authorities arrested Froschauer for violating the fasting laws. The Bishop of Konstanz, Hugo von Hohenlandenberg, was furious and demanded that the heretical behavior be punished.
He called for a mandate to ban any teachings that contradicted Catholic doctrine. The city was in an uproar, and the printer faced severe penalties. However, Zwingli stepped forward to defend his friend. He did not deny what had happened. Instead, he turned the defense into an offense.
A New Religious Freedom
Zwingli delivered a powerful sermon titled “Regarding the Choice and Freedom of Foods.” He argued that the Bible never commanded Christians to abstain from meat during Lent. He declared that fasting should be a voluntary choice, not a forced obligation.
This argument struck a chord with the people of Zurich. The city council eventually sided with Zwingli, and the charges against Froschauer were dropped. This victory emboldened Zwingli to publish his sixty-seven theses, which further dismantled the old religious structures. A simple meal of smoked sausage had proven that the Church’s rules could be challenged, paving the way for a new era of religious freedom in Switzerland.
In 1522, a secret dinner in Zurich sparked a revolution.
There were no weapons, just a plate of smoked sausage.
Eating this forbidden meat during Lent wasn't just a snack, it was a deliberate act of rebellion that shattered church authority and ignited the Swiss Reformation. pic.twitter.com/v8GsTr9CwC
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