“…God instituted excommunication: sinners who commit flagrant sin and offend their neighbours are to be cut off from their fellows, just as a dead branch is cut off from a tree or a corrupt member from the body. But when the bishops undertake to collect the debts of usurers by condemning poor Christian people, I do not believe that those people are really bound or excommunicated before God. And why? Because God said: “When thy brother sins,” not: “When thy brother is in debt, thou shalt cut him off.” And I am certain that that is the teaching of God, and you will not change my view even if you bring against me all the lies and inventions of the canonists or the hypocrisy of the monks or the wrath of the bloated prelates or the poison of Rome of the fire of Etna or indeed of hell itself.”
Huldrych Zwingli, Die Klarheit und Gewissheit des Wortes Gottes, September 6th 1522.