[Zuider Zee] (i. e. south sea), a deep inlet of the North Sea, in the Netherlands, which includes the islands of Texel, Vlieland, Terschelling, and Ameland, and was formed by irruptions of the North Sea into a lake called Flevo, in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, when thousands of people were drowned; is 85 m. long and 45 m. broad, and is embraced in a circuit of 210 m.; it was for some time in contemplation to reclaim this area, and after much weighing of the matter the Dutch Government in 1897 adopted a scheme to give effect to this project; according to the scheme adopted it is reckoned it will take 31 years to complete the reclamation at the rate of several thousand acres every year.
[Zuleika], the bride of Abydos, celebrated by Byron, a pure-souled woman of great beauty, who, in love with Selim, promises to flee with him and become his bride, but her father shoots him, and she dies of a broken heart.
[Zululand] (181), a territory to the NE. of Natal, from which it is separated by the Tugela, and of which it was independent till 1898, but it is now an integral part; it is a little larger than Belgium, is well watered, is capable of cultivation, and has 140 m. of seaboard; it is understood to possess some mineral wealth, though it has not yet been wrought.
[Zulus], a section of the Bantu family which originally occupied the SE. seaboard of Africa from Delagoa Bay to the Great Fish River; they are a race of superior physique and intellectual endowment, as well as moral temperament, and incline to a quiet pastoral life; they were attacked under Cetywayo by the English in 1879, but after falling upon an English force at Isandula, and cutting it in pieces, were overpowered at Ulundi, and put to rout.
[Zumpt, Karl], philologist, born in Berlin, and professor at the University; edited a number of the Latin classics, and is best known by his Latin Grammar (1792-1849).
[Zurbaran, Francisco], Spanish painter, born in Estremadura; did mostly religious subjects; his chef-d'oeuvre an altar-piece in Seville, where he lived and worked (1598-1662).
[Zurich] (392), a northern canton in Switzerland, and the second largest; is in the basin of the Rhine, with a well-cultivated fertile soil, and manufactures of cottons and silks, and with a capital (151) of the same name at the foot of the Lake of Zurich; a large manufacturing and trading centre; has a Romanesque cathedral and a university, with silk mills and cotton mills, as well as foundries and machine shops; here Lavater was born and Zwingli was pastor.
[Zutphen] (17), manufacturing town in the Dutch province of Guelderland, in the neighbourhood of which Sir Philip Sidney fell wounded in a skirmish.
[Zwickau] (50), a town in Saxony, in a division (1,389) of the same name, 82 m. SW. of Dresden; it is in the midst of rich beds of coal, and has a number of manufactures.
[Zwingli, Ulrich], the Swiss Reformer, born at Wildhaus, in the canton of St. Gall, and founder of the Reformed Church; studied at Bern and Vienna, afterwards theology at Basel, and was appointed pastor at Glarus; he got acquainted with Erasmus at Basel, and gave himself to the study of Greek, and in particular the epistles of St. Paul; attached to the monastery of Einsiedeln he, in 1516, attacked the sale of indulgences, and was in 1518 elected to be preacher in the cathedral of Zurich; his preaching was attended with an awakening, and the bishop of Constance tried to silence him, but he was silenced himself in a public debate with the Reformer, the result of which was the abolition of the Mass and the dispensation instead of the Lord's Supper; the movement thus begun went on and spread, and Zwingli met in conference with Luther, but they failed to agree on the matter of the Eucharist, and on that point the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches separated; in 1531 the Catholic cantons declared war against the reformers of Zurich and Bern, but the latter were defeated at Cappel, and among the dead on the battlefield was the Reformer; his last words were, "They may kill the body, but not the soul" (1484-1531). See [Lutherans].