Heinrich Bullinger | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byHans Asper, c. 1550 | |
| Born | 18 July 1504 |
| Died | 17 September 1575(1575-09-17) (aged 71) Zürich,Canton of Zürich, Old Swiss Confederacy |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Occupation(s) | Theologian,antistes |
| Spouse | Anna Adlischwyler |
| Parent(s) | Heinrich Bullinger and Anna Wiederkehr |
| Relatives | Johann Balthasar Bullinger andE. W. Bullinger |
| Theological work | |
| Era | Renaissance |
| Tradition or movement | |
| Main interests | Systematic theology |
| Notable ideas | |
Heinrich Bullinger (18 July 1504 – 17 September 1575) was aSwissReformer andtheologian, the successor ofHuldrych Zwingli as head of the Church of Zürich and a pastor at theGrossmünster. One of the most important leaders of theSwiss Reformation, Bullinger co-authored theHelvetic Confessions and collaborated withJohn Calvin to work out aReformed doctrine of the Lord's Supper.[1]
Heinrich Bullinger was born to Heinrich Bullinger Sr., a priest, and Anna Wiederkehr, atBremgarten,Aargau,Switzerland.[2] Heinrich and Anna were able to live as husband and wife, even though not legally married, because the bishop of Constance, who had clerical oversight over Aargau, had unofficially sanctioned clerical concubinage by waiving penalties against the offense in exchange for an annual fee, called a cradle tax.[3]: 18 Heinrich was the fifth son and youngest of seven children born to the couple.[4] The family was relatively affluent, and often hosted guests. As a small child, Bullinger survived the plague and a potentially fatal accident.[5]
At age 11, Bullinger was sent to the St. Martin's Latin school inEmmerich in theDuchy of Cleves.[note 1][6]: 54 Though the family was wealthy by standards of the day, Bullinger's father refused to provide the boy money for food. He encouraged his son to beg for bread for three years, as he had done, and by doing so increase the boy's empathy for the poor.[6]: 55 At St. Martin's Latin school, Bullinger studied classic texts, includingJerome,Horace, andVirgil.[5]: 19 He was also influenced by theBrethren of the Common Life and their adoption of theDevotio moderna, which emphasized Christian living and the reading of the Bible.[3]: 18 [5]: 19 Due to this influence, he expressed an interest in becoming aCarthusian monk.[5]: 19
In 1519, at 14, he went to theUniversity of Cologne, where it was supposed he would prepare to follow his father into the clergy.[7] Although there is no evidence that Bullinger was initially aware ofMartin Luther'sNinety-five Theses or theLeipzig Disputation of 1519, a year later, he had definitely been exposed to Reformation teaching. He readPeter Lombard'sSentences and theDecretum Gratiani, which led him to thechurch fathers. Bullinger discovered that the Fathers relied more on Scripture than did Lombard and Gratian, and this discovery encouraged Bullinger to read both the Bible and Luther, includingThe Babylonian Captivity of the Church andThe Freedom of a Christian. He also read works by other Reformers, such asPhilip Melanchthon'sLoci communes. Now believing that salvation came through God's grace rather than through man's good works, Bullinger was converted to Protestantism.[5]: 20–21 Later in life, he wrote that he had also been encouraged to embrace the Reformation because of the humanist influence of two of his teachers, Johannes Pfrissemius and Arnold von Wesel.[8][3] Other intellectual influences on Bullinger included the humanism ofErasmus andRodolphus Agricola, the theology of the church fathersCyprian,Lactantius,Hilary,Athanasius,Jerome, andAugustine, and the theology ofThomas Aquinas.[5]: 21–22
In 1522, as a follower of Martin Luther, Bullinger earned his Master of Arts degree but ceased receiving the Eucharist. He also abandoned his previous intention of entering theCarthusian order.[9] When he returned to Bremgarten, his family accepted his new theological views. Though Bullinger was called to lead an abbey in theBlack Forest, he found its monks worldly and licentious and so returned home again and spent some months reading history, the church fathers, and Reformation theology.[6]: 62
In 1523, he accepted a post as a teacher at a Cistercian monastery,Kappel Abbey, though only under the condition that he would not takemonastic vows nor attendmass. At Kappel Abbey, Bullinger initiated a systematic program of Bible reading and exegesis.[2] He also tried to reform itsTrivium curriculum in a more humanist and Protestant direction. Bullinger discovered that the monks barely understood Latin, and so he preached to them in Swiss-German.[7][3]: 18 By 1525, the abbey had abolished mass, and the next year all the monks renounced their vows as they participated in their first Reformed Eucharist.[6]: 65
During this period, during theReformation in Zürich, Bullinger heardHuldrych Zwingli andLeo Jud preach; and in 1523, he met them.[7][5]: 23 Bullinger became a friend and ally of Zwingli and was present at the Zürich disputation of 1525.[5]: 23 Under the influence of Zwingli and theWaldensians, Bullinger moved to a more symbolic understanding of theEucharist.[3]: 18 In 1527, he spent five months inZürich studying Greek and Hebrew while regularly attending theProphezei that Zwingli had established there.[5]: 23 [3]: 18 Zürich authorities sent Bullinger with the city delegation to assist Zwingli at theBern Disputation, an occasion where he metMartin Bucer,Ambrosius Blaurer, andBerthold Haller. In 1528, at the urging of the Zürich Synod, Bullinger left Kappel Abbey and was ordained as a parish minister in the newReformed church of Zürich.[3]: 18
Meanwhile, Bullinger wrote theological treatises on the Eucharist, covenants, images, and the relationship of the church to society, important topics he continued to develop in his later writings.[5]: 24 He sent these treatises to neighboring cities, attempting to win them to the Reformed position; and these treatises were attacked by Roman Catholics defending papal infallibility and transubstantiation.[6]: 69–70 Bullinger's humanism was also evident in his writings about the church fathers, his belief in the study of liberal arts as preparatory for the study of Scriptures, and even a play he wrote about the classical story ofLucretia.[5]: 24
In the summer of 1527, Bullinger met Anna Adlischweiler, a formernun, in Zurich.[note 2] Contrary to contemporary practice, he sent her a direct proposal of marriage and was betrothed four weeks later.[4] Anna's mother objected because she wanted her daughter to marry a wealthier man and because she wanted Anna to stay by her side until her death. When the engagement became publicly known, she tried to legally break it. Though she failed in this effort, Anna did stay with her mother until her death two years later. Anna then married Bullinger on 17 August 1529.[6]: 75–76 The couple had five daughters and six sons, all of the latter except one becoming Protestant ministers. The couple also adopted other children.[10][11][6]: 77
In June 1528, Bullinger took up a part-time preaching position inHausen.[5]: 25 Shortly thereafter, in February 1529, Bullinger's father renounced Roman Catholicism. Though most of his congregation approved, city officials were wary because of the threat of Roman Catholic protests.[6]: 78 Nevertheless, after a few months of debate, those sympathetic to the Reformation prevailed, and Bullinger was chosen to replace his father. Within a week of his first sermon, the images and church altar were removed from the church.[5]: 25 Bullinger's father also officially married his mother on 31 December in a Reformed ceremony.[6]: 78 In Bremgarten, Bullinger preached four times a week and held a well-attended Bible study every day at 3 in the afternoon.[5]: 25
While Zwingli viewed war as an appropriate way of spreading the Reformation, Bullinger did not. When Zwingli called the cantons of Zürich and Bern to war against the Catholic cantons, Bullinger opposed him, even preaching against it. Bullinger argued that religious reform came only through the preaching of the gospel, not through war. Despite a period of peace following theFirst Kappel War, Zwingli once again sought military victory over the Roman Catholics. His bellicosity led to theSecond Kappel War, after Roman Catholics attacked Bremgarten, where Bullinger was ministering. Zwingli's supposed reinforcements turned out to be Roman Catholic and deserted him, and Zwingli was killed. Although the Peace of Kappel allowed each canton to choose its own religion, Bremgarten was excluded from the agreement and re-catholicized. Bullinger and his family lost almost all their possessions and fled to Zürich.[6]: 84–86
As a leading Protestant preacher, Bullinger was immediately called as pastor byBern,Basel, andAppenzell.[2] Only three days after fleeing from Bremgarten, Bullinger stood in the pulpit of theGrossmünster.Oswald Myconius said Bullinger so "thundered a sermon from the pulpit that many thought Zwingli was not dead but resurrected like thephoenix".[8][11] On 9 December, Zürich also officially asked him to be Zwingli's successor asantistes.[6]: 91 [11] In part out of loyalty to Zürich, Bullinger chose to succeed Zwingli there.[7] He retained the office until his death in 1575.[10] Bullinger regularly preached 12 sermons a week in the Grossmünster for the first ten years of his ministry untilKaspar Megander was appointed to assume the majority of his preaching duties. Bullinger preached an estimated 28,000 sermons in the Grossmünster pulpit.[6]: 125–26
Bullinger's most important task was to rebuild the Zürich church,[3]: 19 even as he continued to defend Zwingli's character and theology.[12] When the Zürich council initially asked Bullinger to be antistes, they listed seven articles as conditions for the position. The fourth article required Bullinger to be peaceful and not interfere in secular affairs.[13]: 95 Bullinger agreed that ministers should not take civic roles, but he also stressed that the minister should retain the freedom to preach the Word of God, even if that message varied from the position of civil authorities.[5]: 27 Bullinger's rebuilding of the church also included defending it against the Roman Catholics, who were once again poised to invade Zürich. Bullinger persuaded them that he endorsed the Peace of Kappel and did not seek political controversy as Zwingli had done.[6]: 129–31 Finally, in 1532 Bullinger negotiated a compromise peace that guaranteed the freedom of Protestants in exchange for the independence of Roman Catholics in Protestant cantons.[6]: 136–39
In 1532, Bullinger andLeo Jud engaged in a controversy overchurch discipline that developed into a debate about the proper relationship between church and state. Jud viewed the church and state as two separate institutions established by God, while Bullinger held a more traditional view. FollowingJohannes Oecolampadius, Jud proposed exercising church discipline separately from the secular power, while Bullinger argued that separating church and state courts was necessary only if the government were not Christian. In a July sermon, Jud not only sharply criticized Bullinger's view of church discipline, he also accused Bullinger of abandoning the Reformation. Later in the year, a synod settled the debate by siding with Bullinger. The church would be overseen by both a civil council and the ministers of the church, each with its own president. In matters of civil discipline, the council would take precedence over the ministers, but the ministers could disagree with and criticize the council.[5]: 28
Through the arrangements of this synod, Bullinger was able to implement his own synodal order, which became a model for other Reformed churches in German-speaking areas.[6]: 126–27 Bullinger freed the Zürich church from civil authorities by assuming direct personal oversight of the other clergy. He ensured that political and clerical controversies were discussed and resolved behind closed doors; and by carefully informing himself about the 120 parishes under his supervision, he was able to direct their clerical appointments and ordinations.[3]: 22 Jud's 1534Catechism demonstrates that he eventually accepted Bullinger's views on church discipline.[6]: 133
In addition to his responsibilities as antistes, Bullinger also served asSchulherr, or school principal, charged with organizing Latin schools and theological education in Zürich. He transformed Zwingli'sProphezei into theLectorium, orCarolinium, to provide theological higher education. Although he helped run theCarolinium, he never held professorship in it, leaving the teaching to a notable faculty, which includedKonrad Pellikan,Theodor Bibliander,Peter Martyr Vermigli,Conrad Gesner, and Bullinger's son-in-lawRudolf Gwalther.[3]: 21
Bullinger sortied against theAnabaptists in his 1531 work,Four Books to Warn the Faithful of the Shameless Disturbance, Offensive Confusion, and False Teachings of the Anabaptists. Although Bullinger regarded Anabaptists as unstable citizens who encouraged a society of chaos and superstition, in practice he allowed them to follow their consciences and refused to forbid their freedom of worship in Zurich.[14] Bullinger upheld this principle of quasi-toleration for the rest of his life.[6]: 115 During Bullinger's leadership of Zürich from 1531 to 1575, not a single Anabaptist was executed for his faith. By comparison, four Anabaptists were executed under Zwingli and forty in Bern.[6]: 115 Nevertheless, when the AnabaptistMunster fell in 1534, he wrote, on behalf of the whole Zürich synod, a defense of the death penalty for Anabaptists who had offended the public peace.[13]: 112 Bullinger eventually wrote a long history of the Anabaptists calledOn the Origins of Anabaptism (1560), which detailed their origin and spread in Europe. The book was widely disseminated and is still reflected in recent histories of Anabaptists.[13]: 112–113
In 1536, Bullinger and other Protestant reformers, including Jud andMartin Bucer, drafted theFirst Helvetic Confession, an attempt to reach a consensus of Protestant belief.[15] The confession, a combination of Zwinglian and Lutheran theology,[10] was adopted by a number of Protestant churches, but Bullinger distrusted Bucer, and by 1538, negotiations to unite the Swiss and Lutheran churches broke down.[3]: 19 During the last years of his life, Luther denounced the Swiss Zwinglians in hisShort Confession of the Lord's Supper (1543), and Bullinger responded in 1545 with his ownTrue Confession.[3]: 20
By the 1540s, Bullinger had drawn closer toJohn Calvin ofGeneva. Together they wrote a response to theCouncil of Trent, and then, in 1549, they jointly drafted theConsensus Tigurinus, an agreement betweenCalvinists and Zwinglians about the doctrine of the Eucharist.[10][3]: 20
In the early 1550s, Bullinger published his most significant work,Decades, a series of fifty sermons, written in Latin and published from 1548 to 1551, a series that effectively served as a systematic theology. The sermons were widely distributed, and Bullinger became even better known as a Reformer.[3]: 20 Nevertheless, Bullinger's Zurich suffered bad weather, poor harvests, the bane of Swiss politics, and the plague. Bullinger's wife and daughter both died of the plague during the early 1560s, when the disease swept across central and western Europe.[3]: 21
Bullinger played a crucial role in drafting theSecond Helvetic Confession of 1566. Bullinger had written the first draft in 1562 as a personal statement of faith, which in a 1564 revision, he intended to be presented to the ZürichRathaus after his death.[15] In 1566, afterFrederick III the Pious,elector palatine, introduced Reformed elements into churches in his region, Bullinger had this statement of faith circulated among the Protestant cities of Switzerland; and it gained a favorable response in many Swiss cities, including Bern, Zürich, Schaffhausen, St. Gallen, Chur, and Geneva.[16] The statement was also adopted by Reformed churches in Scotland (1566), Hungary (1567), France (1571), and Poland (1578). Only the Heidelberg Catechism was better known as a Reformed confession. The Second Helvetic Confession was also slightly modified to become the French Confession de Foy (1559), the Scottish Confessio Fidei (1560) the Belgian Ecclasiarum Belgicarum Confessio (1561) and the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) itself.[15]
Bullinger died at Zürich in 1575 and was followed as antistes by Zwingli's adopted sonRudolf Gwalther.[3]: 21 [6]: 459
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) |
Bullinger's matureeucharistic theology differed notably from that of Zwingli. Though at first Bullinger viewed both the Old CovenantPassover feast and the New Covenant Lord's Supper as symbolic, a view reflected in the language of theFirst Helvetic Confession (1536), in 1544, in a pamphlet responding to Luther, Bullinger argued thatthe real spiritual presence of Christ occurred in the Eucharist. Bullinger thereafter linked the symbolic and spiritual presence in theConsensus Tigurinus of 1549, which he composed with Calvin, a formula codified in theHeidelberg Catechism (1563) and theSecond Helvetic Confession (1562/4).[17]
Bullinger played an important role in developingcovenant theology in the Reformed tradition. Bullinger initially used the covenants as an interpretive grid for eucharistic theology, but by the 1550s he employed the covenant as a theological category.[17]
Bullinger, like Zwingli, was a staunch advocate ofinfant baptism. As early as 1525, both argued that Old Covenantcircumcision was the predecessor of New Covenant baptism.[18]
Bullinger's writings exceed Luther and Calvin combined, including 12,000 surviving letters.[8] During his lifetime they were translated in several languages and counted among the best known theological works in Europe.
Bullinger was part of the drafting of theFirst Helvetic Confession, an early consensus document of the Reformation and expression of Swiss theology.[15]
Bullinger was also part of the drafting of theSecond Helvetic Confession of 1566, which he originally drafted himself in 1562 as a personal statement of faith.[15]
Bullinger's main theological work was theDekaden, orThe Decades, which is a compilation of 50 sermons that Bullinger published from 1549 to 1551.[17] Many regardThe Decades to be comparable to Calvin'sInstitutes of the Christian Religion andPeter Martyr Vermigli'sLoci communes as an early Reformed theological explication.[17] Though in sermon form, it was likely never actually delivered by Bullinger, but only written in imitation of the sermonic form. They are structured upon theTen Commandments, theApostles' Creed, theLord's Prayer, and the two Protestant sacraments. The work was quickly translated from Latin into German, French, Dutch, and English, and was one of the most popular Protestant theological works in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Indeed, it was so essential that it was termed "house book" by German and Dutch translators. The Dutch, at points, even required a copy of the book to be in all Dutch trading vessels by law, which led to its spread into America and Asia.[19]
In 1531, Bullinger helped edit and write the preface to theZürich Bible with Jud, Bibliander, and Pellikan.Many of his sermons were translated intoEnglish (reprinted, 4 vols., 1849). His works, mainly expository and polemical, have not been collected.
Besides theological works, Bullinger also wrote some historical works of value. The "Tiguriner Chronik" is a history of Zürich from Roman times to the Reformation; others are a history of the Reformation and a history of the Swiss confederation. Bullinger also wrote in detail onBiblical chronology, working within the framework that was universal in the Christian theological tradition until the second half of the 17th century, namely that the Bible affords a faithful and normative reference for all ancient history.[20][21]
There exist about 12,000 letters from and to Bullinger, the most extended correspondence preserved from Reformation times. He was called by German Reformation historian Rainer Henrich "a one-man communication system".[3]: 21
Bullinger was a personal friend and advisor of many leading personalities of the reformation era. He corresponded with Reformed, Anglican, Lutheran, and Baptist theologians, withHenry VIII of England,Edward VI of England,Lady Jane Grey andElizabeth I of England,Christian II of Denmark,Philipp I of Hesse andFrederick III, Elector Palatine.
Bullinger's Helvetic Confessions are still used byReformed churches as a theological standard. His legacy as a writer and historian survives today. His idea of covenant influenced the development ofcovenant theology.[8]
Among Bullinger's direct descendants were the Swiss painterJohann Balthasar Bullinger and the British theologianE.W. Bullinger.[22]
Bullinger opened Zürich to Protestant fugitives from religious persecution in other countries. After the passing ofthe Six Articles in 1539 byHenry VIII of England, and again during the rule ofMary I of England from 1553 to 1558, Bullinger accepted many English fugitives. When the English fugitives returned to England after the death of Mary I, Bullinger's writings found a broad distribution in England. In England, from 1550 to 1560, there were 77 editions of Bullinger's LatinDecades and 137 editions of their vernacular translationHouse Book, a treatise in pastoral theology. In comparison, Calvin'sInstitutes had two editions in England during the same time.[23] By 1586,John Whitgift, theArchbishop of Canterbury, ordered all non-graduateordinands to buy and read Bullinger'sDecades.[8] Due to his involvement and correspondence with the English Reformers, some historians[who?] count Bullinger together withBucer as the most influential theologian of the English Reformation.
Two of the English fugitives wereJohn andAnne Hooper. Anne eventually became Bullinger's correspondent and in 1546, Bullinger became the godfather of Hooper's daughter during herinfant baptism.[23] Bullinger also accepted fugitives fromnorthern Italy and France, especially after theSt. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.[10]Johann Pestalozzi was a descendant of the Italian fugitives.[23]
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Helvetic Confessions".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 253.
| Religious titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Antistes ofZürich 1532–1575 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
