Heinrich Bullinger

"Bullinger" redirects here. For the surname, see Bullinger (surname).

Heinrich Bullinger
Portrait by Hans Asper, c. 1550
Born	18 July 1504 Bremgarten (Aargau), Canton of Aargau, Old Swiss Confederacy
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

Heinrich Bullinger (18 July 1504 – 17 September 1575) was a Swiss Reformer and theologian, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Church of Zürich and a former pastor at the Grossmünster. One of the most important leaders of the Swiss Reformation, Bullinger co-authored the Helvetic Confessions and collaborated with John Calvin to work out a Reformed doctrine of the Lord's Supper.

Life

Early life and studies (1504–1522)

Heinrich Bullinger was born to Heinrich Bullinger Sr., a priest, and Anna Wiederkehr, at Bremgarten, Aargau, Switzerland. Heinrich and Anna were able to live as husband and wife, 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. Heinrich was the fifth son and youngest of seven children born to the couple. The family was relatively influential, and often hosted guests. As a small child, Bullinger survived the plague and a potentially fatal accident.

At age 3, Bullinger was sent to the St. Martin's Latin school in Emmerich in the Duchy of Cleves. At the Latin school, he studied classical Christian, Roman, and Greek texts, including Jerome, Horace, and Virgil. There, he was also influenced by the Brethren of the Common Life and their adoption of the Devotio moderna, which emphasized Christian living and the reading of the Bible. Due to this influence, he expressed a desire to become a Carthusian monk.

In 1519, at 14, he went to the University of Cologne, where it was supposed he would follow his father into the clergy. Although there is no evidence that Bullinger was aware of Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses or the Leipzig Disputation of 1519, he was definitely exposed to Reformation teaching by 1520. He read Peter Lombard's Sentences and the Decretum Gratiani, which led him to the church fathers. Bullinger found the Fathers relied on Scripture more than Lombard and Gratian, leading him to read both Luther and the Bible. In the following two years, he read many works of Luther, including The Babylonian Captivity of the Church and The Freedom of a Christian, along with other works by Reformers, such as Philip Melanchthon's Loci communes. He became a Protestant, believing that salvation came through God's grace rather than by man's good works. Later in life, Bullinger wrote that the humanist influence of two of his teachers, Johannes Pfrissemius and Arnold von Wesel, also helped lead him to embrace the Reformation. Other intellectual influences included the humanism of Erasmus and Rodolphus Agricola, the theology of the church fathers Cyprian, Lactantius, Hilary, Athanasius, Jerome, and Augustine, and the theology of Thomas Aquinas.

In 1522, by now a convinced follower of Martin Luther, Bullinger earned his Master of Arts degree but ceased receiving the Eucharist. He also abandoned his previous intention to enter the Carthusian order. Because of his Lutheran beliefs, Bullinger was prohibited from obtaining a clerical position in the Roman Catholic Church.

Kappel Abbey and the early Swiss Reformation (1523–1531)

See also: Kappel Abbey

Kappel Abbey (1523–1528)

In 1523, he accepted a post as a teacher at a Cisterian monastery, Kappel Abbey, though only under the conditions that he would not take monastic vows nor attend mass. At the school, Bullinger initiated a systematic program of Bible reading and exegesis for the monks. He also endeavored to reform the Trivium curriculum of the monastery in a more humanist and Protestant direction. Bullinger discovered that the monks barely understood Latin, and he preached to them in Swiss-German.

During this time, Bullinger heard Huldrych Zwingli and Leo Jud preach during the Reformation in Zürich, and in 1523, he met them. Bullinger became a friend and ally of Zwingli and was present at the Zürich disputation of 1525. Under the influence of Zwingli and the Waldensians, Bullinger moved to a more symbolic understanding of the Eucharist. In 1527, he spent five months in Zürich studying Greek and Hebrew while regularly attending the Prophezei that Zwingli had established there. Zürich authorities sent Bullinger with their delegation to assist Zwingli at the Bern Disputation, where he met Martin Bucer, Ambrosius Blaurer, and Berthold Haller. In 1528, at the urging of the Zürich Synod, Bullinger left Kappel Abbey and was ordained as a parish minister in the new Reformed church of Zürich.

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. Bullinger's humanism was also reflected in his writings about the church fathers, the study of liberal arts as preparatory for the study of Scriptures, and even a play about the classical story of Lucretia.

Marriage to Anna Adlischweiler (1529)

In the summer of 1527, he met Anna Adlischweiler, a former nun, in Zurich. Contrary to contemporary practice, he sent her a direct proposal of marriage and was betrothed four weeks later. Only Anna's mother objected, and when she died in 1529, they were married. They had five daughters and six sons, all of the latter becoming Protestant ministers. The couple also adopted other children.

Hausen and Bremgarten (1528–31)

In June 1528, Bullinger took up a part-time preaching position in Hausen. In February 1529, Bullinger's father renounced Roman Catholicism, and his Bremgarten congregation removed him as their priest. However, after a few months of debate, those sympathetic to the Reformation prevailed over the Roman Catholics, and Bullinger was chosen to replace his father. Within a week of his first sermon, the images and church altar were removed. In Bremgarten, Bullinger preached four times a week and held a well-attended Bible study every day at 3 in the afternoon.

Ministry at Zürich (1531–1575)

Zürich ministry obligations

After Zwingli was killed in the Second War of Kappel, the Aargau region, including Bremgarten, was forced to return to Catholicism. Bullinger and two other ministers were expelled from Bremgarten, and Bullinger fled to Zürich. As a leading Protestant preacher, Bullinger was immediately called as pastor by Zürich, Basel, Bern, and Appenzell. Out of loyalty to Zürich, Bullinger intended to succeed Zwingli as head of the church there; but in the aftermath of the Second War of Kappel, Zürich was leery of clergymen who preached political violence, as Zwingli had done. When Bullinger insisted that he be able to preach as the Holy Spirit led, even if his messages from the Bible contradicted the position of the civil authorities, those authorities gave Bullinger the right to supervise Zürich churches on condition that the clergy not follow Zwingli's politics. Bullinger gladly agreed.

Only three days after fleeing from Bremgarten, Bullinger stood in the pulpit of the Grossmünster. Oswald Myconius said Bullinger so "thundered a sermon from the pulpit that many thought Zwingli was not dead but resurrected like the phoenix". On December 9 of the same year, at the age of 27, he was elected successor to Zwingli as antistes of the Zürich church, an office he retained until his death in 1575.

In the aftermath of the Second War of Kappel and Zwingli's death, Bullinger's largest task was to quickly rebuild the Zürich church. Bullinger quickly established himself as a staunch defender of Zwingli's character and theology, including Zwingli's views on the church. He established the freedom of the church from civil authorities by assuming personal oversight of the rest of the clergy as antistes. He was supreme in Zürich's church committees and the church synod. Due to the disastrous impact of the political sermons that led to the Second War of Kappel, Bullinger made sure that all political and clerical controversies were not made public, but instead discussed and resolved behind closed doors. He informed himself of the happenings of all 120 parishes under his control, and was involved with every clerical appointment, ordination, and controversy. In 1532, when Leo Jud proposed making ecclesiastical discipline entirely separate from the secular power, Bullinger argued that separation of church and state courts was only needed if the government is not Christian.

As antistes, Bullinger prepared and preached at least three sermons a week in the Grossmünster, totaling to around 7500 sermons in his whole time at Zürich. He brought sermon notes instead of full written sermons into the pulpit when he preached; some of these notes are still extant. He also wrote many pamphlets for both his clergy and laity. In the start of the 1550s, a series of internal church and governmental issues led Bullinger to rethink the one-person church leadership model that Zwingli established in Zürich.

In addition to his work as antistes, Bullinger also was the Schulherr, or school principal, of Zürich. As Schulherr, Bullinger was in charge of organizing Latin schools and theological education in Zürich. He transformed Zwingli's Prophezei into the Lectorium, or Carolinium, to provide theological higher education. Although he helped run the Carolinium, he never held professorship in it, leaving the main teaching to the well-renowned faculty which included his son-in-law Rudolf Gwalther, Konrad Pellikan, Theodor Bibliander, Peter Martyr Vermigli, and Conrad Gesner.

In the early 1550s, he published his most popular work Decades, a series of fifty sermons given from 1548-1551 adapted into a theological treatise. The book had widespread distribution, and Bullinger became a well-known figure across Europe. Although he had international success, in Zürich Bullinger battled with bad weather, poor harvests, Swiss politics, and plague. In the plagues of the early 1560s that swept across central and western Europe, Bullinger's wife and daughter passed away.

Interaction with other theologians

See also: Helvetic Confessions and Consensus Tigurinus

In 1536, in light of Protestant disunity, Bullinger united with many other Protestant reformers, including Jud and Martin Bucer, to draft the First Helvetic Confession to come to a consensus of beliefs. The confession was eventually adopted by most European Protestant churches, and set the standard for later confessions of faiths. The confession of faith was a combination of Zwinglian and Lutheran theology. Although the goal of the First Helvetic Confession was eventually to unite the Swiss churches with the Lutheran churches in the Wittenberg Concord, Bullinger distrusted Bucer, and by 1538 negotiations broke down.

The break between the Swiss Reformed churches and the Lutheran never healed, during the last years of Luther's life, Luther continued to denounce the Swiss Zwinglians in Luther's 1543 Short Confession of the Lord's Supper. Bullinger responded to this with his own True Confession in 1545.

During this time he also was addressing and debating the Anabaptists, especially with his 1531 work, Four Books to Warn the Faithful of the Shameless Disturbance, Offensive Confusion, and False Teachings of the Anabaptists. By the 1540s, Bullinger could find no agreement with the Roman Catholics, Lutherans, or Anabaptists, which drew him and reformer John Calvin of Geneva into closer contact. Together they penned a response to the Council of Trent. Then, in 1549, they drafted the Consensus Tigurinus together, which is viewed as a significant point of agreement on the doctrine of the Eucharist between the Calvinists and the Zwinglians.

Bullinger played a crucial role in the drafting of the Second Helvetic Confession of 1566. What eventually became the Second Helvetic Confession originated in a personal statement of his faith which Bullinger intended to be presented to the Zürich Rathaus upon his death which he wrote in 1562 and revised in 1564. In 1566, when the Frederick III the Pious, elector palatine introduced Reformed elements into the church in his region, Bullinger felt that this statement might be useful for the elector, so he had it circulated among the Protestant cities of Switzerland. It gained a favourable hold on the Swiss churches in Bern, Zürich, Schaffhausen, St. Gallen, Chur, Geneva and other cities.

The Second Helvetic Confession was adopted by the Reformed Church not only throughout Switzerland but in Scotland (1566), Hungary (1567), France (1571), Poland (1578), and next to the Heidelberg Catechism is the most generally recognized Confession of the Reformed Church. Slight variations of this confession existed in the French Confession de Foy (1559), the Scottish Confessio Fidei (1560) the Belfian Ecclasiarum Belgicarum Confessio (1561) and the Heidelberg Catechism (1563).

Sculpture of Bullinger at Grossmünster (Otto Charles Bänninger 1940)

He worked closely with Thomas Erastus to promote the Reformed orientation of the Reformation of the Electorate of the Palatinate in the 1560s.

Death

He died at Zürich and was followed as antistes by Zwingli's son-in-law Rudolf Gwalther. By the time of his death he was one of the most well-known reformers in Europe.

Theological views

The Eucharist

Although he was Zwingli's successor, Bullinger's eucharistic theology notably differed from Zwingli. Earlier in his theology, Bullinger sees both the Old Covenant Passover feast and the New Covenant Lord's Supper as symbolic and a signifier, which is reflected in the language of the First Helvetic Confession (1536) and follows Zwingli's later eucharistic views. In 1544, Bullinger affirmed the real spiritual presence of Christ in the Eucharist in a pamphlet responding to Luther. The symbolic aspect and real spiritual presence would be linked together in the Consensus Tigurinus of 1549 which he composed with Calvin. This formula would eventually be codified in the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) and the Second Helvetic Confession (1562/4).

Covenant theology

Bullinger occupies an important role in the development of covenant theology in the Reformed tradition. Bullinger initially used the covenants as an interpretive grid for his eucharistic theology (see above), but by the 1550s Bullinger was employing the idea of "covenant" as a holistic category through which to do theology.

Baptism

Bullinger, like Zwingli before him, was a staunch advocate of infant baptism, over against the credo-Baptist position of the Anabaptists. He followed Zwingli in arguing that Old Covenant circumcision was the predecessor of New Covenant baptism as early as 1525.

Works

Bullinger's works comprise 127 titles, in addition to 12,000 surviving letters. In total, his total amount of writings exceed Luther and Calvin combined. During his lifetime they were translated in several languages and counted among the best known theological works in Europe.

Theological works

The Decades

Bullinger's main theological work was the Dekaden, or The Decades, which is a compilation of 50 sermons that Bullinger published from 1549-51. Many regard The Decades to be comparable to Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion and Peter Martyr Vermigli's Loci communes as an early Reformed theological explication.

His main work were the Decades, a treatise in pastoral theology, which was called House Book in England.

In 1531, Bullinger helped edit and write the preface to the Zürich Bible with Jud, Bibliander, and Pellikan.

The (second) Helvetic Confession (1566) adopted in Switzerland, Hungary, Bohemia and elsewhere, was originally believed to be only his work. However, this has been recently challenged, in that Peter Martyr Vermigli played a decisive role in this document as well. The volumes of the Zürich Letters, published by the Parker Society, testify to his influence on the English reformation in later stages.

Many of his sermons were translated into English (reprinted, 4 vols., 1849). His works, mainly expository and polemical, have not been collected.

• Second decade, eighth sermon, The Magistrate
• Second decade, ninth sermon, "Of War; Whether it be Lawful for a Magistrate to Make War. What the Scripture Teacheth Touching War. Whether a Christian Man May Bear the Office of a Magistrate. And of the Duty of Subjects." (Emphasis added.)
• Fourth decade, fourth sermon, Predestination
• An Answer Given To A Certain Scotsman, In Reply To Some Questions Concerning The Kingdom Of Scotland And England
• Microfiche collection of his original works
• Werke - Institut für schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte, Universität Zürich

Historical

Iconoclasm during the Reformation in Zürich, Stadelhofen, illustrated Bullinger chronicle

Besides theological works, Bullinger also wrote some historical works of value. The main of it, 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 on Biblical 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.

Letters

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". He mainly wrote in Latin with some quotes in Hebrew and Greek, with about 10 percent in Early New High German.

Bullinger was a personal friend and advisor of many leading personalities of the reformation era. He corresponded with Reformed, Anglican, Lutheran, and Baptist theologians, with Henry VIII of England, Edward VI of England, Lady Jane Grey and Elizabeth I of England, Christian II of Denmark, Philipp I of Hesse and Frederick III, Elector Palatine.

• Geographical overview of Bullingers correspondence
• Database of Bullinger's Letters

Legacy

Bullinger's Helvetic Confessions are still used by Reformed churches as a theological standard. His legacy as a writer and historian survives today. His idea of covenant influenced the development of covenant theology.

Among Bullinger's direct descendants was the British theologian E.W. Bullinger.

Impact on England

Bullinger opened Zürich to Protestant fugitives from religious persecution in other countries. After the passing of the Six Articles in 1539 by Henry VIII of England, and again during the rule of Mary I of England from 1553–1558, 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 1550–1560, there were 77 editions of Bullinger's Latin Decades and 137 editions of their vernacular translation House Book, a treatise in pastoral theology. In comparison, Calvin's Institutes had two editions in England during the same time. By 1586, John Whitgrift, the Archbishop of Canterbury, ordered all non-graduate ordinands to buy and read Bullinger's Decades. Due to his involvement and correspondence with the English Reformers, some historians count Bullinger together with Bucer as the most influential theologian of the English Reformation.

Two of the English fugitives were John and Anne Hooper. Anne eventually became Bullinger's correspondent and in 1546, Bullinger became the godfather of Hooper's daughter during her infant baptism. John went back to England to become one of the first married bishops in England, an early proponent of the English Reformation, and a martyr under Mary I. Bullinger also accepted fugitives from northern Italy and France, especially after the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Johann Pestalozzi was a descendant of the Italian fugitives.

External links

• Works by Heinrich Bullinger at Post-Reformation Digital Library
• Works by or about Heinrich Bullinger at Internet Archive
• Works by Heinrich Bullinger at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Heinrich Bullinger, Reformationsgeschichte, on-line
• Burnett, Amy Nelson and Campi, Emidio (eds). A Companion to the Swiss Reformation, Leiden - Boston: Brill, 2016. ISBN 978-90-04-30102-3
• Bruce Gordon and Emidio Campi (eds) Architect of Reformation. An Introduction to Heinrich Bullinger (Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, MI, 2004) 978-0801028991
• Carl Pestalozzi: Heinrich Bullinger: Leben und ausgewählte Schriften, 1858 on-line
• The Successor, Magazine Reformierte Presse 2004
• The Civil Magistrate and the cura religionis: Heinrich Bullinger’s Prophetical Office and the English Reformation
• Heinrich Bullinger 1504-75: Man of Reconciliation
• See Carl Pestalozzi, Leben (1858); Raget Christoffel, H. Bullinger (1875); Justus Heer, in Hauck's Realencyklopädie (1897).
• Heinrich Bullinger Foundation
• Edition of Bullingers Correspondence Online
• Database of Bullingers Correspondence (Work in Progress)