3. Heinrich Bullinger

On 9th December 1531 the Zurich Council chose Heinrich Bullinger as Zwingli’s successor. Far less is known about him. He belongs to the Reformers who are most underestimated and whose lifework, precisely in regard to its theological comprehension, has only been incompletely appraised up to this point.

Bullinger was born on 4th July 1504 in Bremgarten (today’s Kanton Aargau). At the age of twelve he went to the seminary in Emmerich/Niederrhein influenced by the Devotio moderna (see lesson 1). From 1519 Bullinger studied in Cologne and completed his Master’s degree in 1522. In his study time in Cologne, Bullinger’s turn towards the Reformation took place, above all on the basis of the texts of Luther and Melanchthon. From 1523 Bullinger was a teacher in the Cistercian monastery in Cappel, where alongside the usual instruction he held public lectures in which he worked exegetically and systematically from an independently Reformed perspective. From 1523 he enjoyed a friendship with Zwingli. Bullinger was able to take over individual thoughts of Zwingli and also develop them. Zwingli, however, used Bullinger’s knowledge as well.
From 1529 to 1531 Bullinger was preacher in Bremgarten, before he then became “Antistes” (chief pastor) of the Zurich Church. He exercised this office up to the end of his life.

His main activity in Zurich was the consolidation of the Reformation. He gained the trust of the Zurich councils, and he succeeded for more than 40 years to hold in balance the political demand of the Gospel on the one hand and the fact that the authority of his office existed in the Word alone on the other. He stood in a network of various Swiss and international relations (among others things, through a rich correspondence involving more than 12 000 letters), cared for social and church reforms and in addition was very productive as a writer of theology and history. His most important work includes a theological “Sum of the Christian Religion” as well as the “Confessio Helvetica posterior” (the second Helvetic Confession) of 1562. Also to be emphasised is his collaboration in the “Consensus Tigurinus” (Zurich Consensus) of 1549, in which an agreement between Geneva and Zurich, and so a united Reformed doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, was developed. Theologically, Bullinger’s first priority was not to be original, but rather to pass on what he had perceived. With regards to content, the concept of covenant stands in the middle of his theology. Admittedly he had taken this over from Zwingli, but he then nevertheless developed it considerably. He was to have a significance in the further course of Reformed theology that is not to be underestimated (on the understanding of covenant in Reformed theology cf. the planned lesson 15 of this basic course). On 27th September 1575, Bullinger died.