Heinrich Bullinger, 1504-1575

Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575), Swiss Protestant reformer. He was the son of a parish priest, studied at the University of Cologne, and although sympathetic to the Reformation, he took a job teaching at a Cistercian school in Kappel, Switzerland, from 1523 to 1529. He studied Greek and Hebrew in Zurich, when he heard Zwingli preach and became convinced of the truth of the Reformation. He became a Reformed pastor at Bremgarten, his home town, until the the death of Zwingli in 1531, when Bullinger was called to be his successor in Zurich and a leader of the reformed party in Switzerland. He was involved with other Swiss theologians in the writing of the first Helvetic Confession (1536), a creed based largely on Zwingli's theological views as distinct from Lutheran doctrine. The second Helvetic Confession was his own personal confession of faith, now more Calvinist than Zwinglian, and was adpoted by the Swiss church, as well as in Hungary and Scotland. In 1549 the Consensus Tigurinus, drawn up by Bullinger and Calvin, marked the departure of Swiss theology from Zwinglian to Calvinist theory on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. He wrote a life of Zwingli and edited his complete works. He argued against the Anabaptists, and corresponded with theologians in England and Germany, exerting an influence in the wider reformation even though he never left Switzerland.

Copied by Johan Bluwler, citizen of Zurich.