BULLINGER, HEINRICH. — Swiss Reformer, born at Bremgarten in the canton of Aargau (Switzerland) on 18 July 1504 and died at Zurich on 17 September 1575. After his first elementary studies in his native country, his father sent him in 1516 to Emmerich, where he studied Latin grammar and felt called to become a Carthusian. In 1519 he went to Cologne, where he studied the Latin classics, philosophy, etc., and happened upon some of Luther’s works (De captivitate Babiloniae, De Libertate christiana, De bonis operibus). Seeing that Luther showed himself to rely upon the Holy Fathers, he devoted himself to the study of their works; and when he saw that they relied upon Sacred Scripture, he studied it ardently. At the same time he became interested in Melanchthon’s Loci communes, and the latter, together with Luther’s works, finally detached him from the Catholic Church. Returning to his homeland in 1523, he was invited to teach at the Cistercian monastery of Kappel, whose abbot was Wolfgang Joner; through his doctrines he caused those religious to abandon their vows, their monastery, and the Catholic Church itself. In 1528 he moved to Zurich, embraced Zwinglian doctrines, and formed a friendship with Zwingli, whom he accompanied to the disputations at Bern. Called by his native town, he went there as minister and disputed with the Anabaptists. There he married Anna Adlischweiler, an ex-nun, who bore him 6 sons and 5 daughters. Expelled from Bremgarten, he took refuge in Zurich, where in 1532 he succeeded his teacher Zwingli, who had died the previous year in the battle of Kappel, in the office of « antistes ».
From 1532 until his death in 1575, B., scarcely ever leaving Zurich, carried on an incredible activity. He raised the spirits of the people of Zurich, still cast down by the violent death of their leader Zwingli; he worked successfully for the union of the Calvinists and the Zwinglians, after having lost all hope of doing the same with the Lutherans; he protected and encouraged the Italian heretics who took refuge in Chiavenna in the Grisons; he welcomed to Zurich those persecuted and exiled from England (during the reign of Queen Mary Tudor), from France (after the night of St Bartholomew), and from Italy (those fearing the Inquisition), all attracted by the benevolent welcome of the « antistes »; he maintained an epistolary relationship (approximately 12,000 of his letters are known) with the principal heretical leaders of his time, Calvin, Bucer, Melanchthon, Laski, Cranmer, Hooper, etc.; he published commentaries on the 4 Gospels, on the Acts of the Apostles, on some letters of St Paul, on the Apocalypse, on the prophet Jeremiah, and five « Decades » of sermons, the third and fourth of which are dedicated to the King of England, Edward VI; he was the adviser of many heretics, intervened as a peacemaker in the disputes between Geneva and Bern, and strove to prevent the Swiss of Zurich, and the Swiss in general, from enlisting as mercenary soldiers in foreign armies. All this caused him to be esteemed among Protestants as a sensible, even-tempered, and moderate man. This moderation, however, disappeared when Catholics, anti-Trinitarians, and Lutherans were concerned, especially in the question of the Lutheran Lord’s Supper. He is also censured for approving Servetus’s condemnation to the stake and rejoicing at Castellion’s death. B. is chiefly famous for the Consensus tigurinus, or Zurich Consensus, and for being the author of the Second Helvetic Confession, sometimes called posterior (Confessio helvetica posterior), although the last Helvetic Confession was not compiled until a century later, in 1675.
As for the Consensus tigurinus (1549): Calvin and Zwingli agreed in rejecting Lutheran Consubstantiation and Catholic Transubstantiation; but Zwingli, and B. likewise, reduced the celebration of the Lord’s Supper to a simple commemoration of that of Our Lord. Calvin, however, added something more, namely a kind of virtue or power (dynamis) transmitted to the communicant through the Holy Spirit. In the 26 articles of the Consensus tigurinus, agreement was reached, with both parties yielding on certain doctrines, something that displeased some strict Calvinists and Zwinglians. In words they seemed to agree, and in fact this Consensus was accepted by all the Protestant Churches of Switzerland and also found favor among the French and English Calvinists and those of certain parts of Germany; but each interpreted it in the sense that suited him, as was observed at the colloquy of Poissy. It may be said, however, that from then on, and especially after the Second Helvetic Confession, both Calvinists and Zwinglians came to be called by the single name of « Reformed ».
The Second Helvetic Confession was composed in 1562 by B. alone for his own private use. During the plague of 1564, in which he lost his wife and three daughters and himself was in grave danger, he revised it and added it to his will. The Elector Palatine Frederick III, accused by the Lutheran princes because of his adherence to Calvinist doctrines, asked B. in 1565 for a complete exposition of the Reformed Church in order to answer the accusations brought against him. B. sent him his Confession, which pleased the Elector so greatly that he had it published before the Imperial Diet of Augsburg met in 1566. Once it became known in Switzerland, all the Swiss Protestants wished to adopt II. B. consented, made some corrections to it, and the Confession was published at Zurich on 15 March 1566. From Switzerland and the Palatinate it spread to France (Synod of La Rochelle, 1671), England (Synod of Debrecen, 1567), Poland, Scotland, and Holland. Theologically considered, it is the most important of the Reformed confessions, although in practical usefulness it is surpassed by the Heidelberg Catechism and the Westminster Shorter Catechism and, in logical clarity and precision, by that of Westminster. It consists of 30 lengthy articles. Article II condemns Tradition; IV and V, images and their worship; VI speaks with some ambiguity of free will and condemns the Pelagians; X likewise treats predestination ambiguously; XIV brands indulgences; and XV states that man is justified by faith alone. Article XVI admits good works only after justification, but not as meritorious; XVII does not recognize the Pope as head of the Church; XVIII recognizes the ordination of ministers, but as performed by « elders »; XIX admits only two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and rejects Confirmation and Extreme Unction; of the other Sacraments it says that they are useful practices but not sacraments. Article XXI denies Transubstantiation and Luther’s doctrine without naming him; the Mass is condemned. Article XXVI rejects the doctrine of Purgatory. In general, it may be said that Catholic doctrines are clearly rejected and that this confession is profoundly anti-Catholic; it proceeds cautiously concerning Protestant doctrines not held in common; the Lutherans are not named; heretics of that time, for example Anabaptists, and the ancient heretics are clearly condemned, although ancient names are sometimes used to designate dissenters from the doctrines of the Confession, for example Arians for Socinians, Pelagians for Catholics, etc.