Heinrich Bullinger

Heinrich Bullinger , 1504-75, Swiss Protestant reformer. After the death of Ulrich Zwingli in 1531, Bullinger became pastor of the principal church in Zürich and a leader of the reformed party in Switzerland. He played an important part in compiling the first Helvetic Confession (1536), a creed based largely on Zwingli's theological views as distinct from Lutheran doctrine. In 1549 the Consensus Tigurinus, drawn up by Bullinger and Calvin, marked the departure of Swiss theology from Zwinglian to Calvinist theory. His later views were embodied in the second Helvetic Confession (1566), which was accepted in Switzerland, France, Scotland, and Hungary and became one of the most generally accepted confessions of the reformed churches. He wrote a life of Zwingli and edited his complete works.

Bibliography: See J. W. Baker, Bullinger and the Covenant (1981); P. Biel, Doorkeepers at the House of Righteousness: Henrich Bullinger and the Zürich Clergy (1990).

Bullinger, Heinrich (1504–57). Swiss Reformer. Biblical and patristic study, the reading of Luther's and Melanchthon's writings, and Zwingli's preaching, led Bullinger to support the Reformation movement. He succeeded Zwingli as Chief Minister in Zürich, devoting his energies to educational reform, participation in the eucharistic debate amongst Protestants, and voluminous literary activities including influential correspondence with the English Reformers.

Bullinger, Heinrich (1504–75), Swiss Reformer. Convinced of the primary importance of the Bible, he adopted Lutheranism and later Zwinglianism. In 1531 he succeeded U. Zwingli as the Chief Pastor at Zurich. Within Switzerland, he played a leading role in drawing up the first and second Helvetic Confessions (1536 and 1566) and the Consensus Tigurinus (1549); these provided a national basis for the Reformation and prevented it from becoming merely a cantonal phenomenon. Abroad he combatted the Lutheran doctrine of the Eucharist and refuted Anabaptist theology. He saw no basic distinction between the Christian State and the Christian Church and considered that the norms for a Christian society had been established by God in the OT: from this covenant theology it followed that the jurisdiction of the civil authority extended to ecclesiastical matters, and, though predestination was still of prime importance, God's election was binding in history only so far as men kept the conditions of the covenant.