The Decades by Henry Bullinger, ed. Parker Society Series (Cambridge: Cambridge Press 1852).
The fifth decade consists of ten sermons preceded by a biographical notice. These biographical details are drawn from Henry Bullinger’s Diary, from a Memoir in the first volume of Miscellanies Tigurinus and from biographies of Simler, Melchior, Adam, and Hess. J.H. Merle D’Aubigne’s History of the Reformation (Books VIII, XI, XV, and XVI) was used which relied heavily on Bullinger’s own “Chronick.”
Henry Bullinger was the fifth child of Henry Bullinger and Anna Widerkehr and was born July 10, 1504, in Bremgarten, a small ten miles west of Zurich. His father was a parish-priest. He lived under circumstances of severe poverty. Early in life, Bullinger desired to be a Carthusian monk, “because it was the strictest of all the orders.”
On 19 July 1519, he entered the University of Cologne. The schoolmen, notably Peter Lombard and Gratian, engrossed the young scholar. He obtained a license of access to a well-stored library held by the Dominicans and, with “ardour” and “earnest desire,” studied Chrysostom, Ambrose, Origen and Augustine. At this general time, he discovered Luther’s “Babylonish Captivity,” “On Christian Liberty,’ and Philip Melancthon’s Loci Communes. Bullinger obtained a copy of the New Testament and, gradually, came to believe and accept the “gospel in its purity.”
Bullinger completed his B.A. in 1520 and M.A. in 1522. He returned to Bremgarten and resided under his father’s roof. His father, Henry (same first name), took up preaching against indulgences. During this time, the younger Henry studied Athanasius, Cyprian, Lanctatius, and several addition treatises by Luther—“On the Abrogation of the Mass” and “On Vows.” The trajectory was becoming clearer.
Wolfgang Joner, the new Cisterican abbot of Cappel had been seeking since 1519 to elevate the moral and academic condition of his convent. Hearing of Bullinger, an invitation was extended in 1523 to Bullinger to become a lecturer and teacher of the monks and other students of the monastery. Bullinger accepted this invitation and this brought him into further acquaintance with Erasmus and Melanchthon. The auditors were soon hearing of Bullinger’s emerging insights.
During the same interval, Bullinger made acquaintance with Ulrich Zwingli and Leo Judae. He was much influenced by the former with respect to the Eucharist and, in 1527, sought a leave of absence from his abbot for five months. The purpose was to attend Zwingli’s lectures at Zurich. The leave of absence was granted.
In December of 1527, the Senate of Zurich deputed Bullinger to accompany Zwingli to the important disputation at Berne. Upon return, he undertook the pastoral office and preached his first sermon, 21 June 1528, at the village of Husen, near Cappel.
As his notoriety grew and, with solicitation from parents and friends, he returned home to Bremgarten. On 1 June 1529, his gave incessant expositions that furthered the spreading cause of the Reformation.
On 17 Aug 1529, Bullinger married Anne Adlischweiler, a former nun. The family settled in Bremgarten for two years. During this period, Bullinger began writing commentaries on biblical books, frequently writing and speaking against the Anabaptists.
Ulrich Zwingli fell in the disastrous defeat of the Protestant confederates at Cappel, 11 October 1531. Bullinger and his family were compelled to move to Zurich for safety, settling there on the 21st of November. The authorities of Zurich appointed Bullinger to the vacancy of the Cathedral Church. He continued in this post for the remainder of his life.
Additional information on Grossmunster Cathedral, Zurich, is available at:
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/switzerland/zurich-grossmunster.htm
http://www.grossmuenster.ch/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grossm%C3%BCnster
Bullinger preached daily, sometimes twice per day, from 1531-1537. His publications were frequent and voluminous, extensive and critical. His areas of labour were pastoral, synodical, ecclesiastical and civil.
By January 1536, Bullinger was deputed by Leo Judae to attend a conference of deputies from the Swiss Reformed Churches meeting in Basel. He helped to craft the First Helvetic Confession and made the acquaintance with John Calvin; other notables that Bullinger met were Englishmen: John Butler, Nicholas Partridge, and William Woodroofe.
A fatal plague in 1541 took Bullinger’s aged mother, one of his sons, and his colleague Leo Judae. Bishop Pilkington, the famous English Reformer, would come to describe Bullinger as “That common father of the afflicted.”
While speaking of English Reformers, Bullinger notes in his Diary, dated 29 March 1547, as the day when John Hooper and his wife—in exile—met together. This had been long anticipated. The Hoopers on 24 March 1549 returned to England with their daughter, Rachel, Bullinger’s god-child. This friendship between Hooper and Bullinger would result in the long series of letter-exchanges, letters that are in another volume of this grand series of the Parker Society--this must-read for Protestant, Reformed, Calvinistic, and Confessional Anglicans .
In May 1549, Calvin, Farel and Bullinger arrived at a “consensus” on the subject of the Lord’s Table—a consensus between the churches of Geneva and Zurich. Meanwhile, Romanist authorities, imperial and ecclesiastical, were combining to condemn Bullinger and his writings.
During 1554, Marian exiles from England entered Zurich and he extended his sympathies, interest, and support to them. One writer (somewhere) said this was a “vacation to the Continent to study theology.” Whether it was a vacation is one question. However, they did study. Among these English exiles were Parkhurst, Jewel, Horn, Pilkington, Lever, Humphrey, and Cole. Bullinger also received Italian Reformed exiles.
Our biographer tells us that Bullinger spent 1556-1564 combating the errors of Joachim Westphalus, Stancari, and George Blandrata. Bullinger, we are concisely told, continued his indefatigable labours amidst bereavements and public trials.
Bullinger fell ill in October, 1574—seizures ?—that finally took him. He expired at the age of seventy-one. He was buried in the Cathedral of Zurich amid the sincere and lively regret of the towns-people.
We ask a large question: what was the extent of influence, agreement, and disagreement between Bullinger and the English Reformers during the Elizabethan, Jacobean and Caroline periods of Anglican history?
We would love for our readers to assess this by reading the above book and writing a book review.
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