65 Facts About Heinrich Bullinger

Heinrich Bullinger was a Swiss Reformer and theologian, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Church of Zurich and a pastor at the Grossmunster.

One of the most important leaders of the Swiss Reformation, Bullinger co-authored the Helvetic Confessions and collaborated with John Calvin to work out a Reformed doctrine of the Lord's Supper.

Heinrich Bullinger was the fifth son and youngest of seven children born to the couple.

At age 11, Heinrich Bullinger was sent to the St Martin's Latin school in Emmerich in the Duchy of Cleves.

Heinrich Bullinger encouraged his son to beg for bread for three years, as he had done, and by doing so increase the boy's empathy for the poor.

At St Martin's Latin school, Heinrich Bullinger studied classic texts, including Jerome, Horace, and Virgil.

Heinrich Bullinger was influenced by the Brethren of the Common Life and their adoption of the Devotio moderna, which emphasized Christian living and the reading of the Bible.

Heinrich Bullinger read Peter Lombard's Sentences and the Decretum Gratiani, which led him to the church fathers.

Heinrich Bullinger discovered that the Fathers relied more on Scripture than did Lombard and Gratian, and this discovery encouraged Heinrich Bullinger to read both the Bible and Luther, including The Babylonian Captivity of the Church and The Freedom of a Christian.

Heinrich Bullinger read works by other Reformers, such as Philip Melanchthon's Loci communes.

Now believing that salvation came through God's grace rather than through man's good works, Heinrich Bullinger was converted to Protestantism,.

In 1522, as a follower of Martin Luther, Heinrich Bullinger earned his Master of Arts degree but ceased receiving the Eucharist.

Heinrich Bullinger abandoned his previous intention of entering the Carthusian order.

At Kappel Abbey, Heinrich Bullinger initiated a systematic program of Bible reading and exegesis.

Heinrich Bullinger tried to reform its Trivium curriculum in a more humanist and Protestant direction.

Heinrich Bullinger discovered that the monks barely understood Latin, and so he preached to them in Swiss-German.

Heinrich Bullinger became a friend and ally of Zwingli and was present at the Zurich disputation of 1525.

Under the influence of Zwingli and the Waldensians, Heinrich Bullinger moved to a more symbolic understanding of the Eucharist.

In 1528, at the urging of the Zurich Synod, Heinrich Bullinger left Kappel Abbey and was ordained as a parish minister in the new Reformed church of Zurich.

Meanwhile, Heinrich Bullinger wrote theological treatises on the Eucharist, covenants, images, and the relationship of the church to society, important topics he continued to develop in his later writings.

Heinrich Bullinger sent these treatises to neighboring cities, attempting to win them to the Reformed position; and these treatises were attacked by Roman Catholics defending papal infallibility and transubstantiation.

Heinrich Bullinger's humanism was evident in his writings about the church fathers, his belief in the study of liberal arts as preparatory for the study of Scriptures, and even a play he wrote about the classical story of Lucretia.

Nevertheless, after a few months of debate, those sympathetic to the Reformation prevailed, and Heinrich Bullinger was chosen to replace his father.

In Bremgarten, Heinrich Bullinger preached four times a week and held a well-attended Bible study every day at 3 in the afternoon.

When Zwingli called the cantons of Zurich and Bern to war against the Catholic cantons, Heinrich Bullinger opposed him, even preaching against it.

Heinrich Bullinger argued that religious reform came only through the preaching of the gospel, not through war.

Heinrich Bullinger's bellicosity led to the Second Kappel War, after Roman Catholics attacked Bremgarten, where Bullinger was ministering.

Only three days after fleeing from Bremgarten, Heinrich Bullinger stood in the pulpit of the Grossmunster.

Oswald Myconius said Heinrich Bullinger so "thundered a sermon from the pulpit that many thought Zwingli was not dead but resurrected like the phoenix".

Heinrich Bullinger regularly preached 12 sermons a week in the Grossmunster for the first ten years of his ministry until Kaspar Megander was appointed to assume the majority of his preaching duties.

Heinrich Bullinger preached an estimated 28,000 sermons in the Grossmunster pulpit.

The fourth article required Heinrich Bullinger to be peaceful and not interfere in secular affairs.

Heinrich Bullinger agreed that ministers should not take civic roles, but he stressed that the minister should retain the freedom to preach the Word of God, even if that message varied from the position of civil authorities.

Heinrich Bullinger's rebuilding of the church included defending it against the Roman Catholics, who were poised to invade Zurich.

Heinrich Bullinger persuaded them that he endorsed the Peace of Kappel and did not seek political controversy as Zwingli had done.

Finally, in 1532 Heinrich Bullinger negotiated a compromise peace that guaranteed the freedom of Protestants in exchange for the independence of Roman Catholics in Protestant cantons.

Jud viewed the church and state as two separate institutions established by God, while Heinrich Bullinger held a more traditional view.

Heinrich Bullinger freed the Zurich church from civil authorities by assuming direct personal oversight of the other clergy.

Heinrich Bullinger ensured that political and clerical controversies were discussed and resolved behind closed doors; and by carefully informing himself about the 120 parishes under his supervision, he was able to direct their clerical appointments and ordinations.

Heinrich Bullinger transformed Zwingli's Prophezei into the Lectorium, or Carolinium, to provide theological higher education.

Heinrich Bullinger sortied against the Anabaptists in his 1531 work, Four Books to Warn the Faithful of the Shameless Disturbance, Offensive Confusion, and False Teachings of the Anabaptists.

Heinrich Bullinger upheld this principle of quasi-toleration for the rest of his life.

Heinrich Bullinger eventually wrote a long history of the Anabaptists called On the Origins of Anabaptism, which detailed their origin and spread in Europe.

The confession, a combination of Zwinglian and Lutheran theology, was adopted by a number of Protestant churches, but Heinrich Bullinger distrusted Bucer, and by 1538, negotiations to unite the Swiss and Lutheran churches broke down.

The sermons were widely distributed, and Heinrich Bullinger became even better known as a Reformer.

Heinrich Bullinger played a crucial role in drafting the Second Helvetic Confession of 1566.

Heinrich Bullinger had written the first draft in 1562 as a personal statement of faith, which in a 1564 revision, he intended to be presented to the Zurich Rathaus after his death.

In 1566, after Frederick III the Pious, elector palatine, introduced Reformed elements into churches in his region, Heinrich Bullinger had this statement of faith circulated among the Protestant cities of Switzerland; and it gained a favorable response in many Swiss cities, including Bern, Zurich, Schaffhausen, St Gallen, Chur, and Geneva.

Heinrich Bullinger died at Zurich in 1575 and was followed as antistes by Zwingli's adopted son Rudolf Gwalther.

Heinrich Bullinger thereafter linked the symbolic and spiritual presence in the Consensus Tigurinus of 1549, which he composed with Calvin, a formula codified in the Heidelberg Catechism and the Second Helvetic Confession.

Heinrich Bullinger played an important role in developing covenant theology in the Reformed tradition.

Heinrich Bullinger initially used the covenants as an interpretive grid for eucharistic theology, but by the 1550s he employed the covenant as a theological category.

Heinrich Bullinger, like Zwingli, was a staunch advocate of infant baptism.

Heinrich Bullinger's writings exceed Luther and Calvin combined, including 12,000 surviving letters.

Heinrich Bullinger was part of the drafting of the First Helvetic Confession, an early consensus document of the Reformation and expression of Swiss theology.

Heinrich Bullinger was part of the of drafting the Second Helvetic Confession of 1566, which he originally drafted himself in 1562 as a personal statement of faith.

Heinrich Bullinger's main theological work was the Dekaden, or The Decades, which is a compilation of 50 sermons that Heinrich Bullinger published from 1549 to 1551.

In 1531, Heinrich Bullinger helped edit and write the preface to the Zurich Bible with Jud, Bibliander, and Pellikan.

Besides theological works, Heinrich Bullinger wrote some historical works of value.

Heinrich Bullinger wrote in detail on Biblical chronology, working within the framework that was universal in the Christian theological tradition until the second half of the 17th century, namely that the Bible affords a faithful and normative reference for all ancient history.

Heinrich Bullinger was called by German Reformation historian Rainer Henrich "a one-man communication system".

Heinrich Bullinger was a personal friend and advisor of many leading personalities of the reformation era.

Heinrich Bullinger corresponded with Reformed, Anglican, Lutheran, and Baptist theologians, with Henry VIII of England, Edward VI of England, Lady Jane Grey and Elizabeth I of England, Christian II of Denmark, Philipp I of Hesse and Frederick III, Elector Palatine.

Heinrich Bullinger opened Zurich to Protestant fugitives from religious persecution in other countries.

Heinrich Bullinger accepted fugitives from northern Italy and France, especially after the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre.