Today With Bullinger

In Sacrosanctum Jesu Christi Domini nostri Evangelium secundum Matthæum Commentariorum libri XII. fol. Tig. 1542, was translated by Frisius into German, with the title, “The Hope of the Faithful,” and published August 18, 1544.

The preface to the volume is lovely. Really lovely.

The Reticence of the Editors of Luther’s Works in English to Publish his Book on the Jews

In the preface, the editors of the American Edition of Luther’s works write

The fact that Luther, during the last years of his life, wrote treatises harshly condemnatory of the Jews and Judaism is rather widely known. The treatises themselves, however, have not previously been available in English. The publication here of the longest and most infamous of them, On the Jews and Their Lies, will no doubt prove dismaying to many readers, not only because it shows Luther at his least attractive, but also because of the potential misuse of this material. The risk to Luther’s reputation is gladly borne, since the exposure of a broader range of his writings to modern critical judgment is an inherent purpose of this American edition. However, the thought of possible misuse of this material, to the detriment either of the Jewish people or of Jewish-Christian relations today, has occasioned great misgivings. Both editor and publisher, therefore, wish to make clear at the very outset that publication of this treatise is being undertaken only to make available the necessary documents for scholarly study of this aspect of Luther’s thought, which has played so fateful a role in the development of anti-Semitism in Western culture. Such publication is in no way intended as an endorsement of the distorted views of Jewish faith and practice or the defamation of the Jewish people which this treatise contains.*

Luther’s book doesn’t just make us squirm today, it was also viewed negatively in Luther’s own day, among his own supporters!

Already upon its first appearance in the year 1543, Luther’s treatise caused widespread dismay, not only among contemporary Jews but also in Protestant circles. Melanchthon and Osiander are known to have been unhappy with its severity. Henry Bullinger, in correspondence with Martin Bucer, remarked that Luther’s views reminded him of those of the Inquisitors. And a subsequent document prepared by the churches of Zurich declared (speaking specifically of the treatise Vom Schem Hamphoras, published later in 1543), that “if it had been written by a swineherd, rather than by a celebrated shepherd of souls, it might have some—but very little—justification.”*   [The Zurich document is cited in WA 53, 574. For the views of Melanchthon, Osiander, Bullinger, and other Reformers, see Lewin, Luthers Stellung zu den Juden (cited above, p. 96, n. 35), pp. 97 ff.]

(WA 53,574)

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*Luther’s works, vol. 47: The Christian in Society IV.

Fun Facts from Bullinger’s Reformationsgeschichte

While a student in Basel, Huldrych Zwingli learned to play a number of musical instruments, but he came to a special mastery of the lute.

Today With Bullinger

On 17 July, 1532 Heinrich Bullinger gave a speech to the Zurich city council concerning recent events in Baden (on 9-10 July of that same year) where the cantons had discussed entering into an alliance with Charles V and Francis I against the Turkish threat.  Bullinger, on behalf of the Zurich Clergy.  Bullinger reminds them of various connivings of those two monarchs and the disastrous results of Swiss involvement in previous wars involving the French and the Holy Roman Empire, including the battle which moved Zwingli to object to all such military entanglements with foreign lords- Marignano in 1515.

In sum, Bullinger, in the name of the others, advised the Zurich-ers to avoid any war.  Those who signed in agreement were

• Doctor Heinrich Engelhart
• Leo Jud
• Doctor Andreas Karlstadt (!)
• Erasmus Schmid
• Konrad Pellikan
• Theodore Bibliander
• Heinrich Bullinger

Unfortuntely theologians today are too occupied with appearances on tv mockumentaries to send such notices to governments. If they did, well maybe the world would be different. One thing is for sure, they wouldn’t be so disdained by society for their acceptance of the status quo.

Bullinger’s Letters

Der Briefwechsel des Zürcher Reformators Heinrich Bullinger ist von ausserordentlicher Bedeutung. Mit rund 12000 Briefen ist er wohl die umfangreichste erhaltene Briefkorrespondenz des 16. Jahrhunderts. Er gibt in einzigartiger Weise Einblick in die Zeit der Reformation. Darüber hinaus dokumentiert er die zentrale Stellung Zürichs im damaligen Europa. Etwa ein Viertel von Bullingers Briefen wurde in den letzten Jahren durch das Institut für Schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte der UZH veröffentlicht.

Ziel ist, weitere Briefe zu edieren, sowie die gesamte Korrespondenz zu digitalisieren und zu veröffentlichen, damit sie weltweit genutzt werden kann. Die UZH Foundation unterstützt dieses Projekt mittels einer Fundraising-Kampagne.

Kontakt: Isabel Probst

Mehr

Via.

Tigurinerchronik (3 Volumes)

Die dreibändige Ausgabe macht erstmals das historiografische Hauptwerk Heinrich Bullingers (1504–1575), die sogenannte «Tigurinerchronik», zugänglich. Das Werk vermittelt die Sicht des engagierten und belesenen Zwinglinachfolgers, der darin die Geschichte Zürichs mit jener der Eidgenossenschaft und Europas verquickt und aufarbeitet. Die Darstellung, die sich von vorchristlicher Zeit bis zur Reformation erstreckt, ist heilsgeschichtlich angelegt und versteht die Entwicklung des Christentums und der Kirche als Ausbreitung der Wahrheit (Antike), deren Verschüttung (Mittelalter) und der Wiederentdeckung (Reformation). Dabei erhält die Stadt Zürich hohe Bedeutung und ihre Reform die endgültige Legitimation.

Mit der vorliegenden umfangreichen kritischen Edition – Bullingers eigenhändiges Manuskript umfasst rund 1800 Folioseiten – steht der Forschung nun diese wichtige Quelle des 16. Jahrhunderts zur Verfügung.

Heinrich Bullinger Werke, Band WA4 = HI1
2018, 1854 (in drei Bänden) Seiten, 16.8 x 24.4 cm, Leinen mit SU
ISBN 978-3-290-17851-2
450,00 €

A review copy has been sent.  More anon (after I read through it-  which will take a couple of months).

Nüwe Zyttungen

This just arrived from Zurich thanks to Reinhard Bodenmann and the other lovely folk there at the University in the Department of Theology.  It’s from a new exhibit on the letters of Bullinger.  And it’s wonderful!

It’s a treasure trove, just like Bullinger’s correspondence.  Now, to enjoy it.

Mission Zwingli: Bullinger’s Letters

Nüwe Zyttungen: Von schlurfenden Pfaffen, Wundern und anderen Zeichen. Der Briefwechsel des Reformators Heinrich Bullinger

Der Reformator Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575), Nachfolger Huldrych Zwinglis, hat über 12 000 Briefe erhalten und geschrieben. Diese Korrespondenz ist mehr als privater oder seelsorgerischer Austausch: Als Medium für Nachrichtenübermittlung, internationale Kirchenpolitik und theologische Debatten zeichnet sie ein vielschichtiges Bild ihrer Zeit. Während die Briefe die krisenhaften internationalen Ereignisse abbilden, geben sie gleichzeitig Aufschluss über die Kommunikationsstrategien der Reformatoren nach Zwinglis Tod. Meldungen über Kriegsgeschehen, Wunderzeichen oder Naturkatastrophen, polemische Schriften, Flugblätter, Schmählieder und Gerüchte erreichen Zürich, werden im Streit der Konfessionen widerlegt, geahndet oder weiterverbreitet.
Dieses Buch erscheint anlässlich des Jubiläums 500 Jahre Zürcher Reformation und begleitet eine Ausstellung an der Universität Zürich. Die ausgewählten Briefzitate und Bilder geben Einblick in ein beispielhaftes frühneuzeitliches Kommunikationsnetzwerk. Ergänzt werden die Auszüge durch einordnende Interviews mit Spezialisten, die den Kontext und die medientheoretische Aktualität aufzeigen.

Get yourself one!

Bullinger for Today

They serve God … who by faith and obedience gather themselves into the holy assembly at specified times; who keep the ecclesiastical discipline derived out of the word of God; who hear the word of God, or the holy exposition of the sacred scriptures; who pray publicly with the church; who religiously participate in the sacraments; and observe other lawful and wholesome rites or ceremonies. By this their service they glorify God among men… 

Truce-breakers are they, disloyal, and infamous through their adultery, whosoever, being not knit to one God by faith, or worship him alone, or call upon him through Christ, and who do not serve him also as he himself hath said in his word he would be served. — Heinrich Bullinger

Bullinger to Myconius- 18 April, 1534

At the end of a letter that Bullinger composed on the 18th of April, 1534, he remarks of Luther:

De Lutheri impudentia nuper libellis quibusdam de privata missa et in Erasmum scriptis (15) vehementer doleo. Video enim hunc hominem ecclesiae dei plus incommodaturum, quam profuerit unquam. Interim vero hunc omnibus in Europa doctis in evangelio praeferre non cessat Bucerus (16),miror, quo consilio. Oecolampadium, virum sanctissimum illum, praedecessore tuum, in istis furiosis rixis palam praedicat a sathana strangulatum periisse. Vide, quid monachus iste audeat. Erasmum prorsum Arrianis adnumerat (17) et convitiorum atque calumniarum plaustra in senem illum et de ecclesia et literis optime meritum effundit (18). Vide, obsecro, quantis in periculis versetur ecclesia, quantis quaciatur persequtionum et tentationum procellis. Dominus conservet nos in veritate (19). Iterum vale.

Luther could be a jerk.  Everyone knew it.  Even Luther.

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15 Es handelt sich um Luthers «Von der Winkelmesse und Pfaffenweihe» 1533 (WA XXXVIII 171-256) und seinen Brief an Nikolaus von Amsdorf, um den 11. März 1534 (WA, Briefe VII 27-40), vgl. auch Anm. 17f.

16 Bucer verteidigte Luther in diesem Zusammenhang Bullinger gegenüber bereits am 9. April 1534, s. oben S. 121f, 15-46.

17 In der erwähnten Lutherschrift «Von der Winkelmesse und Pfaffenweihe» 1533 (WA XXXVIII 204, 26-28).

18 Erasmus von Luther als Arianer dargestellt: WA, Briefe VII 33,206-39,415; vgl. oben S. 109, Anm. 8.

19 Vgl. Joh 17, 17.

Heinrich Bullinger: On the Sub-Christian Nature of Polygamy and the Nature of Marriage

Bullinger writes

But it is not appropriate that in lawful matrimony any more should be than two alone, to be joined together under one yoke of wedlock.

For the use of many wives, which our fathers usurped without any blame, may not stablish polygamy for a law among us at these days. The time of correction is now come to light, and Messiah now is come into the world, who teacheth all rightly, and reformeth things amiss.

He therefore hath reduced wedlock to the first prescribed rule and law of matrimony. “Two,” saith the Lord, “shall be one flesh.” And the apostle saith: “Let every man have his own wife, and every woman her own husband.”

The multitude of Solomon’s concubines therefore appertain not to us. We have not to follow the example of Jacob, who married two sisters.

For Christians, even marriage takes its cue from Christ and not from culture.  For Christians, marriage consists of the joining together of one man and one woman.  Period.

But what about divorce?  Bullinger, along with the rest of the Reformers, frowned on it, though they saw it as a concession to the weakness of many.  Still, the divorced were not free to remarry.  Period.

But what if the spouse dies?  Bullinger writes

And yet, notwithstanding, the word of truth condemneth not the second, third, or many marriages which a man maketh, when his wife is deceased.

Marriage, for Christians, means something more than it does for the larger society.  The culture may root like pigs in the trough but Christians are called to a better, less porcine, life.

Bullinger: On Rebellion

To reject and overwhelm [the guidance of the Holy Spirit] with stubborn falsehood, flat apostasy, wicked contradiction, and perpetual contempt, is flatly to commit [the] sin against the Holy Spirit. And this truly takes its point of departure from original sin, and is nourished and set forward by devilish suggestions, perverse affections, by indignations, envy, hope or fear, by stubborn and self-wilful malice, and lastly by contumacy and rebellion. — Heinrich Bullinger

Bullinger on the Pastoral Task

We therefore, the interpreters of God’s holy word, and faithful ministers of the church of Christ, must have a diligent regard to keep the scriptures sound and perfect, and to teach the people of Christ the word of God sincerely; made plain, I mean, and not corrupted or darkened by foolish and wrong expositions of our own invention.   — Heinrich Bullinger

Fun Facts From Church History: The Confession Of Bullinger’s Father

In 1529…

In February of this year Bullinger’s father had publicly proclaimed at Bremgarten his conviction, that he had hitherto, in the time of darkness, misled his parishioners; but that now he would endeavour to guide them in the right way of life, out of holy scripture alone, and through Jesus Christ, our only Saviour.* He died at Zurich, April 8, 1533, aged 64 years.

Heinrich Bullinger’s father (also named Heinrich) was, of course, a priest who, like many priests of the 16th century, had de facto wives as well as several children.  But when his son convinced him of the truth of the Evangelical faith, he saw the error of his theological ways and adopte Reformed theology (as mediated by Heinrich from Zwingli).

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*Bullinger, H. (1852). The Decades of Henry Bullinger: The Fifth Decade (T. Harding, Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hooper in Zurich

Did you know that it was on this date in 1547 that John Hooper visited Bullinger in Zurich?

In his extant diary Bullinger has marked March 29, 1547, as the day when Hooper and his wife, in their exile, accomplished their long-cherished desire of visiting him [Bullinger]; and March 24, 1549, when they left him for England with their daughter Rachel, his god-child.

So Thomas Harding.

Bullinger: The Providence of God in a Nutshell

Job being well instructed did not say, as we now are wont to say, The Lord gave, and the devil hath taken away; but, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.” And these things do exceedingly comfort the godly in temptations; who understand that nothing can happen to them without God’s permission, and that he permitteth nothing but that which maketh for our amendment and salvation, and therefore that we are always preserved by the providence and bountifulness of God. For whatsoever hath hitherto been spoken concerning the power and workings of the devils pertained not hitherto, to dash us out of courage and cast us down; but to make us more vigilant or watchful. The Lord, that overcame the devil and sheweth us the way to overcome him, commandeth us to watch. For therefore he encountered with Satan the first, second, and third time, to instruct us how we should fight against the enemy of mankind. He overcame him for us, that we should not despair of ability and power easily to overcome him, since he is already weakened and wounded. By faith, doubtless, we shall overcome him: for by faith we are knit unto Christ, and by faith we draw the Spirit of Christ, by the force and virtue whereof we shall triumph. (The Decades of H. Bullinger, Decade Four).

Evil Leaders

If therefore in the magistrate evil be found, and not the good for which he was ordained, that cometh of other causes, and the fault thereof is in the men and persons, which neglect God and corrupt the ordinance of God, and not in God, nor in his ordinance: for either the evil prince, seduced by the devil, corrupteth the ways of God, and by his own fault and naughtiness transgresseth God’s ordinance, so far, that he doth worthily deserve the name of devilish power, and not divine authority. — Heinrich Bullinger

Today in Church History: The Publication of the Second Helvetic Confession

Schaff remarks

[The Second Helvetic Confession, written by Bullinger] was published at Zuerich, March 12, 1566, in both [German and Latin], at public expense, and was forwarded to the Elector of the Palatinate and to Philip of Hesse. A French translation appeared soon afterwards in Geneva under the care of Beza.

Happy birthday to the greatest of the Swiss Confessions.

From the Archives of Zwingliana: Bullinger on the Last Judgment

Bruce Gordon’s «Welcher nit gloubt der ist schon verdampt »: Heinrich Bullinger and the Spirituality of the Last Judgement was first published in Zwingliana in 2004. It’s another one of the many, many essays in Zwingliana that inform and educate.