THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
ing his elementary education in the schools of his native town, he was sent to Emmerich on the Lower Rhine to the Brethren of the Common Life, and in 1519 he went to Cologne. There, in the seat of opposition to the Reformation, Bullinger gradually became a convert to the new doctrines. When he beg-an the study of theology, his text-books were the Sententioc of Peter Lombard and the Decretum of Gratian, but noting that these were based on the Church Fathers, he resolved to study the latter more closely, thus learning from Chrysostom, Ambrose, Origen, and Augustine how widely the scholastics had diverged in their treatment of Christian truths. At the same time he came into possession of some pamphlets of Luther which convinced him that the Wittenberg i. Conver- Reformer marked an advance over the sion to scholastics. Since, however, Luther, Protestant- like the Church Fathers, appealed ism. to the Scriptures, Bullinger obtained a New Testament, which nourished his opposition to Roman doctrine. He was also strongly influenced by Melanchthon's Loci communes, and by 1522, despite a bitter inward struggle, he had broken definitely with the Roman Catholic Church. Being thus debarred from an ecclesiastical career, he resolved to become a teacher, and after nine months he secured a position in the Cistercian monastery at Kappel, where he remained from Jan., 1523, to Pentecost, 1529. Not only did he introduce his pupils to the classics, but he also interpreted a portion of the Bible to them daily, in addition to lecturing on other theological subjects in the presence of the abbot, the monks, and many of the residents of the city. Through bis preaching of a reformation of doctrine and life the movement was completed in 1525-26, although Bullinger's life was imperiled by the hostility of the adherents of the ancient faith. In the early part of 1527 the monastery was transferred to the authorities of Zurich and the monastery church became the parish church of the community, with Bullinger as the preacher. In close harmony with Zwingli, whom he had known since the end of 1523, and in consultation with Leo Jud, he began the active preparation of a large number of tracts designed to work for the Reformation 2. Friend- in central Switzerland. After being ship with invited by Zwingli in Jan., 1525, to Zwingli. attend a conference with the Anabaptists, he combated them, and in 1528 he accompanied Zwingli to the Disputation of Bern, where the leading Reformers of Switzerland and South Germany became acquainted with each other.
In June, 1529, Bullinger succeeded his father as pastor of Bremgarten, but his position was a perilous one, and the Reformed strongholds were fortified in expectation of the war between the Confederates, which threatened to break out in 1529. Despite the so-called " land-peace " and the sermons delivered by Bullinger at the diets held at Bremgarten in the summer of 1531, in which he urged upon his hearers the horrors of civil war and sought to reconcile the adherents of both creeds by the weapons of the spirit and the word of God
without the effusion of blood, the Reformation had long been political rather than religious, and on Oct. 11, 1531, the battle of Kappel was fought, in which the leaders of the Zurich Reformation fell. The progress of the entire movement was checked. and at Bremgarten at heavy cost a peace was made from which the clergy were excepted. In the night of Nov. 20 Bullinger fled to Zurich. The difficult task of the reconstruction of the Reformed Church and the maintenance of Zwingli's life-work now devolved upon him, and on Dec. 9, 1531, he was chosen pastor of the Grossmiinster to
3. The Sue- succeed the great Swiss Reformer. At cessor of the same time, however, a controversy Zwingli. arose between the adherents of the
ancient conditions, who advocated peace at any price, and the evangelical party, resulting in a decision to prohibit the clergy from touching on political questions in their sermons. After consultation with his colleagues, Bullinger declared himself ready to promote peace, but declined to refrain from political problems which were connected with religion. The liberty which he demanded was granted him after long deliberation, and the clergy accordingly placed themselves in opposition to the reactionaries. The sermons of Bullinger and Jud, however, resulted in their being cited before the council. They were honorably discharged, but were requested in future to lay their political complaints before the council on the chance that they might be settled without the necessity of publicity. Through this recognition of the spheres of Church and State as distinct but not opposed, Bullinger sustained a more healthy relation to the political body than Zwingli, and he also avoided the struggles made by Cabin to make the State subservient to the Church. A
still more difficult task was the stein-
4. Political ming of the Catholic reaction, and Activity, it was chiefly due to him that the
disaster of Kappel had no worse results. The evangelical communities, however, suffered severely, and turned to Zurich for help, and the council, in their eagerness to refute the charge of Roman tendencies, unwisely inserted in their manifesto words which the Catholics claimed were an insult to the mass. In the controversy which ensued, Zurich was cited before the council of the Confederation, whereupon Bullinger, while blaming the city for its folly, advised the mutual surrender of the old letters of confederation, the peaceable division of the common territories, and the formation of a new union with such bodies as held to the word of God. Although it proved possible to preserve peace without this dissolution of the Confederation, the result was a partial humiliation of Zurich.
In the earlier years of his pastoral activity Bullinger was an indefatigable preacher, delivering between six and eight sermons each week, nor was it until 1542 that his labors were lessened to two addresses, on Sunday and Friday. Like Zwingli, he was accustomed to interpret entire books of the Bible in order, and his sermons were esteemed far and wide, especially in England. He was also active in education, and brought the schools of