§ 55. The Second Helvetic Confession, A.D. 1566.
Literature
Confessio Helvetica Posterior. The Latin text, Zurich, 1566, 1568, 1608, 1651, etc.; recent editions by J. P. Kindler, with Preface of Winer, Sulzbach, 1825; by Fritzsche, Turici, 1839; and by Ed. Böhl, Vienna, 1866: also in the Collections of Corpus et Syntag. Confess., Oxford Sylloge, Augusti, and Niemeyer. The German text appeared frequently--Zurich, 1566; Basle, 1654; Berne, 1676, etc., and in the Collections of Beck, Mess, and Böckel. French ed. Geneva, 1566, etc. English translations in Hall's Harmony of Protestant Confessions (not complete); another by Owen Jones: The Church of the Living God; also the Swiss and Belgian Confessions and Expositions of the Faith, translated into the English language in 1862. London (Caryl Book Society), 1865 (complete, but inaccurate), and a third by Prof. Jerem. H. Good (of Tiffin, O.) in Bomberger's Reformed Church Monthly (Ursinus College, Pa.), for Sept. 1872, to Dec. 1873 (good, but made from the German translation).
Joh. Jak. Hottinger: Helvetische Kirchengeschichte, Zurich, 1708, Part III. pp. 894 sqq.
Hagenbach: Kritische Geschichte der Entstehung und Schicksale der ersten Basler Confession. Basel, 1827 (1828), pp. 85 sqq.
Niemeyer: Collect., Prolegomena, pp. lxiii.-lxviii.
L. Thomas: La Confession Helvétique, études historico-dogmatiques sur le xvi^e. siècle. Genève, 1853.
K. Sudhoff: Art. Helvetische Confession, in Herzog's Theol. Encyklop. 2d ed. Vol. V. pp. 749-755.
Carl Pestalozzi: Heinrich Bullinger. Leben und ausgewählte Schriften. Nach handschriftlichen und gleichzeitigen Quellen. Elberfeld, 1858 (5th Part of Väter und Begründer der reform. Kirche), pp. 413-421.
Before we proceed to the Calvinistic Confessions, we anticipate the Second Helvetic Confession, the last and the best of the Zwinglian family.
BULLINGER.
It is the work of Henry Bullinger (1504-1575), the pupil, friend, and successor of Zwingli, to whom he stands related as Beza does to Calvin. He was a learned, pious, wise, and faithful man, and the central figure in the second period of the Reformation in German Switzerland. Born at Bremgarten, in Aargau, [764] educated in Holland and Cologne, where he studied patristic and scholastic theology, and read with great interest the writings of Luther and the Loci of Melanchthon, he became on his return intimately acquainted with Zwingli, accompanied him to the Conference at Berne (1528), and after laboring for some years at Cappel and Bremgarten, he was chosen his successor as chief pastor (Antistes) at Zurich, Dec. 9, 1531. This was shortly after the catastrophe at Cappel, in the darkest period of the Swiss Reformation.
Bullinger proved to be the right man in the right place. He raised the desponding spirits, preserved and completed the work of his predecessor, and exerted, by his example and writings, a commanding influence throughout the Reformed Church inferior only to that of Calvin. He was in friendly correspondence with Calvin, Bucer, Melanchthon, Laski, Beza, Cranmer, Hooper, [765] Lady Jane Grey, [766] and the leading Protestant divines and dignitaries of England. Some of them had found an hospitable refuge in his house and with his friends during the bloody reign of Mary (1553-58), and after their return, when raised to bishoprics and other positions of influence under Queen Elizabeth, they asked his counsel, and kept him informed about the progress of reform in their country. This correspondence is an interesting testimony not only to his personal worth, but also to the fraternal communion which then existed between the Anglican and the Swiss Reformed Churches. [767] Episcopacy was then not yet deemed the only valid form of the Christian ministry. He opened his house also to Italian Protestants, and treated even the elder Sozino, who died at Zurich, with great kindness and liberality, endeavoring to restrain his heretical tendency. In the latter years of his life he was severely tried by the death of his best friends (Bibliander, Froschauer, Peter Martyr, Pellican, Gessner, Blaarer, Calvin, Hyperius), and by a fearful pestilence which deprived him of his beloved wife and three daughters, and brought him to the brink of the grave. He bore all with Christian resignation, recovered from disease, and continued faithfully to labor for several years longer, until he was called to his reward, after taking affectionate farewell of all the pastors and professors of Zurich, thanking them for their devotion, assuring them of his love, and giving each one of them the hand with his blessing. He assumed the care of the Church of Zurich when it was in a dangerous crisis; he left it firmly and safely established.