BULLINGER, Johann Heinrich (15041575)1, Zurich Reformer, was one of the formative

influences on the Reformed tradition. He was born on 18 July 1504 in Bremgarten, a small town
in Canton Argau, 20 km west of Zurich. His father was the parish priest, whose marriage to his
mother therefore lacked legal status until after the Reformation was introduced in 1529.
Heinrich, who had four older brothers, started school locally in 1509, and then in 1516 left home
to go to a school at Emmerich. There he was educated according to the principles of Renaissance
humanism. In 1519 he moved on to the University of Cologne, where he gained his BA the
following year. At Cologne the dominant ideology was the old way of Thomas Aquinas and
Duns Scotus rather than the new way of Ockham and Biel. But Bullinger maintained his
interest in the humanist approach, although this had as yet made little impact on the university.
Stimulated by the controversy over Luther, whose books were burned at Cologne, he turned to
theology, especially the study of the early Church Fathers. This turned him away from the
medieval scholastics to Luther. In 1522 he gained his MA, by which stage he had decided
definitively for the Reformation.
Bullinger returned to Bremgarten and continued to study both the Fathers and Luther and
Melanchthon. In 1523 he became head teacher at the school of the Cistercian monastery at
Kappel, introducing humanist and Reformed ideas. In due course the mass was replaced by a
Protestant service and many of the monks became Reformed ministers.
In 1523 Bullinger met Zwingli and Leo Jud at Zurich. He found that he agreed with Zwingli on
many matters, especially on his rejection of the real presence. His relationship with Zwingli
deepened. In 1525 he joined him in disputations with the Anabaptists, through which he
developed his covenant theology. He also accompanied Zwingli to the disputation at Bern in
1528, where he met other Reformers such as Bucer.
Also in 1528 Bullinger became part-time pastor of a village near Kappel. The following year he
became the Reformer of Bremgarten. His father had belatedly embraced the Reformation
earlier that year and had helped to initiate reform in his parish. His son carried on the work and
brought it to fruition that summer. Because of his involvement with the Reform, he rejected the
opportunity to accompany Zwingli to the Marburg Colloquy. That summer he married Anna
Adlischwyler, a former nun, by whom he had eleven children.
In October 1531 Zwingli was defeated and killed on the battlefield at Kappel. One of the terms of
the ensuing peace treaty was Bullingers exile from Bremgarten. He set out for Zurich in
November that year and was soon being sought for church office in Basel and Bern as well as
Zurich. He opted for Zurich, and in December took over Zwinglis role as chief minister of the
city, where he was to remain until his death in 1575.

Larsen, T., Bebbington, D. W., & Noll, M. A. (2003). In Biographical dictionary of evangelicals. Leicester, England;
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Zwinglis death raised the issue of the relative authority of the pastors and the magistrates.
Bullinger reached an agreement with the city council that guaranteed the freedom of the
pastors to preach Gods word in its fullness, but also laid down that the pastors should not
meddle in the affairs of the magistracy. He saw moral discipline as the task of the magistrate
and resisted Leo Juds attempt to introduce a church court with the power of excommunication.
The city council also had ultimate control over church finances and a major role in the Synod
that was responsible for the appointment and discipline of clergy.
Bullinger was involved in ongoing controversy with both Anabaptists and Lutherans. He also
played an important role in the development of Reformed theology and church life. He coauthored the First Helvetic Confession of 1536 and thirty years later wrote the fuller Second
Helvetic Confession, one of the most influential of the Reformed confessions, which was
accepted far beyond Switzerland. He was concerned to promote unity between Reformed
Christians. He had close relations with Calvin, with whom he did not agree on all points. He was
out of sympathy with the Genevan approach to church discipline. Although he shared with
Calvin a commitment to the Augustinian doctrine of unconditional election, he was not happy
to go beyond this to talk of positive predestination to damnation. Most importantly, he reached a
common agreement with Calvin on the Eucharist, the 1549 Consensus Tigurinus (Zurich
Agreement). This was the fruit of some years of negotiations and involved an element of
compromise on both sides. Bullinger helped to develop the idea of a conditional covenant
between God and his people, which was to be very influential within Reformed theology.
Bullinger had a significant role to play in the English Reformation. During the reign of Queen
Mary (15531558), Zurich played host to a number of leading Protestant exiles. These
maintained their contact with Bullinger after their return to take up positions of leadership in
the Elizabethan church, giving rise to the Zurich Letters. Also, Bullingers Decades, a selection
of fifty sermons on Christian doctrine, became a standard theological textbook in Elizabethan
England.
Bullinger was a prolific author, leaving behind many published works. He wrote New Testament
commentaries, doctrinal treatises and polemical works against Anabaptists and Lutherans
especially. His collected correspondence includes more than twelve thousand letters sent and
received by him.
Bibliography
J. W. Baker, Heinrich Bullinger and the Covenant: The Other Reformed Tradition (Athens, Ohio:
Ohio University Press, 1980).