Covenant Theologian: Heinrich Bullinger

Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575) is regarded as the most influential second-generation Reformer. As the heir to Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich, Switzerland, he consolidated and continued the Swiss Reformation that his predecessor had started. Philip Schaff writes that Bullinger was “a man of firm faith, courage, moderation, patience, and endurance … [who was] providentially equipped” to preserve and advance the truth in a difficult time in history (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. VIII: Modern Christianity: The Swiss Reformation [1910; repr., Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984], 205). During his forty-four years as the chief minister in Zurich, Bullinger’s literary output exceeded that of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Zwingli combined. He was of monumental importance in the spread of Reformed teaching throughout the Reformation. So far-reaching was Bullinger’s influence throughout continental Europe and England that Theodore Beza called him “the common shepherd of all Christian churches” (Theodore Beza, cited in Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. VIII, 207). Read more

Bullinger was vastly important for the English Reformation. He sheltered a number of Anglican Reformers during the Henrician and Marian persecutions and would have a profound influence upon them. Bullinger’s commentaries were translated into English in the 1530s; his other works from 1541 on. Bullinger defended Elizabeth I and the English realm when the pope excommunicated Elizabeth. He sided with the Church of England in the vestment controversy. Bullinger would help to improve relations between the English Church and Geneva.

Of his works, his Decades, a collection of five books of sermons in three volumes, expounding Reformed theology, had the greatest impact upon the English Church. Upon the full publication of Decades in English in 1577, it immediately became the standard work in England on the core doctrines of the Christian faith.

In 1586 the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Whitgift, issued directives requiring the systematic study of the Bible and Bullinger’s Decades by “junior clergy and those wishing to be licensed as public preachers who did not have a theological education.”