Concerning the True Care of Souls

I think it was in college when I realized that I could actually read the famous authors that I was used to just read about. To read Calvin or Augustine or the Didache on my own was a thrilling discovery. Primary sources are sometimes harder, but almost always better. So I always enjoy reading old, dead saints.

A few years ago I was working through Concerning the True Care of Souls by Martin Bucer. Kudos to Banner of Truth and translator Peter Beale for giving us this never-before-in-English treatise from the great Strasbourg Reformer (with a fine historical introduction from the late David F. Wright I might add). Bucer (pronounced Butzer), is best known nowadays as a mentor and formative influence for John Calvin, but he was an important Reformer in his own right. Born in 1491, Bucer spent most of his ministry in Strasbourg, Germany and finished his life teaching at Cambridge. His passion as a Reformer comes through in the (very) full title (aren’t you glad we have dust jackets today?) of this 1538 work.... Keep reading

Kevin DeYoung neglects to mention in his article the important role that Martin Bucer played in the English Reformation and the development of The Book of Common Prayer. Bucer was one of three Continental Reformers who influenced the English Reformation. The other two were Peter Vermigli and Heinrich Bullinger.

When Bucer was forced to leave Strasbourg in 1549, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer invited Bucer to come to England. Bucer accepted the invitation. He was appointed to the position of Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge.

Bucer would make a number of contributions to the English Reformation. His last major contribution was a treatise on the partially-reformedl 1549 edition of The Book of Common Prayer. Cranmer planned to make further changes in The Book of Common Prayer to make it more Reformed in doctrine and liturgical usages and he sought Bucer’s opinion on how the Prayer Book should be revised.

Bucer would die in England and was buried at the church of Great St Mary’s in Cambridge. When Mary I ascended the English throne, she restored Roman Catholicism in England. She persecuted the English Protestants, forcing them to flee to the Continent or to go into hiding. Those who fell into her hands, she tried as heretics and burned at the stake, including Cranmer and other leaders of the English Reformation. Mary had Bucer tried posthumously as a heretic, his remains disinterred, and burned. His ashes were scattered to the wind.

Mary’s reign was short-lived. When her younger sister Elizabeth I ascended the English throne, she formally exonerated Bucer of the charge of heresy.