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THE

CHRISTIAN GUARDIAN,

AND

Church of England Magazine.

AUGUST 1824.

MEMOIRS OF THE REFORMERS.

BULLINGER.

HENRY BULLINGER was born on the 18th of July, 1504, at Bremgarten, a small town in the fertile valley between Mount Albis and the river Reuss, in the Swiss county of Baden. His ancestors had been settled there for two hundred years, and had held honourable offices under the Austrian dukes and the Helvetic republic. He was twice preserved in life, while a little boy, by the good providence of God; once recovering from a fever, after he had been prepared for interment; and at another time, contrary to all expectation, surviving the effects of a severe fall, in which he injured his throat by a pipe on which he was playing. His pious biographer, Josias Simler, in recording these facts, observes, that "although many accidents of this kind happen to children, which most persons regard as mere matters of chance, they are assuredly instances of that favour which the Lord shows to his people, and therefore deservedly noticed by religious characters, that they may love him the more ardently, as they can multiply memorials of his goodness:" and that "his parents were to be commended for inculcating on his youthful mind a thankful acknowledgment of these mercies *." His father was a man of

* Simler, p. 4.

AUGUST 1824.

property and education, who placed him at five years of age in the school of his native town; whence, having attained the rudiments of learning, he was removed about seven years after to Emmerich, in the Duchy of Cleves, where he studied the classics under Mosellan.

At this early period he was desirous, through attachment to scholastic application and religious discipline, of turning Carthusian; but was dissuaded by his elder brother John, who was pursuing his studies at the same academy. During his three years' stay at Emmerich, he was so scantily provided for by his parent with food and raiment, that he was constrained to increase his means by singing from door to door. It appears, that this treatment did not arise on the part of his father from nigga rdliness, but from a conviction that early privation would teach his on moderation, frugality, and sympathy for the indigent. It must be confessed, however, that such a plan, acted upon by a pious and affectionate father, is not easily to be reconciled to modern notions, and is chargeable with eccentricity, if not with positive guilt under the apostolic declaration: "If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." (1 Tim. v. 8.) But Simler observes, with more Hel

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vetie simplicity than scriptural correctness, "I am not prepared to defend this conduct, which perhaps was too hard; but yet this severity of the last generation presented less obstacles to learning and morals than the useless prodigality of the parents of our day, which renders the youth unruly, luxurious, and idle."

Having attained the age of fifteen, Bullinger was sent to the college at Cologne, then in high estimation. His good sense revolted at the prevailing mode of studying the Aristotelian logic; and the vain and crabbed disputations to which it led were offensive to his ingenuous disposition. He even wrote two Latin dialogues against the school divines, besides two more in defence of the venerable Capnio against Pfeffercorn, the baptized Jew, whom the bigots, stirred up to oppose that learned man in his endeavours to preserve some Hebrew writings from destruction under the sweeping charge of heresy. Theological controversy becoming very general, he ap-, plied to his preceptors for advice, who recommended him to study the works of Dr. Peter Lombard, commonly called "Master of the Sentences." Gaining, however, but little information from these writings, he obtained access to a library belonging to the preaching friars, by means of George Diener, a friendly monk, and read with avidity the homilies of Chrysostom, some tracts of Augustine, Origen, and Ambrose, and Luther's works on Babylonish captiviry, &c. He took the writings of the Saxon Reformer home, and studied them privately; but though his surprise was excited at their contents, he was not fully convinced by their reasonings. He saw, however, that Luther came nearer the divinity of the ancients than the school divines; and he observed, that while the latter appealed to the fathers, the fathers

themselves appealed to the Scriptures; and thence he gathered, that it was expedient to have immediate recourse to the word of God as to a fountain-head, from which the others were streams more or less polluted. He read with particular attention the New Testament, referring to the ancient commentators as he proceeded; and meeting at the same time with the "Common Places" of Erasmus, he became so far enlightened as to perceive that much was wrong in the Popish doctrine, and to lay aside all idea of joining the Carthusian order.

In 1522, he took his master's degree, and passed a short time afterward under the paternal roof at Bremgarten, where he was invited by the Abbot of Cappel, a Cistertian monastery at a short distance, to teach in his school. He discharged his duty faithfully in this situation till 1527; when, being sent to Zurich by the Abbot, he attended for five months the lectures of Zuinglius, and pursued the study of Greek and Hebrew. Cultivating the acquaintance of the leading reforming divines, he became more and more grounded in evangelical doctrine, and composed a number of Essays replete with Protestant truth, which were much valued by his friends, besides a Commentary on the New Testament, which was afterwards published. He was a powerful assistant to Zuinglius and Ecolampadius in the abolition of imageworship, &c. in 1524; and particularly exerted himself in working a reformation at Cappel, where he had at length the satisfaction of witnessing the celebration of the Lord's Supper, by the abbot and monks, after the purer and more scriptural manner. He also succeeded in persuading such of the brotherhood as were not adapted for the ministry to engage in handicraft employments. In effecting these changes, he had a difficult part to sustain.: An insurrection of the peasantry occurred in 1525; when the rustics would have seized on Cappel, but for the timely intervention of the Senate of Zurich; and in consequence of a report, raised by some Romanists, that the Carthusian convent at Hedingen had been set on fire by the reforming party, retaliation was threatened on Cappel, to the great consternation of the inhabitants. Bullinger was marked for peculiar vengeance; but it pleased God to preserve him from their malice, while he undauntedly continued by writing and speaking to inculcate divine truth, and saw the work of the Lord prosper in his hand. By order of the whole Synod, he preached in the different churches bordering on the monastery; and, in 1528, was commanded by the magistracy to accompany. Zuinglius to the celebrated conference held in that city. He was called, in 1529, to a wider scene of exertion in his native place and its vicinity. Preaching at Bremgarten on Whit-Sunday to a large concourse, whom his fame had collected, he pleaded with such effect the cause of pure religion, that an order was issued on the following day to remove images and altars from the churches, attended with a strict decree for the preservation of pubJic morals. He was requested by the magistracy to stay and labour amongst them; to whom he replied, that he was so bound to the Senate of Zurich, and the Abbot of Cappel, that he could not act without their consent. An agent was accordingly dispatched, who obtained the sanction of his removal both from one and the other, and he commenced his regular ministration, with Gervase, a pious 'colleague, preaching every Sunday in the afternoon and the three next mornings, besides a daily exposition at the hour in which it had been customary to chaunt vespers.

As soon as he was quietly settled in his church he married Anne Adlischwiler, a respectable lady of Zurich, by whom he had eleven children.

But the promising work so auspiciously begun in this town and district was disturbed by the fac+ tious spirit of the Anabaptists, with whom he publicly disputed, and, by confuting their errors, reclaimed many of his people who inclined to their suggestions. He also wrote four books in common dialect against their tenets, and in particular defended the cause of tithes and church revenues, which they maintained ought to be abolished under the Gospel dispensation. Observing their spread throughout the lower part of the empire, he served the common interest of Protestantism, as he believed, by sending out an enlarged edition of these writings in German. About the same period he composed an Explanation of Daniel's Seventy Weeks-A Swiss Chronicle-Three Decades on thirty Psalms-and a Commentary on the four Gospels.

The progress of Evangelical doctrines in the free bailiwicks on the Reuss, and the canton of Zurich, raised such alarm, not only of a re ligious but political nature, in the five Cantons of Schwitz, Uri, Underwalden, Lucern, and Zug, that they entered into a covenant among themselves, and with the Valais, to defend their respective territories, and strengthened themselves by alliances with the Pope and the King of Spain. The Berners, who favoured the Reformation, were offended with the Underwalders for encouraging the people of Hasli to rise against their lawful sovereign in support of their ancient creed, and testified their displeasure by refusing admission to the bailiff whom Underwalden had in its turn appointed to the city of Baden, in which refusal they were upheld by the Zurichers. The Ro

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