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Martin Bucer: Moderator of the Reformation 1. Jahrgang MARTIN MBS TEXTE 8 BUCER 2004 SEMINAR Dr. George M. Ella Martin Bucer: Moderator of the Reformation BUCER IN S T E M R A I N M A R 2 1 : E P 4 H ReformiertesReformiertes Forum Forum TableTable of Contents of Contents Knowing where one stands with Bucer .................................... 3 Refereeing between Lutherans and Zwinglians ....................... 4 Bucer gains the fear but respect of Rome .................................. 5 Bucer’s part in the Eucharist controversy ................................. 5 Bucer and the doctrines of grace ............................................. 6 Bucer’s name has a greater right than Calvin’s to be associated with the doctrines of grace ................. 6 The same truth but different attitudes to peace ........................ 7 Calvinism injuriously so called ................................................. 7 An invitation to join Cranmer’s international team of Reformers ............................................... 8 The Lord alone rules and disposes ............................................ 8 The author ............................................................................... 9 Impressum ............................................................................. 10 Dr. George M. Ella Martin Bucer: Moderator of the Reformation Martin Bucer: Moderator of the Reformation Dr. George M. Ella One of the most important Reforma- some find Roman thoughts in him, some tion figures was undoubtedly Martin Lutheran and some Calvinistic. This is a Bucer who was born in Alsace in 1491 strange way to tackle Bucer indeed. We and died at Cambridge in 1551. His sta- must start at the beginning of Bucer’s tus as Reforming leader is emphasised by life and testimony and then follow him the way he was treated after his death. chronologically from youth to old age to When Mary the Bloody came to power see that though his early path was rough in 1553, she imported a band of Italian and ready and his steps wavering, Bucer thugs under their captain Cardinal Pole became more and more sure-footed as he to symbolise her own triumph over the continued his heaven-bound pilgrimage Reformation. Pole and his henchmen until few were as competent as he in fin- were given the task of holding a mock ding the way. Of his own retractions as he heresy trial over Bucer’s grave and then came nearer the truth, Bucer said, pronouncing him guilty. After going “Because the Lord has given me to through this shameful sham, they dug up understand some places (of Scripture) the saint’s remains, tied them to a stake, more fully than I formerly did, which as and piled Bucer’s books around his bones. it is so bountifully given me, why should Then they set the morbid scene on fire. I not impart it liberally to my brethren, Mary, in her superstition, was now sure and ingenuously declare the goodness of that she had quenched the Reformation the Lord? What inconsistency is there in in the heat of the flames. profiting in the work of salvation? And who, in this age, or in the last, has treated of the Scripture, and has not experienced, Knowing where one stands that, even in this study, one day is the with Bucer scholar of another?” It was this understanding of his own Oddly enough, Bucer has been highly walk into the faith found in Christ that criticised for the long spiritual journey made Bucer the most moderate and tole- he made from Rome, via Erasmus and rant of men and caused him to offer his Luther until he became Calvin’s mentor entire life in striving to persuade all the and the genius behind Calvin’s work. “We different strands of the Reformation to never know where we stand with Bucer”, learn and grow in grace together. Much is the quite unfounded complaint. Thus of this work was long, hard and thankless MBS TEXTE 8 3 Dr. George M. Ella Martin Bucer: Moderator of the Reformation as he strove, with little success, to break great hunger. Though still very young, the down prejudices and the artificial, lingu- Elector of the Palatine was so impressed istic barriers between the Lutherans, the by his religious devotion, great learning Zwinglians and later the Genevans. and eloquence that he made Bucer his Bucer was but also criticised for his chaplain and spiritual advisor. Being development in theological understan- sent as a delegate to the Diet of Worms ding, but for a number of petty incidents in 1521, Bucer spent several days in con- that aroused the suspicion of his holier- versation and fellowship with Luther who than-thou fellow ministers. He was expressed his great admiration for Bucer. soundly criticised for publishing under The latter confessed that the meeting had his Latinised name, though this was the deepened his trust in Christ. Three years rule of the day and the leaders of his cri- later, we find Bucer in Strasburg brin- tics had Latinised or even fictive names. ging out a work with a number of Refor- All expected Bucer to be more open and med preachers explaining why they had honest than others, as he certainly was! renounced popery. The young Reformer, Bucer’s first wife, like Luther’s, had been however, soon came to abhor the hot- a nun. This caused Bucer to be reviled headedness and arrogance of Lutherans by the Romanists. When his wife died of such as Brentius, who became notorious the plague and Bucer eventually remar- for his unfounded railings against those ried, this time a widow, criticism came whom he called ‘Zwinglians’, whether from all religious quarters. It was claimed the term fitted or not. We thus find Bucer he had committed a double sin. He was writing in 1527 in defence of Zwingli’s now the husband of more than one wife position. This made both Bucer’s friends and had gone against Scripture by mar- and enemies feel that he had swung from rying a widow. Bucer obviously did not one extreme to the other. However, Bucer allow such ill-use of the Scriptures and pointed out that whereas Luther read far his reputation to influence him and when too much into the Biblical doctrine of the his second wife died, he married a third Lord’s Supper, Zwingli left a good deal time! out. This view did not stop him from defended both Luther and Zwingli whe- never he felt they were wrongly accused. Refereeing between Bucer was never a party man. Sadly, espe- Lutherans and Zwinglians cially at this time, Luther was, and he lost his former admiration for Bucer. Bucer was an avid student from his birth onwards and, even as a child, he busied himself with a vast amount of reading, including the study of Greek and Hebrew. He read Erasmus fresh from the printer’s and devoured Luther’s earliest works with REFORMIERTES FORUM 4 Dr. George M. Ella Martin Bucer: Moderator of the Reformation Bucer gains the faith thus given should be accompanied fear but respect of Rome by charity. Bucer saw justification as being received into grace. He also openly argued Now Bucer was firmly established as for two ordinances only, namely baptism a leading Reformer and represented the and the Lord’s Supper. Bucer argued that Strasburg church in 1529 at the Synod the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper of Marburg. At Ratisbon he was chosen were not the very body and blood of Christ to confer with Henry VIII’s ambassador but that Christ nevertheless can be recei- the notorious Bishop Gardiner. Finding ved in the feast spiritually and in faith. himself on the losing side if the argument, Thus, for Bucer, Christ’s presence was in Gardiner worked himself into such a rage the believer only, not the unbeliever and and used such violent language that the not in the supposedly changed elements. onlookers thought he was going to attack For Luther, Christ was bodily present in placid Bucer. Reporting on the confe- the sacrament for believer and unbeliever rence, Cardinal Cantarene said concer- alike. Bucer came near him by saying that ning the reforming side: Christ is there for the unbeliever, too, “They have, among others, Martin but to his condemnation. Luther wrote Bucer, endowed with that excellency of to the Frankfurt Senate, warning them learning both in theology and philosophy, of Bucer’s interpretation, claiming that and, besides, of that subtlety and happi- Bucer was double-tongued as he maintai- ness in disputation, that he alone may be ned that though Christ was present in the set against all our learned men.” sacrament, it was not corporeally but spi- After a similar conference at Regens- ritually. He thus pronounced Bucer to be burg, John Groppar, ambassador to the in grave error. However, now the Zwing- Archbishop of Cologne, commented con- lians accused Bucer of Lutheranism as cerning Bucer: they themselves denied any presence of “He was the fittest man in the world to Christ whatsoever in the ordinance. As reform religion, because he was not only if all were invited except Christ! It soon very learned and exemplary in his life, but became clear that the Reformation was in a great lover of peace and concord.” danger of losing its initial spirituality and Biblical nature through highly sophisti- cated reasoning from the Zwinglian and Bucer’s part in the Lutheran, and later the Genevan, sides Eucharist controversy as to the symbolic value of ceremony, thoroughly ignoring the major doctrines At the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, Bucer which united them. Bucer complained: again represented the church at Strasburg, “I am grieved, and not without reason, showing that they had now gone furthest that we, to whom the Lord hath so boun- in their doctrines of justification by the tifully revealed the other mysteries of his work of Christ but also taught that the kingdom, have not been able, now in MBS TEXTE 8 5 Dr.
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