Heinrich Bullinger

Timeline

1. 1504–1531Bremgarten · AargauBorn in Bremgarten to a local priest, he entered the University of Cologne at fifteen, turning toward the Reformation after reading Luther and the Church Fathers, receiving his master's degree in 1522. From 1523 he taught at the Cistercian school at Kappel, where he met Zwingli and embraced his theology. He accompanied Zwingli to the Bern Disputation in 1528, succeeded his father as pastor of Bremgarten in 1529, and promoted the Reformation of the town. After the Second Battle of Kappel in 1531 restored the old faith's power, he fled with his family to Zurich.
2. 1531–1549Zurich · ZurichAfter Zwingli fell at Kappel, Bullinger was elected chief pastor (Antistes) of the Grossmünster in Zurich in December 1531, presiding over the city's church, education, and discipline for forty-four years. He helped draft the First Helvetic Confession of 1536, consolidated the Reformation's gains in German-speaking Switzerland through a steady pastorate, and sheltered exiles from England and elsewhere, making Zurich an international hub of Reformed correspondence.
3. 1549–1575Zurich · ZurichIn 1549 he concluded the Zurich Consensus with Calvin, healing the rift between the German-speaking Swiss and Geneva over the Eucharist. His sermon collection, the Decades, was designated as required reading for clergy in England. In 1562 he wrote his private confession of faith, later known as the Second Helvetic Confession, which was published in 1566 at the request of Elector Frederick III of the Palatinate and was soon adopted by Reformed churches in many Swiss cities as well as in Scotland, Hungary, Poland, and elsewhere. He died in Zurich on September 17, 1575.