BULLINGER, HEINRICH

born July 18, 1504, Bremgarten, Switz. died Sept. 17, 1575, Zrich convert from Roman Catholicism who first aided and then succeeded the Swiss Reformer Huldrych Zwingli (14841531) and who, through his preaching and writing, became a major figure in securing Switzerland for the Reformation. At the University of Cologne, Bullinger became increasingly sympathetic to the Reformation. Barred from Roman Catholic clerical positions, he taught at the cloister school of the Cistercian order at Kappel, Switz., from 1523 to 1529. Having known Zwingli from 1523, Bullinger gradually came to accept his theology and in 1528 assisted him in theological disputations at the Bern convocation. The next year he succeeded his father as a Reformed pastor at Bremgarten. When Zwingli died in 1531, Bullinger took his place as pastor at Zrich. His influence extended to other countries through correspondence with their rulers, including Henry VIII and Edward VI of England. In order to overcome differences on the Eucharist with Luther in the interests of church unity, Bullinger helped draft the First Helvetic Confession of 1536. This effort having failed, he subsequently reached agreement with the Reformer John Calvin in the Consensus Tigurinus (1549) and with other Evangelical-Reformed churches in his own Second Helvetic Confession (1566). His other works include Diarium (ed. Emil Egli, 1904), a life of Zwingli, and Reformationsgeschichte, 3 vol. (183840; History of the Reformation). Additional reading A. Bouvier, Henri Bullinger (1940); G.W. Bromiley (ed.), Zwingli and Bullinger (1953), vol. 24 of the Library of Christian Classics.