Martin Bucer was a German Protestant reformer in the Reformed tradition based in Strasbourg. He influenced Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican doctrines and practices. His efforts to reform the church in Wissembourg resulted in his excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church. In 1549 he was exiled to England, where he influenced the second revision of the Book of Common Prayer. He died in Cambridge, England, at the age of 59, in 1551.
About Martin Bucer in brief
Martin Bucer was a German Protestant reformer in the Reformed tradition based in Strasbourg. He influenced Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican doctrines and practices. Bucer’s efforts to reform the church in Wissembourg resulted in his excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church. He believed that the Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire could be convinced to join the Reformation. In 1549 he was exiled to England, where, under the guidance of Thomas Cranmer, he was able to influence the second revision of the Book of Common Prayer. He died in Cambridge, England, at the age of 59, in 1551. He is remembered as an early pioneer of ecumenism. He was originally a member of the Dominican Order, but after meeting and being influenced by Martin Luther in 1518 he arranged for his monastic vows to be annulled. He later claimed his grandfather had forced him into the order as a novice. He completed his studies in the summer of 1507 and was consecrated as a priest the following year. His father and grandfather, Claus Butzer, were coopers by trade, and his mother likely attended Sélestat’s prestigious Latin school, where he was sent to school as a child. He went on to become a priest himself, and served as a Bishop of Würzburg from 1530 to 1550. He also served as the Bishop of Strasbourg from 1550 to 1551, when he was forced to leave the city by the city’s rulers under duress. He wrote a book on the history of the German Reformation, which was published in 1552.
He has been described as one of the most influential Protestant reformers of the 16th century. The book is called The Reformation in Germany: A Biography of Martin Bucer, published by the University of Cambridge, is available in English and German. It is also available in French, German, Italian, and Spanish, and is available on Kindle and in the Kindle version of the book is available for £3.99 (US$4.99). Bucer is also remembered as a mediator between the two leading reformers, Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli, who differed on the doctrine of the eucharist. He sought agreement on common articles of faith such as the Tetrapolitan Confession and the Wittenberg Concord, working closely with Philipp Melanchthon on the latter. He tried to unite Protestants and Catholics to create a German national church separate from Rome. He did not achieve this, as political events led to the Schmalkaldic War and the retreat of Protestantism within the Empire. The division of power between the emperor and the various states made the Reforming in Germany possible, as individual states defended reformers within their territories. Some had adopted a reformed religion distinct from Lutheranism, in which humanist social concepts and the communal ethic played a greater role. In addition to the princely states, free imperial cities were nominally under the control of the Emperor but really ruled by councils that acted like sovereign governments.
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