Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Martin Bucer and the Old Church
- 2 The relation between church and civil community in Bucer's reforming work
- 3 Bucer's influence on Calvin: church and community
- 4 The church in Bucer's commentaries on the Epistle to the Ephesians
- 5 Church, communion and community in Bucer's commentary on the Gospel of John
- 6 Eucharistic communion: impulses and directions in Martin Bucer's thought
- 7 Martin Bucer and the ministry of the church
- 8 Infant baptism and the Christian community in Bucer
- 9 Bucer's ecclesiology in the colloquies with the Catholics, 1540–41
- 10 The Strasbourg Kirchenpfleger and parish discipline: theory and practice
- 11 Ecclesiological motifs behind the creation of the ‘Christlichen Gemeinschaften’
- 12 Martin Bucer in England
- 13 Martin Bucer and the Englishing of the Psalms: pseudonymity in the service of early English Protestant piety
- Bibliography
- Biblical index
- Index of Bucer's works
- Index of modern authors
- General index
12 - Martin Bucer in England
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Martin Bucer and the Old Church
- 2 The relation between church and civil community in Bucer's reforming work
- 3 Bucer's influence on Calvin: church and community
- 4 The church in Bucer's commentaries on the Epistle to the Ephesians
- 5 Church, communion and community in Bucer's commentary on the Gospel of John
- 6 Eucharistic communion: impulses and directions in Martin Bucer's thought
- 7 Martin Bucer and the ministry of the church
- 8 Infant baptism and the Christian community in Bucer
- 9 Bucer's ecclesiology in the colloquies with the Catholics, 1540–41
- 10 The Strasbourg Kirchenpfleger and parish discipline: theory and practice
- 11 Ecclesiological motifs behind the creation of the ‘Christlichen Gemeinschaften’
- 12 Martin Bucer in England
- 13 Martin Bucer and the Englishing of the Psalms: pseudonymity in the service of early English Protestant piety
- Bibliography
- Biblical index
- Index of Bucer's works
- Index of modern authors
- General index
Summary
Sir John Cheke, the tutor of the young Edward VI, wrote in 1551 to Peter Martyr at Oxford on the death and funeral of Bucer:
We are deprived of a leader than whom the whole world would scarcely obtain a greater, whether in knowledge of true religion or in integrity and innocence of life, or in thirst for study of the most holy things, or in exhausting labour in advancing piety, or in authority and fulness of teaching, or in anything that is praiseworthy and renowned.
This view was shared by Archbishop Cranmer, who in some ways resembled Bucer in temperament as well as in holding similar reforming aims. He had written to Bucer on 2 October 1548, inviting him to come to work in England where ‘the seeds of true doctrine have been sown’, since he had learned of ‘the miserable condition of Germany’ where Bucer could ‘scarcely preside in the ministry of the Word’ at Strasbourg.
Cranmer's information and judgement were sound. Bucer had established a distinguished career as a theologian, ecclesiastical administrator and reconciler of conflicting views on doctrine. Regrettably, this activity in reconciliation at the Colloquy of Regensburg had led to his being unfairly suspect to many as too supple in negotiation and too indefinite in doctrine, so that he seemed to be subordinating fundamental truth to political expediency.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Martin BucerReforming Church and Community, pp. 144 - 160Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994
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