The FIRST CONFESSION OF BASLE (Confessio Fidei Basileensis prior) was prepared in its first draft by Ecolampadius, 1531,' brought into its present shape by his successor, Oswald Myconius,2 1532, and first published by the magistrate with a preface of Adelberg Meyer, burgomaster of Basle, Jan. 21, 1534. Two or three years afterwards it was adopted and issued by the confederated city of Mühlhausen, in the Alsace; hence it is also called the Confessio Mühlhusana (or Mylhusiana). It is very simple and moderate. It briefly expresses, in twelve articles, the orthodox evangelical doctrines of God, the fall of man, the divine providence, the person of Christ, the Church and the sacraments, the Lord's Supper (Christ the food of the soul to everlasting life), Church discipline, the civil magistrate, faith and works, the judgment, ceremonies and celibacy, and against the views of the Anabaptists, who were then generally regarded as dangerous radicals, not only by Luther, but also by the Swiss and English Reformers. This is the only Reformed Confession which does not begin with the assertion of the Bible principle, but it concludes with this noteworthy sentence: 'We submit this our Confession to the judgment of the divine Scriptures, and hold ourselves ready always thankfully to obey God and his Word if we should be corrected out of said holy Scriptures.'4

1 See Herzog, 1. c. Vol. II. pp. 217-221, and Hagenbach, Joh. (Ekol, und Oswald Mycon. pp. 350 sqq. Ecolampadius, in his last address to the Synod of Basle, Sept. 26, 1531, added a brief, terse confession of faith, and a paraphrase of the Apostles' Creed. But the assertion that he composed the Confession of Basle in its present shape, and sent it to the Augsburg Diet, 1530, rests on a mistake, and has no foundation in any contemporary report. * His proper name was Geisshüssler. He was born at Luzerne, 1488; taught and preached at Zurich; after Zwingli's death he moved to Basle, was elected Antistes or first preacher, died 1552, and was buried in the Minster. He must not be confounded with Friedrich Myconius, or Mecum, the Lutheran reformer of Thuringia, and court chaplain at Gotha (d. 1546).

Under the title, 'Bekanntnuss unseres heiligen Christlichen Glaubens wie es die Kylch (Kirche) zu Basel halt.' It is signed by 'Heinrich Rhyner, Rathschreiber der Statt Basel.' See the German text, with the marginal notes, at the close of Hagenbach's biography of Ecolampadius and Myconius. A Latin edition appeared 1561 and 1581, which was reproduced in the Corpus et Syntagma Confess., under the title 'Basiliensis vel Mylhusiana Confessio Fidei, anno M.D.XXXII. Scripta Germanice. Latine excusa 1561 et 1581.' Here the date of composition (1532) is given instead of the date of publication (1534). The more usual spelling is Basileensis and Mühlhusana. A better Latin edition was issued, 1647, by the Basle Professors-Theod. Zwinger, Sebastian Beck, and John Buxtorf-for the use of academic disputations; and this Niemeyer has reprinted, pp. 85 sqq.

6

Postremo, hanc nostram Confessionem judicio SACRE BIBLICE SCRIPTURÆ subjicimus: eoque pollicemur, si ex prædictis Scripturis in melioribus instituamur (etwas besseren berichtet), nos omni tempore DEO et SACROSANCTO IPSIUS VERBO, maxima cum gratiarum actione, obsecuturos esse.'

'This Confession,' says the late Professor Hagenbach of Basle,1 ‘has remained the public Confession of the Church of Basle to this day. It is, indeed, no longer annually read before the congregation as formerly (on Maundy-Thursday at the ante-communion service), but ministers at their ordination are still required to promise "to teach according to the direction of God's Word and the Basle Confession derived therefrom." A motion was made in the city government in 1826 to change it, but the Church Council declared such change inexpedient. Another motion in 1859 to abolish it altogether was set aside. But the political significance of the Confession can no longer be sustained, in view of the change of public sentiment in regard to the liberty of faith and conscience.'

54. THE FIRST HELVETIC CONFESSION, A.D. 1536.

`See Literature in § 53. Comp. also PESTALOZZI: Heinrich Bullinger, pp. 183 sqq.

The FIRST HELVETIC CONFESSION (Confessio Helvetica prior), so called to distinguish it from the Second Helvetic Confession of 1566, is the same with the SECOND CONFESSION OF BASLE (Basileensis posterior), in distinction from the First of 1534.2 It owes its origin partly to the renewed efforts of the Strasburg Reformers, Bucer and Capito, to bring about a union between the Lutherans and the Swiss, and partly to the papal promise of convening a General Council. A number of Swiss divines were delegated by the magistrates of Zurich, Berne, Basle, Schaffhausen, St. Gall, Mühlhausen, and Biel, to a Conference in the Angustinian convent at Basle, January 30, 1536. Bucer and Capito also appeared. Bullinger, Myconius, Grynæus, Leo Judæ, and Megander were selected to draw up a Confession of the faith of the Helvetic Churches, which might be used before the proposed General Council. It was examined and signed by all the clerical and lay delegates, February, 1536, and first published in Latin.3 Leo Judæ prepared the German translation, which is fuller than the Latin text, and of equal authority.

1 Joh. Ekolampad und Oswald Myconius, p. 353; comp. his History of the Conf. pp. 190 sqq. Hagenbach, 1. c. p. 357: 'BASLER Confession heisst diese Confession nur weil sie IN, nicht weil sie FÜR Basel verfasst ist (ähnlich wie die Augsburger Confession von dem Ort der Uebergabe den Namen hat). Bezeichnender ist daher der Name erste HELVETISCHE Confession, weil sie das Gesammthekenntniss der reformirten Schweizerkirchen ist.'

Sub titulo: 'Ecclesiarum per Helvetiam Confessio Fidci summaria et generalis,' etc. The German is inscribed, ‘Eine kurze und gemeine Bekenntniss des heiligen, wahren und uralten christlichen Glaubens der Kirchen, etc., Zürich, Bern, Basel, Strassburg, Constanz, St. Gallen, Schaffhausen, Mühlhausen, Biel, etc., 1536, Februariy.'

Luther, to whom a copy was sent through Bucer, expressed unexpectedly, in two remarkable letters, his satisfaction with the earnest Christian character of this document, and promised to do all he could to promote union and harmony with the Swiss.' He was then under the hopeful impressions of the 'Wittenberg Concordia,' which Bucer had brought about by his elastic diplomacy, May, 1536, but which proved after all a hollow peace, and could not be honestly signed by the Swiss.

The Helvetic Confession is the first Reformed Creed of national authority. It consists of twenty-seven articles, is fuller than the first Confession of Basle, but not so full as the second Helvetic Confession, by which it was afterwards superseded. The doctrine of the sacraments and of the Lord's Supper is essentially Zwinglian, yet emphasizes the significance of the sacramental signs and the real spiritual presence of Christ, who gives his body and blood—that is, himself—to believers, so that he more and more lives in them and they in him.

It seems that Bullinger and Leo Judæ wished to add a caution against the binding authority of this or any other confession that might interfere with the supreme authority of the Word of God and with Christian liberty.2

1 See his letter to Jacob Meyer, burgomaster of Basle, Feb. 17, 1535, and his response to the Reformed Cantons, Dec. 1, 1537 (in De Wette, Vol. V. pp. 54 and 83). Luther kept the peace with the Swiss churches only for a few years. In his book against the Turks, 1541, he calumniated without provocation the memory of Zwingli; in August, 1543, he acknowledged the present of the Zurich translation of the Bible sent to him by Froschauer, the publisher, but scornfully declined to accept any further works from preachers with whom neither he nor the Church of God could have any communion, and who were driving people to hell' (see his letter in De Wette, Vol. V. p. 587); in 1544 he violently renewed, to the great grief of Melanchthon, the sacramental war in his 'Short Confession of the Sacrament;' and shortly before his death he was not ashamed to travesty the first Psalm thus: 'Beatus vir, qui non abiit in consilio Sacramentariorum: nec stetit in via Cinglianorum, nec sedet in cathedra Tigurinorum.' (See his letter to Jac. Probst of Bremen, Jan. 17, 1546, in De Wette, Vol. V. p. 778. Comp. also on this whole subject Hagenbach, 1. c. p. 358, and Pestalozzi, 1. c. pp. 216 sqq.). Myconius was not disturbed by these outbursts of passion, and continued to respect Luther without departing from the doctrine of his friend Zwingli. He judged, not without some reason, that the two Reformers never understood each other; that Luther stubbornly believed that Zwingli taught the sacrament to be an empty sign, and Zwingli that Luther taught a gross Capernaitic eating. See his letter of Sept. 7, 1538, to Bibliander, in Simmler's Collection, Vol. XLV., and Hagenbach, p. 350.

* This addition, which is not found in any copy, is thus stated by Hagenbach and Niemeyer (Proleg. p. xxxvi.): 'Durch diese Artikel wollen wir keineswegs allen Kirchen eine einzige Glaubensregel vorschreiben. Denn wir erkennen keine andere Glaubensregel an als die heilige Schrift. Wer also mit dieser übereinstimmt, mit dem sind wir einstimmig, obgleich er anders

55. THE SECOND HELVETIC CONFESSION. A.D. 1566.

Literature.

CONFESSIO HELVETICA POSTERIOR. The Latin text, Zurich, 1566, 1568, 1608, 1651, etc.; recent editions by J. P. Kindler, with Preface of Winer, Sulzbach, 1825; by Fritzsche, Turici, 1839; and by Ed. Bōhl, Vienna, 1866; also in the Collections of Corpus et Syntag. Confess., Oxford Sylloge, Augusti, and Niemeyer. The German text appeared frequently-Zurich, 1566; Basle, 1654; Berne, 1676, etc., and in the Collections of Beck, Mess, and Bickel. French ed. Geneva, 1566, etc. English translations in Hall's Harmony of Protestant Confessions (not complete); another by OWEN JONES: The Church of the Living God; also the Swiss and Belgian Confessions and Expositions of the Faith, translated into the English language in 1862. London (Caryl Book Society), 1865 (complete, but inaccurate), and a third by Prof. JEREM. H. GOOD (of Tiffin, O.) in Bomberger's Reformed Church Monthly (Ursinus College, Pa.), for Sept. 1872, to Dec. 1873 (good, but made from the German translation).

JOH. JAK. HOTTINGER: Helvetische Kirchengeschichte, Zurich, 1708, Part III. pp. 894 sqq.

HAGENBACH: Kritische Geschichte der Entstehung und Schicksale der ersten Basler Confession. Basel, 1827 (1828), pp. 85 sqq.

NIEMEYER: Collect., Prolegomena, pp. lxiii.-lxviii.

L. THOMAS: La Confession Helvétique, études historico-dogmatiques sur le xvie. siècle. Genève, 1853. K. SUDHOFF: Art. Helvetische Confession, in Herzog's Theol. Encyklop. 2d ed. Vol. V. pp. 749–755. CARL PESTALOzzı: Heinrich Bullinger. Leben und ausgewählte Schriften. Nach handschriftlichen und gleichzeitigen Quellen. Elberfeld, 1858 (5th Part of Väter und Begründer der reform. Kirche), pp. 413-421.

Before we proceed to the Calvinistic Confessions, we anticipate the SECOND HELVETIC CONFESSION, the last and the best of the Zwinglian family.

BULLINGER.

It is the work of Henry Bullinger (1504–1575), the pupil, friend, and successor of Zwingli, to whom he stands related as Beza does to Calvin. He was a learned, pious, wise, and faithful man, and the central figure in the second period of the Reformation in German Switzerland. Born at Bremgarten, in Aargau,' educated in Holland and Cologne, where he studied patristic and scholastic theology, and read with great interest the writings of Luther and the Loci of Melanchthon, he became on his return intimately acquainted with Zwingli, accompanied him to the Conference at Berne (1528), and after laboring for some years at Cappel and Bremgarten, he was chosen his successor as chief pastor (Antistes) at Zurich, Dec. 9, 1531. This

von unserer Confession verschiedene Redensarten brauchte. Denn auf die Sache selbst und die Wahrheit, nicht auf die Worte soll man sehen. Wir stellen also jedem frei, diejenigen Redensarten zu gebrauchen, welche er für seine Kirche am passendsten glaubt, und werden uns auch dergleichen Freiheit bedienen, gegen Verdrehung des wahren Sinnes dieser Confession uns aber zu vertheidigen wissen. Dieser Ansdrücke haben wir uns jetzt bedient, um unsere Ueberzeugung darzustellen.' Pestalozzi, p. 186, gives the same declaration more fully.

He was one of five sons of Dean Bullinger, who, like many priests of those days, in open violation of the laws of celibacy, lived in regular wedlock, but was much respected and beloved even by his bishop of Constance. He opposed Samson's traffic in indulgences, and became afterwards a Protestant through the influence of his son.

was shortly after the catastrophe at Cappel, in the darkest period of the Swiss Reformation.

Bullinger proved to be the right man in the right place. He raised the desponding spirits, preserved and completed the work of his predecessor, and exerted, by his example and writings, a commanding influence throughout the Reformed Church inferior only to that of Calvin. He was in friendly correspondence with Calvin, Bucer, Melanchthon, Laski, Beza, Cranmer, Hooper,' Lady Jane Grey," and the leading Protestant divines and dignitaries of England. Some of them had found an hospitable refuge in his house and with his friends during the bloody reign of Mary (1553-58), and after their return, when raised to bishoprics and other positions of influence under Queen Elizabeth, they asked his counsel, and kept him informed about the progress of reform in their country. This correspondence is an interesting testimony not only to his personal worth, but also to the fraternal communion which then existed between the Anglican and the Swiss Reformed Churches.3 Episcopacy was then not yet

1 Bishop Hooper wrote from prison shortly before his martyrdom, May and December, 1554, to Bullinger, as 'his revered father and guide,' and the best friend he had ever found, and commended to him his wife and two children (Pestalozzi, l. c. p. 445).

'Three letters of this singularly accomplished and pious lady, the great-granddaughter of Henry VII., to Bullinger, full of affection and gratitude, are still preserved as jewels in the City Library of Zurich, but his letters to her are lost. She translated a part of his book on Christian marriage into Greek, and asked his advice about learning Hebrew. Edward VI., against the will of Henry VIII., bequeathed his crown to Lady Jane Grey to save the Protestant religion, and this led to her execution at the Tower of London, Feb. 12, 1554, by order of Queen Mary. She met her fate with the spirit of a martyr, and sent, as a last token of friendship, her gloves to Bullinger, which were long preserved in his family (Pestalozzi, l. c. p. 445).

'See the Zurich Letters, published by ‘The Parker Society,' Cambridge, second edition (chronologically arranged in one series), 1846. They contain, mostly from the archives of Zurich (the Simmler Collection), Geneva, and Berne, letters of Bishops John Jewel, John Parkhurst, Edmund Grindal, Edwin Sandys, Horn, John Foxe, Sir A. Cook, and others to Bullinger, as also to Gualter (Zwingli's son-in-law), Peter Martyr, Simmler, Lavater, Calvin, and Beza. The news of Bullinger's death was received in England with great grief. W. Barlow wrote to J. Simmler (Bullinger's son-in-law), March 13, 1576 (p. 494): 'How great a loss your Church has sustained by the death of the elder Bullinger, of most happy memory, yea, and our Church also, towards which I have heard that he always entertained a truly fraternal and affectionate regard, and indeed all the Churches of Christ throughout Europe.' Bishop Cox wrote to Gualter in the same year (p. 496): ‘My sorrow was excessive for the death of Henry Bullinger, whom, by his letters and learned and pious writings, I had . . . known intimately for many years, although he was never known personally to me. Who would not be made sorrowful by the loss of such and so great a man, and so excellent a friend? not to mention that the whole Christian Church is disquieted with exceeding regret that so bright a star is for bidden any longer to shine upon earth.'

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