Martin Bucer (1491–1551)
After Zwingli’s death, the most influential force in the Swiss Reformation was the city of Strasbourg under the leadership of Martin Bucer. A former Dominican monk, Bucer was converted by Luther and settled in Strasbourg in 1523. Although Strasbourg was an imperial city and was not in the Swiss confederation, under Bucer it became an important bridge between Zwingli and Calvin.
Bucer’s ideas were closer to Zwingli’s than to Luther’s, but he did not share the former’s belief in the unity of church and state. Under his influence the Swiss reform movement moved in the direction of the complete separation of the two. The church alone was to be responsible for enforcing morality, which made possible a form of reformed religion that could exist without reliance on the state.
This belief had a great influence on Calvin who lived in Strasbourg between 1538 and 1541. In the later stages of the Calvinist Reformation it was to make possible the growth of Calvinist churches in Catholic countries such as France and the Netherlands despite the attempts of the rulers to crush them.
Bucer’s views on the Eucharist also differed from those of Zwingli. He believed that although there is no change in the actual bread and wine at the consecration, Christ is truly present in the sacrament, but only to the believer. This doctrine was to influence both Calvin and the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer.
Before 1547 Strasbourg was the most tolerant Protestant city in Europe and attracted religious refugees of every persuasion. Without independence or the natural defences of the Swiss cantons it, however, was vulnerable to attack. In 1547 it was conquered by Charles V, and Catholicism was restored. Bucer sought refuge in England in 1549 and was made Regius Professor of divinity at Cambridge by Edward VI. In England he exerted a considerable influence on Cranmer’s second Book of Common Prayer. He died in 1551 and was buried in Cambridge. In 1557, during the rule of Mary I, his body was exhumed and publicly burned.
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