Last time we looked at the influence of Frederick III upon the Heidelberg Catechism and saw how some of the different and contradictory currents of Reformed faith caused friction. In 1556 Catholic Emperor Maxmilian II, anxious to exert control over Protestant princes such as Frederick III, responded to events in Heidelberg by putting Frederick on trial for heresy.
Over in Zurich, the chief minister of Great Munster Cathedral was Heinrich Bullinger, (about whom we shall be learning more of later). He knew of Frederick’s work (and that of Casper Olevianus and Zacharias Ursinus) in creating the Heidelberg Catechism. He had been working on a Confession of his own, which he had intended to leave to the world, as part of his last will and testament. The trial of Frederick convinced him that he should publish it before his death, as a way of showing solidarity with Fredericks cause.
An earlier publishing date was also needed as the growth of new movements, which went far beyond the kind of reforms Luther or Calvin had envisaged, was threatening the stability of the increasingly diverse movement known as the Reformation. These new movements were characterized by the idea that the church, both the Catholic and the emerging Protestant churches were so hopelessly lost that reform was impossible. Only complete separation from both secular and religious authority, and a radical return to New Testament principles would suffice.
Whilst many of these movements were opposed and suppressed by the third reformer we mentioned last time, namely Ulrich Zwingli, their growth was partly due to his influence. Before looking at Heinrich Bullinger, (who was Zwingli’s successor at Great Munster) we need to look again at the views of Zwingli.
Ulrich Zwingli was a self styled Renaissance scholar. A year before Martin Luther had posted his 95 theses he had been preaching a reformation message that called for radical changes to be made in religious life. His voice went largely unheeded, as he was for 10 years a parish priest in an obscure Swiss village in the mountains, which he followed up by spending two years as a chaplain at a monastery. It was only when he accepted tenure at Great Munster in Zurich in 1519 that he really came to public attention.
The Word of God – the Bible - was his passion. He created a translation of the New Testament in German, followed by a translation of the whole bible, 4 years before Luther completed his translation. In worship he was greatly concerned that nothing should detract from the reading and preaching of the Word, and hence he regarded music, church furnishings and décor as “Popish Decorations”. He conducted worship in German, not Latin, as he felt it important that people hear the gospel in their native tongue.
The approaches to worship of Luther and Zwingli were poles apart. Luther believed that anything should be allowed in worship that scripture did not specifically forbid. Zwingli believed that in worship only those things should be accepted that scripture specifically commanded. Baptism. Communion (as a memorial), Scripture Reading, Prayer and Preaching.
Unexpected Results started to arise from Zwingli’s radical approach, in particular lay people began studying the bible quite independently of the church. One of the reasons the Catholic Church had kept a tight control over who should interpret the bible (and to whom scripture should be available) was a fear that if scripture was left to the interpretation of individual voices rather than the corporate voice of the church, then all sorts of heresy would evolve.
What happened in Zurich and beyond, was that those who met outside of the church felt that their study of scripture led them to believe that Zwingli and the other reformers had not gone far enough with their reforms. There grew a desire within many of these groups to return to a state of purity similar to that experienced by the first century church. For many of these groups the Old Testament was seen as no longer being formative on church doctrine. Old Testament concepts were often disregarded as being only shadows of true Christian Belief.
As well as theological ponderings, other forces were at work. In places where the Reformation had taken hold, power (and the taxes and tithes associated with political position) had passed from the Catholic hierarchy to the Protestant hierarchy. In financial terms this meant many citizens were in a no better financial state under Protestantism than Catholicism.
These were brutal times. Wars and rumors of wars continued to rage. Plagues and disasters, often seen as signs of God’s judgment, had not declined. The ‘Magisterial Reformation” of Luther, Calvin and Zwingli (so termed because it’s leaders exercised authority similar to Magistrates) had failed to bring the revolution that some had hoped for. They sought for a more radical way. Which brings us to…
Radical Reformation and the Anabaptists
The aim of the radical reformers was to bring about a total restoration of New Testament Doctrine and lifestyle. To achieve that aim a number of things were involved. One was the total separation of church and state. Another was withdrawal from society in general and the creation of alternative ways of living. For some this involved the setting up of communities in which all things were held in common.
Some were completely pacifist by nature; others saw thought the sword was a weapon of punishment for unbelievers. Many practiced ‘banning’ as a way of discipline. If a member were to err from the way they would be shunned until they amended their ways. Others were strongly messianic and thought that the return of Christ was immanent. Most were anti-Clerical, that is they saw no need for Catholic priests or the ‘magisterium’ leadership of Luther, Calvin and Zwingli.
However their major departure from the faith of the Reformers was their rejection of infant baptism, claiming that it was ‘the highest and chief abomination of the pope”. They therefore became known as the ‘re’ (or ‘ana’) Baptists because of their insistence that only adults should be baptized and a refusal to recognize infant baptism as valid.
The Anabaptist churches were a ‘free’ or ‘gathered’ church; in sociological terms a sect. They did not believe in a Church embracing both sinners and saved, as Catholics and Protestants had. Instead, the elect were a scattered remnant of the faithful, separated from the sinners. The true church of the elect would not remain invisible within a wider body, as Calvin had taught, but had to become visible and be marked off by adult baptism.
The leaders of the Anabaptist movements were a varied group that included scholars, cobblers, ex-priests, mystics, dissatisfied evangelicals and radical revolutionaries. The Hutterites of Moravia, the Mennonites in Holland and the Swiss Brethren in Zurich were early adherents of the Anabaptist movement. The Swiss Brethren were particularly critical of Zwingli in 1525 for his adherence to infant baptism.
Following a law code introduced by Justinian way back in the sixth century (which imposed the death penalty for rebaptisers) the town council of Zurich declared that anyone baptized as an adult would be executed without trial. Just prior to their action Swiss Anabaptist leaders Conrad Grebel and Balthasar Hubmaier had baptized their friend George Blaurock. Similar laws were passed in other reformed centers.
These actions set in motion one of the bloodiest passages of Reformation history. By the early 1520’s hundreds of Anabaptists had been drowned, beheaded or burned at the hands of both Reformed Magistrates and Catholics. Worse was to follow in the city of Munster, in Westphalia.
Munster
Under the influence of the preaching of Bernhard Rothmann the city council of Munster had become favorable to Anabaptist teaching. There appeared in the town a self-styled Dutch prophet named John Van Leyden who announced that Munster was to be the New Jerusalem. On February 9, 1534 his followers seized the town hall. A proclamation was made that any who refused adult baptism would be banished.
Amongst John Leyden’s other beliefs were that the whole world was immanently facing destruction, and that only the ‘New Jerusalem’ (i.e. Munster) would remain. He therefore planned to engage in an aggressive war to defeat the ungodly rulers in preparation for the impending Day of Judgment. At the age of twenty-six he declared himself king of the ‘New Jerusalem’ in Munster and had alongside him a queen, fifteen other wives, and a retinue of 135 servitors. By this time the city had some 8-9000 residents.
In May of 1535 a group from Munster attacked the city hall in Amsterdam, killing the mayor and several other citizens. Others of their number ran naked through the streets announcing the impending doom of the ungodly and calling them to repent before it was to late. An unlikely alliance between the army of the Catholic bishop of Munster and the Protestant Philip of Hesse, eventually invaded Munster, killed every Anabaptist leader they could find and displayed their bodies in iron cages as an unpleasant object lesson for any considering following a similar path.
The incident cast a dark shadow not only on the Anabaptist movements, but also on the Reformation as a whole because of the link between the teaching of Zwingli and the growth of sectarian movements. Stormy waters were indeed in evidence at the font!
Baptism and The Nature of Covenant.
Differences in baptismal practice arose from views of the nature of God’s covenant with God’s people. For Zwingli the primary covenant was the one God made with Adam and renewed for all time with Abraham. The appearance of Jesus Christ was its fulfillment. There was no chasm between the covenant of the Old Testament and that of the New. The history of faith was unified and continuous.
Zwingli (along with Calvin) cited baptism and circumcision as parallel rites. It was right therefore for children of Christian believers to be included in the church through baptism. Jesus commended the faith of children as that which exemplified Kingdom belief. Baptism signaled God’s willingness to accept people as servants, not human willingness to accept God.
In 1531 Zwingli was killed in the battle of Kappel, leaving a huge gap in the leadership at Great Munster. The council of Zurich chose Zwingli’s friend, Heinrich Bullinger.
Heinrich Bullinger.
Heinrich was born in central Switzerland in July 1504. His father, also named Heinrich, was a parish priest, who like many priests of those days, in violation of the laws of celibacy lived in regular wedlock. Young Heinrich was one of five sons born from this ‘arrangement’, which, although not officially sanctioned, had all the stability of marriage.
He belonged to the second generation of Continental Reformers. He was twenty-one years younger than Luther, twenty years Zwingli's junior and only twenty-seven years of age when he commenced his life's task at Zurich in 1531. Bullinger possessed the qualifications needed for such a position of critical responsibility in Zurich. His preaching was lucid and enriching. His published sermons carried the Reformation teaching far beyond Zurich and one of his associates spoke of him as 'a divine, enriched by unmeasured gifts of God.'
While Bullinger was essentially a man of peace it is nonetheless evident that he was involved in much controversy - with the Lutherans over the Lord's Supper, with Calvin over the decrees of God, and with the Anabaptists over just about everything! In regard to baptism, like Zwingli before him, Bullinger pointed out that both Jews and Gentiles share in the same covenant though differing in outward administration. Both Jew and Gentile are children of Abraham by faith. He asserted that children were not excluded from the Old Covenant and therefore ought not to be excluded from the New. Again, along with Zwingli and Calvin, he asserted that baptism in the New Covenant corresponds to circumcision in the Old.
The Second Helvetic Confession
The First Helvetic Confession was a document designed to unite the German Lutheran and Swiss Reformed churches against the Counter-Reformation of the Roman Catholic Church. Whilst it did much to unite the German speaking churches of Switzerland it was not widely received.
As stated earlier, Henreich had intended that his second confession be a personal statement of faith to guide the church after his death. But events following Frederick’s trial for heresy prompted its earlier release.
The Confession is too extended for a detailed analysis. However the brief outline following will give some indication of the scope of the subject matter covered.
Chapters 1 and 2: The Scriptures and their interpretation.
Chapters 3 to 11: The Doctrine of God; Idols, Images and Saints; The One Mediator; Providence; Creation; The Fall; Free Will and Man's Ability; Predestination and Election; Jesus Christ, True God and Man.
Chapters 12 to 16: The Law of God; The Gospel; Repentance and Conversion; Justification; Faith and Good Works.
Chapters 17 to 30: The Church and its only Head; The Ministry; The Sacraments; Ecclesiastical Assemblies; Prayers and Singing; Feasts and Fasts; Catechizing and Visiting the Sick; Burial, Purgatory and Apparition of Spirits; Rites and Ceremonies; Celibacy, Marriage and Domestic Affairs; The Civil Magistrate.
Chapter 20 is entirely devoted to baptism. Bullinger leaves us in no doubt regarding his views on adult baptism.
“ANABAPTISTS. We condemn the Anabaptists, who deny that newborn infants of the faithful are to be baptized. For according to evangelical teaching, of such is the Kingdom of God, and they are in the covenant of God. Why, then, should the sign of God's covenant not be given to them? Whey should those who belong to God and are in his Church not be initiated by holy baptism? We condemn also the Anabaptists in the rest of their peculiar doctrines which they hold contrary to the Word of God. We therefore are not Anabaptists and have nothing in common with them.”
The last part of the Confession is the most pastoral of the Confessions included in the Book of confessions focusing on such topics as the communal life of the church, the conduct of ministers and the raising of families.
One interesting feature is 5.248 “MATRIMONIAL FORUM. Let lawful courts be established in the Church, and holy judges who may care for marriages, and may repress all unchastity and shamefulness, and before whom matrimonial disputes may be settled.”
The theological distinctives of the Second Helvetic Confession are Covenant and Baptism. For the Anabaptists covenant was a contractual agreement between voluntary consenting adults. It placed a high premium on individual rights and yielded an emphasis on the autonomy of the local congregation.
For the Reformed, the covenant was not created by contracting parties but by God. All participants in the covenant were chosen by God and thus become part of an organic unity, the body of Christ. The needs of the body hold focus rather than the rights of the individuals. Authority and responsibility lie not only in the local congregation but throughout the whole body.
For USA Presbyterians the major significance of the Helvetic Confession may be that it defines for us our beliefs about infant baptism. We believe that baptism is a sign of beginning a relationship of God. We therefore administer the sacrament to children within the household of faith as well as adults who come to faith.
Jack Rogers makes an interesting contrast between denominations that hold to infant baptism as opposed to those who hold adult baptism.
BELIEVERS BAPTISM INFANT BAPTISM
Individual Rights Representative Government
Personal Piety Societal Transformation
Crisis Conversion Christian Nurture
Charismatic Leader Committee Process
Local Congregation Connectional Church.
Para-Church movements Institutional Church
Voluntary Contract Organic Union
New Testament over Old Unity of the Bible