Helping out a Faithful Reader…

   A faithful reader of this blog has borrowed some of the quotes from my first blog article on Heinrich Bullinger. Unfortunately, he also borrowed four points where I summarized a section of his sermon and confused them with Bullinger’s words. As honored as I am to be confused with Bullinger, I concede that there is a bit of an age difference between us. But, thank you, Mr. Armstrong, for that momentary lift to my ego.
   While I am helping him to correct his citations, I’d also like to help him with his history just a bit. Mr. Armstrong, for the record, while Bullinger was extremely influencial in the Reformation, a point I made in my article (you did read the article fully, right?), Bullinger was not a contributing author of the Second Helvetic Confession. He was the exclusive author. It was his own personal declaration of faith which he sent to Friedrich III. Here is more background on it. And, here is the confession in full.
   You must be confusing the Second Helvetic Confession of Faith (1564) with the First Helvetic Confession of Faith (1536), of which he was a contributing author.
   A final correction I would offer is that Bullinger was by no means “anti-Catholic.” Bullinger sought very much to connect with the ancient church (part of those quotes you cited demonstrate that very point). A great deal of his sermons spend time demonstrating “Der Alt Glaub” (“the Old Faith,” one of his works where he seeks to summarize the Old and New Testaments as well as the faith once delivered). Further, his works on the Sacraments, in particular, his refutations of the Mass and Transubstantiation, cite heavily from Augustine in order to disprove the concept. He further sought to bring unity among the Reformed Churches, earning him the title “The Father of the Reformed Church“.
   So, call him anti-Romanist doctrine if you wish, or call him anti-Papal, but it is not historically accurate or theologically fair to call him anti-Catholic.