Martin Bucer and the True Care of Souls
Since it is the 500th year celebration of the birth of one of the Reformation’s most know Reformer John Calvin I thought an article on an individual that cast some influence on him would be in order. A few are under the opinion that great leaders such as Calvin are not influenced by others in any significant way. The individual is Martin Bucer (1491-1551) the Reformer of Strasbourg, Germany. Calvin spent considerable time with Bucer in Strasbourg when the Geneva based Reformer was exiled himself from his city during the years 1538-1541. Currently I am reading along with a few other leaders the newly translated book by Bucer called “The True Care of Souls” first published at Strasbourg in 1538 and now made available in English in 2009 by Banner of Truth. I have read other translated works by Bucer and have been provoked by his thinking on many occasions especially his De Regno Christi (The Kingdom or Rule of Christ) written for Edward the VI king of England in 1550. I am doing this because much of the Reformation can boil down to either a “Calvin” thing or “Luther” thing for many as though that period of history was about one or two men. Don’t misunderstand me; Calvin was a great church leader and theologian as was Luther, but the Reformation was much broader and deeper than these two most famous leaders that many people identify and relate to within the Protestant movement. In fact one cannot see the weight and influence of the Reformation period unless you actually get beyond Calvin and Luther in order to see other great men of the grace of God that the Lord Jesus was raising up and using in that period of history. This is massively important since some people minimize the Reformation and its work by limiting the movement to a couple of leaders and therefore dismissing its legacy as though the whole recovery of the gospel was due to one lone preacher.

However, when one backs away and sees the richness of a whole company of preachers, educators, and apostolic men it makes it more difficult to dismiss this important adjustment to the church. These men of the kingdom of Christ exercised a heavy influence in several European nations including Great Britain where Bucer spent the last two years of his life at Cambridge University teaching theology. The first Puritan martyr in England, John Bradford executed 1555, was a student of Bucer at Cambridge and most likely gained his fiery passion and zeal for the gospel through the influence of this German Reformer now exiled in England. Bradford is quoted as saying, “Remember the readings and preaching of God’s prophet and true preacher Martin Bucer” as he bid farewell to the University and town of Cambridge in 1555.

I am drawn to Bucer for many reasons but most of all, along with his commitment to the Scriptures, the Lordship of Christ, and the gospel of grace, he was a rugged individual and determined Reformer who gave himself totally for the unity of the Protestant cause. Bucer was a catholic Christian in the truest sense. The focus of his work provided a legacy for future Christians in their service before the Lord. Bucer along with his fellow Reformers can be credited for establishing the needed biblical structure in Protestant thinking related to the doctrine of salvation. Their topical arrangements of Paul’s major themes in Romans gave clear presentation to the doctrines of justification by faith, repentance, predestination, and God’s Providence (Muller, 2000:129). This labor gave shape to the confessions that would emerge in their own day and a century afterwards in such writings as that of William Ames and William Perkins, as well as the Westminster Confession of Faith (Coffey and Lim, 2008:207-208). Interestingly, they lectured on Old Testament books in public platforms. Bucer labored to provide a commentary on the Psalms in the English language (1530) and gave interpretation to them in order to show their relationship to the kingdom of Christ. Bucer in particular logged an amazing 1250 miles on horseback per year during the disputes over communion in order to promote a proper view of the table of the Lord and foster Protestant unity concerning this issue (Greshat, 2004:129-130) . Bucer’s commitment to the catholicity of the Church makes him an example of what it is to lead in the paths of the first apostles.