Note 25 — VII.—To Dr. Martin Bucer.[25]

This letter is addressed to Dr. Bucer, Bishop of Strasbourg. Martin Bucer, a very distinguished minister and theologian, was born at Schelestadt in 1491, and was initiated by Luther himself in the doctrines of the Reformed, which he introduced at Strasbourg, in concert with Mathias Zell and Hedion. Of a moderate and conciliating turn, he interposed continually between the Reformers of Germany and of Switzerland, and made sundry efforts to induce them to adopt a common symbol. "His learned writings and commentaries, his disputations and conferences on unforeseen occasions, his goings out and comings in for the sake of the Church's peace, will always make known his remarkable erudition, great piety and zeal, joined to an excellent disposition."—Th. Bezæ Icones, Genève, 1580. Compelled with several friends to leave Strasbourg in 1549, on the advance of the imperial army, he sought an asylum in England, and obtained a chair in the University of Cambridge. He died there in 1551, and was interred with extraordinary pomp. His body was disinterred under the reign of Mary, and publicly burnt at the stake. In the reign of Elizabeth his memory was honourably restored.