The list includes Stephan Agricola, Johannes Brenz,
Martin Bucer, Caspar Hedio, Justus Jonas, the important Luther colleague Philipp Melanchthon, Johannes Oecolampadius and Andreas Osiander.
The author, however, also identifies distinctive positions taken by the various reformers: Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli,
Martin Bucer, Jean Calvin, and a range of Anglican and Catholic writers.
If Luther regarded singing as a manifestation of theology in musical form appropriate for common people, Trocme-Latter points out that
Martin Bucer and other Strasbourg reformers considered singing a tool of considerable importance.
Over the next two decades, Cranmer worked hard to transform the English church by placing English translations of the Bible in every church, compiling the English prayer book and installing continental Protestant intellectuals like
Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr Vermigli in important teaching positions at Oxford and Cambridge.
The theological elite of the times had gathered there: Luther, who had come from Wittenberg with Philip Melanchthon, Zwingli came from Zurich and
Martin Bucer from Strasbourg, Justus Jonas from Saxony, other theologians, secular confessors and military men.
The third volume covers correspondence from the years 1532 through 1536, which culminated in the Wittenberg Concord, a compromise negotiated by Capito and his colleague
Martin Bucer between the Lutheran and Reformed churches.
English Reformers, beginning with Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer, were aided by the Polish John a Lasco, the German
Martin Bucer, and the Italian Peter Martyr Vermigli.
The famous and well-documented life and death of Michael Sattler, friend and dialogue partner to
Martin Bucer from Strasbourg and former Benedictine prior and author of the first Anabaptist Confession of Faith of Schleitheim, (4) illustrates well the essence of the Anabaptist dissent.
The Reformer
Martin Bucer (1491-1551) wrote, "Children should be encouraged to enter the best profession, and the best profession is the one which brings most profit to neighbors." (2) Bucer went on to provide a ranking of what he judged to be the most beneficial professions.
"Activating both the functional and phenomenological similarities between imagery and drama," she writes, "the play can also be read as a spirited defense of the use of drama for religious instruction." In this respect, she calls attention to a defense of "honest playing" written by
Martin Bucer (103).
Yet, he was obviously well versed in Latin and ancient history, and knowledgeable enough about contemporary issues of theology to work with
Martin Bucer. As was the custom for many in scholarly circles as well as in the publishing business, Georg often used a Latin version of his name, Georgius Machaeropioeus, in the books he published.
Farley interpreted this passage as if Calvin did not know who composed the Schleitheim Artides.(150) Yet it is very hard to believe that Calvin would not have heard either of this foundational statement of the Swiss Brethren while he was in Strasbourg nor anything about its author, who had direct personal contact with
Martin Bucer as well as Wolfgang Capito right up until his martyrdom on May 21, 1527.
