Helvetic Confessions
Encyclopedia
Helvetic Confessions, the name of two documents expressing the common belief of the Reformed churches of Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

The First Helvetic Confession , known also as the Second Confession of Basel, was drawn up at that city in 1536 by Heinrich Bullinger
Heinrich Bullinger
Heinrich Bullinger was a Swiss reformer, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Zurich church and pastor at Grossmünster...

 and Leo Jud
Leo Jud
Leo Jud , known to his contemporaries as Meister Leu, Swiss reformer, was born in Guémar, Alsace....

 of Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, Kaspar Megander of Bern, Oswald Myconius
Oswald Myconius
Oswald Myconius was a follower of Huldrych Zwingli.He was born at Lucerne, Switzerland. His family name was Geisshüsler, and his father was a miller; hence he was also called Molitoris...

 and Simon Grynaeus
Simon Grynaeus
Simon Grynaeus , German scholar and theologian of the Reformation, son of Jacob Gryner, a Swabian peasant, was born at Veringendorf, in Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.He adopted the name Grynaeus from the epithet of Apollo in Virgil...

 of Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

, Martin Bucer
Martin Bucer
Martin Bucer was a Protestant reformer based in Strasbourg who influenced Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican doctrines and practices. Bucer was originally a member of the Dominican Order, but after meeting and being influenced by Martin Luther in 1518 he arranged for his monastic vows to be annulled...

 and Wolfgang Capito of Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

, with other representatives from Schaffhausen
Schaffhausen
Schaffhausen is a city in northern Switzerland and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimated population of 34,587 ....

, St Gall
St. Gallen
St. Gallen is the capital of the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. It evolved from the hermitage of Saint Gall, founded in the 7th century. Today, it is a large urban agglomeration and represents the center of eastern Switzerland. The town mainly relies on the service sector for its economic...

, Mülhausen and Biel. The first draft was in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 and the Zürich delegates objected to its Lutheran
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...

 phraseology. Leo Jud's German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 translation was, however, accepted by all, and after Myconius and Grynaeus had modified the Latin form, both versions were agreed to and adopted on February 26, 1536.

The Second Helvetic Confession (Latin: Confessio Helvetica posterior) was written by Bullinger in 1562 and revised in 1564 as a private exercise. It came to the notice of Elector Palatine Frederick III
Frederick III, Elector Palatine
Frederick III of Simmern, the Pious, Elector Palatine of the Rhine was a ruler from the house of Wittelsbach, branch Palatinate-Simmern-Sponheim. He was a son of John II of Simmern and inherited the Palatinate from the childless Elector Otto-Henry, Elector Palatine in 1559...

, who had it translated into German and published. It gained a favorable hold on the Swiss churches, who had found the First Confession too short and too Lutheran. It was adopted by the Reformed Church not only throughout Switzerland but in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 (1566), Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 (1567), France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 (1571), Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 (1578), and next to the Heidelberg Catechism
Heidelberg Catechism
The Heidelberg Catechism is a Protestant confessional document taking the form of a series of questions and answers, for use in teaching Reformed Christian doctrine...

 is the most generally recognized confession of the Reformed Church.

See also

  • Reformation in Switzerland
    Reformation in Switzerland
    The Protestant Reformation in Switzerland was promoted initially by Huldrych Zwingli, who gained the support of the magistrate and population of Zürich in the 1520s. It led to significant changes in civil life and state matters in Zürich and spread to several other cantons of the Old Swiss...

  • Helvetic Consensus
    Helvetic Consensus
    The Helvetic Consensus is a Swiss Reformed symbol drawn up in 1675 to guard against doctrines taught at the French Academy of Saumur, especially Amyraldism.-Origin:...

  • Confession of Basel
    Confession of Basel
    The Confession of Basel is one of the many statements of faith produced by the Reformation. It was put out in 1534 and must be distinguished from the First and Second Helvetic Confessions, its author being Oswald Myconius, who based it on a shorter confession promulgated by Oecolampadius, his...

  • Consensus Tigurinus
    Consensus Tigurinus
    The Consensus Tigurinus or Consensus of Zurich was a document intended to bring unity to the Protestant churches on their doctrines of the sacraments, particularly the Lord's Supper...


Literature

  • L Thomas, La Confession helvétique (Geneva, 1853);
  • Philip Schaff
    Philip Schaff
    Philip Schaff , was a Swiss-born, German-educated Protestant theologian and a historian of the Christian church, who, after his education, lived and taught in the United States.-Biography:...

    , Creeds of Christendom, i. 390-420, iii. 234-306;
  • Julius Müller
    Julius Müller
    Julius Müller , was a German Protestant theologian.-Biography:He was born at Brieg, and studied at Breslau, Göttingen and Berlin, first law, which he later abandoned for theology. From 1825 to 1831, he was in charge of several small parishes...

    , Die Bekenntnisschriften der reformierten Kirche (Leipzig, 1903).

External links



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