Abstract

In a comment on Isaiah 49: 22 Bullinger observed that "kings have in the Church at this day the same office that ancient kings had in that congregation which they call the Jewish church . . ." and further "that it is lawful for every christian church, much more for every notable christian kingdom, without the advice of the church of Rome and the members thereof, in matters of religion depraved by them, wholly to make a reformation according to the rule of God's most holy word . . . Therefore Christians, obeying the laws and commandments of their Prince, do utterly remove or take away all superstition, and do restore, establish, and preserve the true religion according to the manner that Christ their prince appointed them." In these and other such statements Bullinger gave considerable impetus and encouragement to reformers of the Church of England under Edward VI and Elizabeth to establish an ecclesiastical polity with supreme jurisdiction in the hands of the Civil Magistrate. The proposed paper will explore the extent of Bullinger's theology of the covenant on the polity of the English church.