Heinrich Bullinger: Epistolae ad Jan Utenhove

This text preserves Latin correspondence from Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575) to Jan Utenhove the Elder, the Flemish Protestant who later helped lead the stranger churches in London. Bullinger acknowledges a letter written at Strasbourg on 7 July. He cannot send Bucer’s writings, since they are too bulky and messengers refuse books and parcels, one even saying he would carry such booklets at risk of his life. He suggests that the 1530 edition of Bucer’s commentary on the four Gospels contains the whole disputation Utenhove wants. He has sent to John Hooper, to be shared with Utenhove, the agreement on the sacraments reached between himself and Calvin; the Bernese have not yet answered, and Zurich may publish it.

The letter dates from the months after the Consensus Tigurinus of 1549, the eucharistic agreement between Zurich and Geneva, and records Bullinger’s plan to circulate and publish it, together with Bern’s hesitation. Sending it to Hooper in England for Utenhove shows how the Swiss agreement was intended to shape the Reformed movement there. The remarks about couriers refusing to carry books illustrate the dangers of transporting Protestant literature in the period of the Interim. The letter is a valuable source for the early reception of the Consensus.