BUCER,MATITIN. one of the church reformers of the 16th c., was b. 1491, at Schlott stadt in Alsace. His real name was Kul/horn, (cow-horn), but in accordance with the fashion of his time among scholars, he changed it into its Greek equivalent, Bucer being derived from boys, an ox, and /cows, a horn. At the age of 14 he entered the order of Dominicans. At the suggestion of his superior, he went to Heidelberg to study theol ogy, devoting his attention, however, at the same time to the Greek and Hebrew lan guages. While young he was appointed chaplain to the elector of the palatinate. An acquaintance with the works of Erasmus had already inclined B. toward Protestantism, and his views were confirmed by the influence of Luther at the Heidelberg disputations in 1518. Following the example given by Luther at the diet of Worms (1524 13. became one of the boldest and most decided of the German reformers. In 1523, he went to Strasburg, where he introduced the doctrines of the reformation. In the disputes. between Luther and Zwingli, lie adopted a middle course, and endeavored to make reconciliation between them; but his view of the sacraments, which approached that of Zwingli, exposed him to Luther's harsh reprobation. At the diet of Augsburg, where he conducted himself with great circumspection and moderation, he generally accorded with the Lutheran views; but, along with other Stasburg theologians, declined to sub scribe to the proposed confession of and afterwards drew up the Coly'essio Tetra politana. An agreement, however, was subsequently entered into between B. and the Lutherans, and as a disciple of Luther, he appeared at the religious conference of the reformers held at Leipsic. In consequence of his refusal to sign the interim—a tempo
rary creed drawn up by order of the emperor Charles found his situation irk some in Germany, and therefore accepted the invitation of archbishop Crammer (1549), and came to England to teach theology at Cambridge, and assist Paul Fagius and others in forwarding the reformation. His modesty, blameless life, and great learning gained many friends in England; but his labors were soon interrupted by death, Feb. 27, 1551. Ills remains were interred in a church at Cambridge with great solemnity; but during the reign of Mary, his bones, with those of Fagius, were taken from their graves and burned in the market-place. His constant attempts to express himself in language agreeable both to Luther and Zwingli, induced in him at times an obscure, ambiguous, and elusive kind of thought, to which, perhaps, Bossuet refers when he stigmatizes B. as "the great architect of subtleties." B. was, of course, exposed to many censures and scandals by the assiduous malice of the Roman Catholic theologians, whose fertile imagina tions during the reformation period were exclusively devoted to the manufacture of inde cent calumnies; but by Protestant writers he has been highly commended, and by some has been ranked above even Luther and Melanchtlion. His best work is a translation and exposition of the Psalms, which he published under the pseudonym Aretinus Felinus (Strasburg, 1529). Hubert intended to edit the whole of B.'s writings in ten volumes, but only one volume appeared (Basel, 1577).