BITTER, or BU'TZER, MARTIN ( 1491-1551). A Church reformer of the Sixteenth Century. Ile was born November 11, 1491, at Sehlettstadt in Alsace. His real name was KuIdiom (Ger., cow-horn), but, in accordance with the fashion of his time among scholars, he changed it into its Greek equivalent. Boerr being derived from boos, ox, cow + kerns, horn, and this combination was Latinized !interns. In 1506 he entered the Order of Dominicans. At the sug gestion of his superior, he went, in 1517, to Heidelberg to study theology, devoting his at tention, however, at the same time to the Greek and Hebrew languages. An acquaintance with the works of Erasmus had already inclined Bucer toward Protestantism. and his views were con firmed by the influence of Luther at the Heidel berg disputations in 151S, at which ]lacer was present. In November, 1520, Racer left his cell and was for a couple of years chaplain to the Elector of the l'alatinate. In 1521 he was re leased altogether from his monastic vows, and in 1522 he retired in disgust from the Court. Fol lowing the example given by Luther at the Diet of Worms (1521), Bucer became one of the bold est and most decided of the German reformers. In 1523 he went to Strassburg, where he intro dined the doctrines of the Reformation. It was his great desire to avoid theological divisions, and so he advocated compromises and the use of dubious formulas. Thus in the disputes be tween Luther and Zwingli he 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, while at the Diet of Augsburg (1530), where he conducted him self with great circumspection and moderation, he generally accorded with the Lutheran views; but. along with other theologians, declined to subscribe to the proposed confession of faith, and afterwards drew tip the Confessio Tel• the confession of the four cities: Strassburg, Constance, Menuningen, and Lindau. An agreement, however, was subsequently entered into between and the Lutherans, and. as a disciple of Luther he appeared at the religious conference of the Reformers held in Leipzig. He
also tried to unite Protestants and Roman Catho lics, as in the Diet of Ratisbon, 1541, Ile de fended the bigamy of Philip of Besse. In con sequ•nce of his refusal to sign the Interim—a temporary creed drawn up by order of the Em peror Charles V.—Bucer was compelled to leave Strassburg, and therefore accepted the invitation of Archbishop Crannier (15l9), and went to England to teach theology at Cambridge, and assist Paul Fagius and others in forwarding the Reformation. His modesty, blameless life, and great learning won him many friends in England; hut his labors were soon interrupted by death, February 28, 1551. His remains were interred in Saint Slary's 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. Ilis constant attempts to express himself in lan guage agreeable both to Luther and Zwingli in duced in him at times an obscure, ambiguous, and elusive kind of thought, to which, perhaps, Bossnet refers when he stigmatizes Bucer as 'the great arehiteet of subtleties.' The religious passions of the time prevented his contempora ries from forming a fair estimate of his char acter. By some Protestant writers he is ranked as a theologian above even Luther and Melanch thon. His best work is it translation and expo sition of the Psalms, which he published under the pseudonym Aretinus Felinus (Strassburg, 1529). Conrad Hubert intended to edit the whole of Bracer's writings in ten volumes, but only one volume appeared (Basel, 1577), Tom us inglieanus, or those writings which he produced in England. No collected edition has since ap peared. A. Lang published Tier Erangelien-kom mentor Martin But:ers and die Grand:jige seiner Theologie (Leipzig, 1900). For biblio graphy, consult: F. Mentz and A. Erichson, Zur 400-jahrigen Gebartsfeier Martin But:er.s ( Strass burg, 1891) ; for biography, J. W. Baum, Cupito and Butter (Elberfeld, (S60) ; for Bucer's rela tions with Serveths, see H. Tollin, Serrel and Butter (Berlin. 1880).