Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/325



The importance of Martin Bucer among the theologians and statesmen of the Reformation is generally recognized, but his services to the cause of education, though indicated by his biographers, are not generally known, as is shown by the failure of all the encyclopedias of education I have consulted, in French, German, and English, to devote an article to him. His importance as an educator is, I believe, such that this neglect is not justified.

In the first place, Bucer, like many of the Reformers, gave much of his time to teaching. Soon after his arrival in Strassburg, the center of the activity of his life, he began to expound the Gospel of John to the citizens, and the Epistle to Timothy, in Latin, to the learned. Ere long he was chosen by the pastors to expound the Gospel in public. As a result, the teaching of the Old Testament, and then of other subjects, was undertaken by various men. Bucer continued to teach the New Testament and the Psalms for many years, and also undertook the Paraphrases Apodicticae of Themistius, which he gave up to John Sturm in 1537. These and similar courses carried on by Bucer, Capito, and their associates, chiefly under the auspices of the Foundation of St. Thomas, almost constituted a university. After his flight to England, in 1549, Bucer became Regius Professor of Theology at Cambridge. Here he made a powerful impression as a teacher, even though greatly hindered by ill health, for we have the testimonies of Sir John Cheeke, who taught 'Cambridge and King Edward Greek,' Walter Haddon, Matthew Parker, and a pupil of Bucer's, Nicholas Carr. A recent writer says: 'No professor certainly ever taught at Cambridge for so brief a period, and yet left behind him so deep an impression as did Martin Bucer of his services, virtues, and attainments.'