Rudolph Gualther (1519-1586)

Secondary Sources: Brief Biography:

1) Gwalther, Rudolf (also Walther, Walthard, Gualther; 1519-1586), third Antistes (or Bishop) of the Reformed Church of Zurich, following Bullinger and Zwingli in that office. Gwalther was Bullinger’s student at Kappel in 1528, and later, upon taking up residence in Bullinger’s house in Zurich in 1532, came to be treated almost as a son. In 1537 Gwalther traveled to England, and from 1538 to 1541, with a scholarship from Zurich, he studied at Basel, Strasbourg, Lausanne, and Marburg. He attended the Colloquy of Regensburg with the theologians from Hesse in 1541, where Calvin was also present. Upon returning to Zurich in 1541, Gwalther married Regula Zwingli, the daughter of the reformer, who also was a resident in the Bullinger household. After her death in 1565, he married Anna Blarer. In 1541 Gwalther became pastor at Schwamendingen. The following year he succeeded Leo Jud as pastor of Saint Peter’s church in Zurich. For more than thirty years he worked closely with Bullinger until the latter’s death in 1575. In his Testament, Bullinger named Gwalther his successor.

As the leader of the Zurich church, Gwalther defended the Zurich version of the Protestant faith, especially against the Lutheran authors of the Formula of Concord. He was instrumental in developing good relations between the Zurich church and other Reformed churches in Europe. He had many contacts in England, where he was very influential, particularly as an advocate of the Zurich model of the state church. Gwalther’s son, Rudolf, received a master of arts degree from the University of Oxford in 1574, and Gwalther regularly corresponded with English bishops and others.

Gwalther’s works include Latin homilies on all the gospels, as well as on Acts of the Apostles, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, and the twelve minor prophets. He also edited three volumes of the works of Zwingli and translated many of Zwingli’s German works into Latin. Gwalther’s famous work on the Anti-Christ (Der Endtchrist, 1546) was translated into several languages. He wrote poems and two works on metrics. He even tried his hand at drama (Nabal comoedia sacra, 1562). After his death his sermon notes on Esther, Isaiah, Psalms 1 to 94, and on all the books of the New Testament except Revelation were published. J. Wayne Baker, “Gwalther, Rudolf,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation, ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand (Oxford University Press, 1996), 2:203.

2) Gualter, Rodolphus, son-in-law of Zwingli, and one of the first Swiss Reformers, was born at Zurich Nov. 9, 1519, succeeded Bullinger as pastor, became superintendent at Zurich in 1575, and died Nov. 25, 1586. His commentaries are highly esteemed and rare, viz. HomiliF cccxi in MatthFum (Zurich, 1590-96, 2 vols. fol.):–Homil. clxxv in Acta (Zurich, 1577, fol.). He wrote also a strong anti-papal treatise, Antichristus (Zurich, 1546, 8vo). A complete edition of his works appeared at Zurich in 1585 (15 vols. 8vo).–Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Généale, xxi, 810; Winer, Theol. Literatur, ii, 555; Darling, Cyclop. Bibliographica, i, 1350. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, eds. John McClintock and James Strong (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981), 3:1024.

Online Source: Theological Meditations

Primary Sources:¹

Salvation pertains to all men:

1) Howbeit, because this bliss or felicity shall not seem to pertain to a few persons, or to one Nation only: he shows expressly how far it ought to be extended, including within the blessing that comes by Christ, all the kindreds of the earth. For (as Paul says) he that ordained these things, “is not the God of the Jews only, but of all Nations also.” And we are everywhere warned, that touching our salvation, there is no difference of nations before God, but (as Peter afterward testifies) “in all people they that fear him, and work righteousness, are accepted with him.” Further Christ himself says, that the salvation, whereof he is the author, appertains to all men, where he testifies in the Gospel, that “many shall come from the East, and from the West, and rest with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Whereunto this also appertains, where he gives the commandments to his Apostles to preach the Gospel over all the world, Mark 16, Act. 1. Radulpe Gualthere, An Hundred, threescore and fifteen Sermons, uppon the Acts of the Apostles, trans., by Iohn Bridges, (London: 1572), 187.

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Ambrose:

Christ Suffered for the Church:

1) 47. But he was not so eager as to lay aside caution. He called the bishop to him, and esteeming that there can be no true thankfulness except it spring from true faith, he enquired whether he agreed with the Catholic bishops, that is, with the Roman Church? And possibly at that place the Church of the district was in schism. For at that time Lucifer had withdrawn from our communion, and although he had been an exile for the faith, and had left inheritors of his own faith, yet my brother did not think that there could be true faith in schism. For though schismatics kept the faith towards God, yet they kept it not towards the Church of God, certain of whose limbs they suffered as it were to be divided, and her members to be torn. For since Christ suffered for the Church, and the Church is the body of Christ, it does not seem that faith in Christ is shown by those by whom His Passion is made of none effect, and His body divided.  Ambrose, “Select Works and Letters,” The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 10:168-169.

Christ Suffered for all:

1) “A certain creditor,” it says, “had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty” [St. Luke 7:41]. 24. Who are those two debtors if not the two peoples, the one from the Jews, the other from the Gentiles, beholden to the Creditor of the heavenly treasure? It says, “The one owed five hundred pence, the other fifty” [St. Luke 7:41]. Extraordinary is that penny on which the King’s image is written, which bears the imprint of the Emperor [cf. St. Mark 12:15-16]. To this Creditor we owe not material wealth, but assays of merits, accounts of virtues, the worth of which is measured by the weight of seriousness, the likeness of righteousness, the sound of confession. Woe is me if I do not have what I have received, truly, because only with difficulty can anyone pay off the whole debt to this Creditor; woe is me if I do not ask, “Remit my debt.” For the Lord would not have taught us so to pray that we ask for our sins to be forgiven [cf. St. Matthew 6:12] if He had not known that some would only with difficulty be worthy debtors [cf. St. Luke 11:4]. 25. But which is the people which owes more if not we by whom more is believed? God’s words were believed by them [cf. Romans 3:2], but His Virgin Birth by us. Ye have the talent [cf. St. Matthew 25:15], the Virgin Birth; ye have the hundredfold fruit of faith [cf. St. Matthew 13:8]. Emmanuel was believed, God with us [cf. St. Matthew 1:23]; the Cross, the Death, the Resurrection of the Lord were believed. Although Christ suffered for all, yet He suffered for us particularly, because He suffered for the Church. Therefore, there is no doubt that he who has received more, owes more [cf. St. Luke 12:48]. And according to me, perhaps he who owed more offended more, but through the Lord’s mercy, the case is changed, so that he who owed more loves more, if he nevertheless attains Grace. For he who gives it back possesses Grace, and he who possesses it repays, insofar as he possesses, for the possession consists in the repayment and the repayment in the possession. 26. And, therefore, since there is nothing which we can worthily repay to God–for what may we repay for the harm to the Flesh He assumed, what for the blows, what for the Cross, the Death, and the Burial? Woe is me if I have not loved! I dare to say that Peter did not repay and thereby loved the more; Paul did not repay–he, indeed, repaid death for death, but did not repay other debts, because he owed much. I hear himself saying, because he did not repay, “Who hath given to Him first, that he might be recompensed again?” [Romans 11:35]. Even if we were to repay cross for Cross, death for Death, do we repay that we possess all things from Him, and by Him, and in Him [cf. Romans 11:36]? Therefore, let us repay love for our debt, charity for the gift, grace for wealth; for he to whom more is given loves more [cf. St. Luke 7:42-43].”  Saint Ambrose of Milan, Exposition of the Holy Gospel According to Saint Luke, trans. Theodosia Tomkinson (Etna: Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, 1998), 201-202.

2) 13. Let these triumphant victims be brought to the place where Christ is the victim. But He upon the altar, Who suffered for all; they beneath the altar, who were redeemed by His Passion. I had destined this place for myself, for it is fitting that the priest should rest there where he has been wont to offer, but I yield the right hand portion to the sacred victims; that place was due to the martyrs. Let us, then, deposit the sacred relics, and lay them up in a worthy resting-place, and let us celebrate the whole day with faithful devotion. Ambrose, “Select Works and Letters,” The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 10:438.

3) (9.41) What is more agreeable than the example of holy Joseph? He freed us from the reproach by the mystery of the Lord’s cross. For just as Christ became a curse to destroy the curse of the law¹ and became sin² to take away the sin of the world,³ so He became a reproach to remove the reproach of paganism, but that reproach that is Christ was considered more precious than the treasures of Egypt. Accordingly, Moses left the court of the king Pharao⁴ and chose the reproach of faith, and before that reproach the seas divided.⁵ Nephthali himself is a vine spread through the whole world, to dispense to all peoples the richness of a spiritual drink. He is increased, that is, having the name which is above every name,⁶ who offered Himself to death on behalf of all men, and therefore He hears from the Father, "Return to me." Jacob spoke, and God was heard. Jacob gave a blessing and the Lord reechoed it, saying to His Son, "Return to me," that is, "Return after the passion. Return to your dwelling, return with the trophy,⁷ return to me, so that the dead may follow you in your resurrection and may rise in like manner by your power and example, that you may become the firstborn from the dead,⁸ that you may sit at the right hand of the Father." On this account the Son also said, "Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power."⁹ Ambrose, “Jacob and the Happy Life,” in Seven Exegetical Works, trans. Michael P. McHugh (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1972), 172. [Underlining mine; footnote values modified; footnote content original.]

¹Cf. Gal. 3.1 3.
²Cf. 2 Cor. 5.21.
³Cf. John 1.29.
⁴Cf. Exod. 2.15
⁵Cf. Exod. 14.21.
⁶Cf. Phil. 2.9.
⁷The trophy is probably the body of Christ. See C. Mohrmann, "A propos de deux mots controverses: tropaeum–nomen," Vigiliae Christianae 8 (1954) 154-73, especially 157-58.
⁸Cf. Col. 1.18; Apoc. 1.5; 1 Cor. 15.20; Ps. 88 (89).28.
⁹Matt. 26.64.

4) Let no one hold back out of consideration of his poverty, let no one who does not have money be afraid. Christ does not ask money, but faith, which is more valuable than money. Indeed Peter, who did not have money, bought Him. "Silver and gold I do not have," he said, "but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ arise and walk."¹ And the prophet Isaiah says, "All you who are thirsty, come to the water, and you that have no money come, buy, and drink and eat without money and without the price of the wine."² For He who paid the price of His blood for us did not ask a price from us, because He redeemed us not with gold or silver but with His precious blood.³ Therefore you owe that price with which you have been bought. Even though He does not always demand it, you still owe it. Buy Christ for yourself, then, not with what few men possess, but with what all men possess by nature but few offer on account of fear. What Christ claims from you is His own. He gave His life for all men, He offered His death for all men. Pay on behalf of your Creator what you are going to pay by law. He is not bargained for at a slight price, and not all men see Him readily. Indeed, those virgins in the Gospel whom the bridegroom kept out upon his coming, were left out of doors exactly because they did not buy the oil that was for sale.⁴ On this account it is said to them, "Go rather to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves."⁵ Likewise that merchant deserves praise who sold all his goods and bought the pearl.⁶ Ambrose, “Joseph,” in Seven Exegetical Works, trans. Michael P. McHugh (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1972), 217. [Underlining mine; footnote values modified; footnote content original.]

¹Acts 3.6.
²Isa. 55.1.
³Cf. 1 Peter 1.18-19. References to man as purchased by Christ occur elsewhere in the New Testament; cf. 1 Cor. 6.19-20, 7.23, and Acts 20.28 (of the Church).
⁴Cf. Matt. 25.1-13.
⁵Matt. 25.9.
⁶Cf. Matt. 13.45-46.

Christ delivered up for all men with reference to Romans 8:32:

1) (6.25) But are you afraid of the uncertain twists of life and the plots of the adversary? You have the help of God, you have His great liberality, so great that He did not spare His own Son on your behalf.¹ Scripture made use of a beautiful expression to proclaim the holy purpose toward you of God the Father, who offered His Son to death. The Son could not feel death’s bitterness, because He was in the Father; for Himself He gave up nothing, on your behalf He offered everything. In the fullness of His divinity² He lost nothing, while He redeemed you. Think upon the Father’s love. It is a matter of His goodness that He accepted the danger, so to speak, to His Son, who was going to die, and in a manner drained the sorrowful cup of bereavement, so that the advantage of redemption would not be lost to you. The Lord had such mighty zeal for your salvation that He came close to endangering what was His, while He was gaining you. On account of you He took on our losses, to introduce you to things divine, to consecrate you to the things of heaven. Scripture said, too, in a marvelous fashion, "He has delivered him for us all,"³ to show that God so loves all men that He delivered His most beloved Son for each one. For men, therefore, He has given the gift that is above all gifts; is it possible that He has not given all things in that gift? God, who has given the Author of all things,⁴ has held back nothing.

(6.26) Therefore, let us not be afraid that anything can be denied us. We ought not have any distrust whatever over the continuance of God’s generosity. So long and continuous has it been, and so abundant, that God first predestined us and then called us. Those whom He called, He also justified; those whom He justified, He also glorified.⁵ Can He abandon those whom He has honored with His mighty benefits even to the point of their reward? Amid so many benefits from God, ought we to be afraid of certain plots of our accuser? But who would dare to accuse those who, as he sees, have been chosen by the judgment of God? God the Father Himself, who has bestowed His gifts-can He make them void? Can He exile from His paternal love and favor those whom He took up by way of adoption? But fear exists that the judge may be too harsh-think upon Him that you have as your judge. For the Father has given every judgment to Christ.⁶ Can Christ then condemn you, when He redeemed you from death and offered Himself on your behalf, and when He knows that your life is what was gained by His death? ‘Will He not say, " ‘What profit is there in my blood,’⁷ if I condemn the man whom I myself have saved?" Moreover, you are thinking of Him as a judge; you are not thinking of Him as an advocate. But can He give a sentence that is very harsh when He prays continually that the grace of reconciliation with the Father be granted us? Ambrose, “Jacob and the Happy Life,” in Seven Exegetical Works, trans. Michael P. McHugh (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1972), 135-136. [Underlining mine; footnote values modified; footnote content original.]

¹Cf. Rom. 8.32.
²Cf. Col. 2.9.
³Rom. 8.32.
⁴Cf. Ibid.
⁵Cf. Rom. 8.30.
⁶Cf. John 5.22.
⁷Ps. 29 (30).10.

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Batholomaeus Keckermann (1571-1609); studied at Wittenberg, Leipzig and Heidelberg. His years at Heidelberg (1592-1601) were divided between study and teaching. Keckermann taught Hebrew and theology. From 1601 until his death in 1609, Keckermann was rector of the gymnasium and professor of philosophy in his native Danzig. His major theological work is the Systema sacrosanctae theologiae, tribus libris adornatum (1602). Richard Muller, Reformed Dogmatics 1^st edition, 1:43.

Batholomaeus Keckermann:¹

I have heard as touching the Person of Christ, now it remains, that I be instructed in the Office of Christ, and first of all that you tell me how the Office of Christ is called generally?

It is in general termed the Office of Mediator.

What is a Mediator?

Generally a Mediator imports such an one as does reconcile the party offending to the party offended, which reconciliation consists in these three things. 1. The Mediator must make intercession for him that has grieved the party offended. 2. He must satisfy the party offended for the injury and wrong done. 3. He must promise that the offender shall not offend any more. And therefore when we say Christ is a Mediator, it is as if we say that Christ is that Person that has appeased God, whom mankind by their sins had most grievously offended, and who has given satisfaction to the Justice of God by his Passion and Death, who prays for sinners, and applies his merit unto them by faith, who regenerate them by his Holy Spirit, that they may begin in this life to hate sin, and to be wary that they offend God no more.

Of how many sorts is the Office of Christ our Mediator?

Of three sorts: Prophetical, Sacerdotal, & Regal,² in regard whereof our Saviour is called Christ, i.e., anointed and appointed unto this triple Office, because in the Old Testament by God’s own command, there were anointed Prophets, Priests, and Kings.

Which is the Prophetical Office of Christ, and in what does it consist?

It consists in two things. 1. In the Office of teaching: and 2. In the Efficacy of his teaching for Christ is called a Prophet. 1. Because he has revealed God and God’s will unto Angels and unto men. For God could no otherwise be known, then by the Son, according unto that: John 1.18. “The Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has revealed him unto us.” 2. Because he has appointed and preserved in his Church the Ministry of the Gospel, and bestowed on his Church able Teachers and Ministers, fitting and furnishing them with gifts necessary for teaching, Ephes. 4.vers 11. “Christ has given some to be Prophets, others to be Apostles, and Teachers.” 3. Because he is powerfully by the Ministry of the Word, and inclines the heart of such men as are elect, to believe and obey the Gospel, Luk. 24. vers. 45. “Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand Scripture.” Acts 16. vers. 14. “The Lord opened the heart of Lydia to attend unto those things which were spoken by Paul.”

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Daille:

Sins of the world:

1) And it is this that St. Paul explains again in another way, speaking to the Athenians, and saying “that God had appointed him the Judge of the whole world! All these expressions have the same meaning as that which the church has drawn from the Scripture, and which she usually employs to signify this mystery, saying that Jesus was “seated on the right hand of God.” But you will say to me, that as the Lord Jesus is the true and eternal God, blessed for ever with the Father, had he not this dignity and glory before and during his humiliation? If he had it not, how was he God? If otherwise, how can it be said that the Father gave it him after his resurrection only? Dear brethren, I reply, that Jesus Christ was in truth the Almighty God and the lord of glory, before his humiliation. These qualities were his before all time, as he possesses them by his nature, having received them from the Father, by his eternal and incomprehensible generation. Here, however, the question is not that of his original and essential dignity, or even of his Divinity but that of his office; of that which he had being Mediator, not of that which he possessed as being Son of God simply; of that power which the Father has given him as being Son of man, as he himself says in St. John, because he is the Christ and the Mediator of the church. And this power is nothing else than the right and authority to save the world, to found the church, and to preserve it against the gates of hell, to raise up and judge the human race, and to establish afterwards a second universe, where righteousness and immortality should dwell for ever. Jesus was only invested with this great and magnificent right after having completed the work of his humiliation; and if from time to time he has performed some of its functions, it has only been by dispensation, and in virtue of the faith that he had pledged, to satisfy exactly all the required conditions for being installed into this great and Divine office of expiating the sins of the world, by a perfect sacrifice, and to support all the trials by which he should be tempted. This is the reason why he did not till then bear in his flesh the ensigns of this glorious dignity. He only took them at him resurrection, which was as it were the day of his consecration and of his coronation. Truly do I confess, that to execute the authority that he then received an infinite wisdom and power is necessary; and had he not already had such, God, who never gives the title without the qualification, nor an office without a capacity for it, would doubtless have communicated it to him. But being the Almighty God, there was no need in this respect, but to deliver to him the name and right, with which being provided, he displayed in the sight of men and angels this power of his Divinity, which till then, as it were, had been hidden under the veil of the infirmities which were necessary for our salvation. And as to his human nature, which, that he might obtain if had been clothed at his conception with the form and weakness of our poor flesh, God then (as we have before said) filled with glory, and gave it all the excellence of which it wan susceptible, while dwelling within the limits of its true being. I add this expressly to exclude the vain imaginations of those who, under pretense of glorifying the flesh of the lord, would destroy and annihilate it, declaring that by the resurrection it received the incommunicable properties of Divinity, that is to say, omnipresence and such like. John Daille, The Epistle of Saint Paul to the Philippians (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1843), 62.

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