BUCER, Martin (1491-1551), originally Martin Kuhorn, an eminent German reformer, born at Schelestadt, a town of Alsace, near Strasburg. At the age of fifteen he entered the order of St Dominic, and as he was a youth of great promise he was sent to prosecute his studies at Heidelberg. There he studied the works of Erasmus and Luther, and was present at a disputation of the latter with some of the Roman Catholic doctors. He became a convert to the Reformed Church, abandoned his order, and soon afterwards married a nun. He did not, however, remain strictly a Lutheran. On the great question of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, his opinions were decidedly those of Zwingli rather than of Luther. Although differing from them in doctrine he was anxious to be in church unity with the Lutheran party, and constantly endeavoured to bring about a coalition. In 1548 he was sent for to Augsburg to sign the agreement, called the Interim, between the Papists and Protestants, His warm opposition to this project exposed him to many difficulties and hardships, which induced him to accept the invitation of ∙. Archbishop Cranmer to fix his residence in England. On his arrival, in 1549, he was appointed to teach theology in the university of Cambridge. King Edward VI. had the greatest regard for Bucer. Having heard that he had suffered much from the cold, from want of a German stove, he sent him a hundred crowns to purchase one. Bucer died of a complication of disorders in 1551, and was buried at Cam bridge with great funereal pomp. Five years afterwards, in Mary’s reign, his body was dug up and burnt, and his tomb demolished; but it was subsequently re-constructed by order of Queen Elizabeth. Bucer’s name is familiar in English literature from the use made of the reformer’s ...