Martin Bucer

[Reformed Covenanter]

Is there an online copy of Martin Bucer's De Reginio Christo? I was in a bookshop in Belfast yesterday and noticed it had been included in a volume along with some of Melancthon's writings; however, several important chapters were not translated.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Daniel -- I don't know about an online copy. This previous thread may be of interest though.

 

[timmopussycat]

Is there an online copy of Martin Bucer's De Reginio Christo? I was in a bookshop in Belfast yesterday and noticed it had been included in a volume along with some of Melancthon's writings; however, several important chapters were not translated.

I don't know why you think Bucer is a dead horse.
If you find a complete translation please let me know. For among the important chapters not translated is material that clarifies Bucer's exact view of the contemporary applicability of the Mosaic judicials. Commenting on this material, PDL Avis writes that Bucer

"had a doctrine of natural law which enabled him to discriminate between what is valid and what is not. This criterion was the ratio legis or ratio pietatis, which for Bucer was synonymous with love for God and one’s neighbour, the golden rule, or the Liebesgebot. It has a definitely Thomistic ring about it:…. The use of the ratio pietatis and Bucer’s doctrine of ‘love the consummation of all justice' certainly moderated the force of his legalism…. The ambivalence of his position is revealed in the four reasons he gave why Leviticus xviii does not prohibit a man to marry his brother’s widow: 1. the patriarchs had done this; 2. Deuteronomy requires it; 3. Christians are not bound to Moses anyway; 4. the law of Moses may be abrogated in special cases. If the third reason is true, why trouble with the others?" (P. D. L. Avis, "Moses and the Magistrate," Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. XXVI, No. 2, April 1975)