Bern Disputation (1528)
Baden’s Catholic verdict had not settled Bern’s own religious direction, and reforming preachers there sought a hearing before the city made its choice. Bern convened a religious disputation in January 1528 around ten theses prepared by Berchtold Haller and Franz Kolb and revised with Zwingli’s help. Reformers from several cities joined the discussion. The opening thesis located the church’s life and authority in Christ and his Word, setting the terms for the remaining arguments about worship and salvation. Unlike Baden, Bern’s council controlled the setting and invited reformers from other cities. The theses proposed that Scripture, rather than inherited rites alone, should determine the church’s worship and doctrine.1
The Holy Christian Church, whose sole Head is Christ, is born of the Word of GodBerchtold Haller and Franz KolbFirst Thesis of Bern, in Jackson’s translation3
The Debate and Its Outcome
The theses challenged the Mass as sacrifice, the invocation of saints, purgatory, and the worship of images. After the debate, Bern’s council adopted a Reformed confession and order of worship, abolished the Mass, and directed the removal of images. A city’s choice thus changed church life across a broad territory under its rule.2
Why It Matters
Bern’s decision strengthened Zürich’s previously isolated reform and helped open the way for its spread toward French-speaking Switzerland. The meeting illustrates both the force of biblical argument in Reformed self-understanding and the decisive role of civil authority in putting that argument into practice.
