Heinrich Bullingers europaische Kirchenpolitik. By Andreas Muhling. [Zurcher Beitrage zur Band 19.] (Bern: Peter Lang. 2001. Pp. 371. $56.95 paperback.) Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575) received his call to succeed his mentor, Huldrych Zwingli, as Cathedral preacher in Zurich following the death of the latter in the Battle of Kappel (1531). If Zwingli was the pioneer and first prophet of the Swiss Reformation, Bullinger gained universal renown as its consolidator. Zwingli's work and writings were soon eclipsed by the prodigious work of his apprentice and successor. In the end, Bullinger was to write more than Luther and Calvin combined. As pastor to the church in Zurich, Bullinger would become a leading confidant and counselor to religious and political leadership across Europe-soon in transition from an Age of Reform to that of Confessionalism. Andreas Muhling's study does a hefty job in mapping out Bullinger's work and correspondence with such leadership amidst the many ambiguities of the period. His focus is on the political significance of this work as Bullinger's advice issued forth from Zurich. In the introduction to this valuable volume in the series Zurcher Beitrage zur Reformationsgeschichte, Muhling lays out in a clear fashion and with reference to critical scholarship the growth of the contemporary critical apparatus around this pivotal reformer. Building on the nineteenthcentury work of Carl Pestalozzi, the scholarship of Walter Hollweg (1956) and Joachim Staedtke (1962) becomes pivotal to four phases of Bullinger research. Critical issues related to chronology, terminology, the central value of Bullinger's Diarium, and his Letters carry us to the bulk of the book and its argument concerning Bullinger's political significance. Muhling takes us through chapters that grow out of the critical framework that he provides to the political significance and foundation of Bullinger's church politics, his relationship with the Empire and with the continuing line of European monarchs to whom Bullinger dedicated his voluminous works, from Albrecht von Brandenburg (1532) to the English bishops Grindal, Cox, and Jewel (1571). According to Muhling, Bullinger's main interest was the condition and building up of a community reformed by the Word of God. Following the consolidation of the church in Zurich, Bullinger was able to carry this concern to the plane of European politics. Muhling draws attention to Bullinger's remarkable virtuosity and sensitivity in doing this. …