Berchtold Haller was a German protestant reformer born at Aldingen

Aldingen

Aldingen is a municipality in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. The town is located in the Tuttlingen district, between Stuttgart and Lake Constance. Aldingen lies at the foot of the Swabian Alb on the Prim River. As of 30 June 2004, the town's population was 7,539.Berchtold Haller, a...

 in Württemberg

Württemberg

Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....

. He was the reformer of the city of Bern, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

After schooling in Pforzheim

Pforzheim

Pforzheim is a town of nearly 119,000 inhabitants in the state of Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany at the gate to the Black Forest. It is world-famous for its jewelry and watch-making industry. Until 1565 it was the home to the Margraves of Baden. Because of that it gained the nickname...

, where he established a friendship with Philipp Melanchthon

Philipp Melanchthon

Philipp Melanchthon , born Philipp Schwartzerdt, was a German reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and an influential designer of educational systems...

, he studied theology in Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

. He became a teacher in Rottweil

Rottweil

Rottweil is a town in the south west of Germany and is the oldest town in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg.Located between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb hills, Rottweil has about 25,000 inhabitants...

 in 1510 and in Bern in 1513, where he was appointed assistant preacher at the church of St Vincent in 1515. In 1520 he became a canon and the people’s priest.

Even before his acquaintance with Huldrych Zwingli

Huldrych Zwingli

Ulrich Zwingli was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. Born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system, he attended the University of Vienna and the University of Basel, a scholarly centre of humanism...

 in 1521 he had begun to preach the Reformation, his sympathetic character and his eloquence making him and the painter and writer Niklaus Manuel

Niklaus Manuel

Niklaus Manuel , was a Swiss dramaturg, painter, engraver and statesman.-Biography:He was a gifted artist who made highly realistic etchings and became known locally for his satirical plays...

 a great force. Zwingli became his friend and adviser and they began a lively exchange of letters.

In 1526, Haller participated in the disputation of Baden

Baden, Switzerland

Baden is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Aargau, on the west bank of the river Limmat, located in the Limmat Valley , northwest of Zürich. It is the seat of the district of Baden...

, and in 1528 in the Bern disputation, which resulted in the Bernese Reformation edict on 7 February 1528 in which Bern officially decided for the Reformation.

Zwingli's 1531 death brought the Reformation in Bern to a crisis, to which the city council reacted by calling the first Bernese Synod with 200 participants. Haller was especially concerned as Zwingli's successor Heinrich Bullinger

Heinrich Bullinger

Heinrich Bullinger was a Swiss reformer, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Zurich church and pastor at Grossmünster...

 was unable to attend. However, he received strong support from Wolfgang Capito who arrived in Bern shortly before the opening of the Synod.

In 1532 Haller became the leader of the Reformed Church of Bern. He was in contact with Guillaume Farel in the western part of Switzerland and Heinrich Bullinger in Zürich and acted as a mediator between the Calvinist Reformation and Zürich.

He left no writings except a few letters which are preserved in Zwingli's works.

External links

• Christian Neff: Haller, Berchthold (1492-1536). In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, 1956. Retrieved 24 November 2009

Further reading

• Donald Hasler et al.: Berchtold Haller, 1494-1536. Synodalrat des Synodalverbandes Bern-Jura, Bern 1994 (german)
• Dan Lee Hendricks: The Bern Reformation of 1528 : the preacher's vision, the people's work, an occasion of state. Ann Arbor, Mich. University Microfilms International 1978
• Carl Pestalozzi: Berchtold Haller, Elberfeld 1861 (german)