William Farel
Guillaume Farel (* 1489 in Les Farelles at Gap in the Dauphiné, † September 13, 1565 in Neuchâtel ) was a reformer of the French-speaking Switzerland, and predecessor and staff of John Calvin.
Life and work
Guillaume Farel turned during his studies ( 1509 started ) at the Sorbonne in Paris the gospel, as well as his Professor Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples ( Jacobus Faber Stapulensis ) probably 1519. Faber and Farel preached in Paris for several months without hindrance the Gospel. Faber left Paris because of the great resistance to his teaching in November 1519. Copies of the Leipzig disputation between Martin Luther and John Eck were also common in Paris. The local establishment rejected the doctrines of Luther. His writings were burned in April 1521 in the streets. So Farel went to Meaux in 1521, by Bishop Guillaume Briçonnet, a friend of moderate reform, was appointed.
From then sold in 1523, he went to Strasbourg, Zurich, Bern and Basel. His public disputation in Basel on the distinctive teachings of the Roman and Protestant church ( 1524) was very successful. Nevertheless, forced his opponent soon after its removal. Farel Reformed since in Montbéliard ( 1525), Aigle ( 1526), throughout the southwestern Switzerland, preferably in Neuchâtel, where in 1530 the new doctrine was introduced and as a result, in different Neuchâtel rural communities.
On 23 October 1530 a sermon by Farel materially valuable images, altars, figures, and crucifixes were destroyed in the Cathedral with the participation of the priests of the crowd. The demand of the governor, they should stop doing, was not followed. The people wanted to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and had enough of the Latin Mass and Litany. To commemorate this event, a plate of brass was made. In Geneva, Farel was not until 1533 firm footing and defended at the colloquy in January 1534 the Council against the Reformed doctrine so successful that the Geneva council accepted the Reformation in August 1535. Was of great importance for the Reformation in Geneva that Farel 1536 by Calvin traveling was able to move to stay.
When in 1538 the rigor of both reformers had caused their expulsion from Geneva, Neuchâtel Farel elected to the capital of his duties; but again led his ruthless zeal unrest. Farel tried as a pastor, to cause the condemned to death Michael Servetus to a change of mind. According to new missionary journeys in France, Farel died.
His writings are mostly occasional writings without theological significance; his strength was the oral, supported by fervor word. A statue of Guillaume Farel stands at the Geneva Reformation monument.