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FAREL, GUILLAUME (1489-1565)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 176 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FAREL, See also:GUILLAUME (1489-1565) , See also:French reformer, was See also:born of a See also:noble See also:family near See also:Gap in See also:Dauphine in 1489. His parents meant him for the military profession, but his See also:bent being for study he was allowed to enter the university of See also:Paris. Here he came under the See also:influence of Jacobus See also:Faber (Stapulensis), on whose recommendation he was appointed See also:professor in the See also:college of See also:Cardinal Lemoine. In 1521, on the invitation of See also:Bishop Briconnet, he repaired to See also:Meaux, and took See also:part in efforts of reform within the See also:Roman communion. The persecuting See also:measures of 1523, from which Faber found a See also:refuge at Meaux, determined Farel to leave See also:France. See also:Oecolampadius welcomed him to See also:Basel, where in 1524 he put forth thirteen theses sharply antagonizing Roman See also:doctrine. These he defended with See also:great ability, but with so much See also:heat that See also:Erasmus joined in demanding his See also:expulsion from the See also:city. He thought of going to See also:Wittenberg, but his first See also:halt was at See also:Strassburg, where See also:Bucer and See also:Capito received him kindly. At the See also:call of See also:Duke See also:Ulrich of See also:Wurttemberg he went as preacher to Mortbeliard. Displaying the same qualities which had driven him from Basel, he was forced to leave See also:Montbeliard in the See also:spring of 1525. He retraced his steps to Strassburg and Basel; and, at the end of 1526, obtained a preacher's See also:post at Aigle, then a dependency of See also:Bern. Deeming it See also:wise to suppress his name, he adopted the See also:pseudonym See also:Ursinus, with reference to his See also:protection by Bern.

Despite strenuous opposition by the monastic orders, he obtained in 1528 a See also:

licence from the authorities to preach anywhere within the See also:canton of Bern. He extended his labours to the cantons of See also:Neuchatel and See also:Vaud. His vehement missionary addresses were met by See also:mob violence, but he persevered with undaunted zeal. In See also:October 1530 he See also:broke into the See also:church of Neuchatel with an iconoclastic mob, thus planting the See also:Reformation in that city. In 1532 he visited the Waldenses. On the return See also:journey he halted at See also:Geneva, then at a crisis of See also:political and religious strife. On the 3oth of See also:June 1532 the See also:council. of two See also:hundred had ordained that in every church and See also:cloister of the city " the pure See also:Gospel " should be preached; against this See also:order the bishop's See also:vicar led the opposition. Reaching Geneva in October 1532, Farel (described in a contemporary monastic See also:chronicle as " un chetif malheureux predicant, nomme See also:maistre Guillaume ") at once began to preach in a See also:room of his lodging, and soon attracted " un See also:grand nombre de gens qui estoient advertis de sa See also:venue et deja infects de son heresie." Summoned before the bishop's See also:FAREY vicar, his trial was a See also:scene of insult and clamour, ending in his being violently thrust from the See also:court and bidden to leave the city within three See also:hours. He escaped with difficulty to Orbe by See also:boat. Through the intervention of the See also:government of Bern, See also:liberty of See also:worship was granted on the 28th of See also:March 1533 to the Reformation party in Geneva. Farel, returning, achieved in a couple of years a See also:complete supremacy for his followers. On New See also:Year's See also:Day 1534 the bishop interdicted all See also:preaching unauthorized by himself, and ordered the burning of all See also:Protestant Bibles.

This was the See also:

signal for public disputations in which Farel took the leading part on the Reformation See also:side, with the result that by See also:decree of the 27th of See also:August 1535 the See also:mass was suppressed and the reformed See also:religion established. See also:Calvin, on his way to Basel for a See also:life of study, touched at Geneva, and by the importunity of Farel was there detained to become the See also:leader of the Genevan Reformation. ' The severity of the disciplinary . measures which followed procured a reaction under which Farel and Calvin were banished the city in 1538. Farel was called to Neuchatel in See also:July 1538, but his position there was made untenable, though he remained at his post during a visitation of the See also:plague. When (x541) Calvin was recalled to Geneva, Farel also returned; but in 1542 he went to See also:Metz to support the Reformation there. It is said that when he preached in the Dominican church of Metz, the bells were See also:rung to drown his See also:voice, but his voice outdid the bells, and on the next occasion he had three thousand hearers. His See also:work was checked by the active hostility of the duke of See also:Lorraine, and in 1544 he returned to Neuchatel.. No one was more frequently and confidentially consulted by. Calvin. When the trial of See also:Servetus was in progress (1553), Calvin was anxious for Farel's presence, but he did not arrive till See also:sentence had been passed. He accompanied Servetus to the stake, vainly urging him to a recantation at the last moment. A coolness with Calvin was created by Farel's See also:marriage, at the See also:age of sixty-nine, with a refugee widow from See also:Rouen, of unsuitable age.

By her, six years later, he had one son, who died in See also:

infancy. The vigour and fervency of his preaching were unabated by length of years. Calvin's See also:death, in 1564, affected him deeply. Yet in his last year he revisited Metz, preaching amid great See also:enthusiasm, with all his wonted See also:fire. The effort was too much for him; he See also:left the church exhausted, took to his See also:bed, and died at Metz on the 13th of See also:September 1565. Farel wrote much, but usually in haste, and for an immediate purpose. He takes no See also:rank as a scientific theologian, being a See also:man of activity rather than of See also:speculation or of much insight. His Sommaire was re-edited from the edition of 1534 by J. G. Baum in 1867. Others of his See also:works (all in French) were his See also:treatise on See also:purgatory (1534), on the See also:Lord's See also:Prayer (1543), on the Supper (1555). He " was remarkable for boldness and See also:energy both in preaching and prayer " (M.

See also:

Young, Life of See also:Paleario). As an orator, he was denunciatory rather than suasive; thus while on the one See also:hand he powerfully impressed, on the other hand he stimulated opposition. A See also:monument to him was unveiled at Neuchatel on the 4th of May 1876. Lives of Farel are numerous; it may suffice to mention C. See also:Ancillon, See also:Vie de G. Farel (1691); the See also:article in See also:Bayle.; M. Kirchhofcr, Das Leben W. Farels (1831–1833) ; Ch. See also:Schmidt, Etudes sur Farel (1834) ; F. Bevan, W. Farel (1893) ; J. J.

See also:

Herzog, in Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopadie (1898). (A.

End of Article: FAREL, GUILLAUME (1489-1565)

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