Early French Reform

The Theology and Spirituality of Guillaume Farel

Jason Zuidema, Theodore Van Raalte

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781409418849
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317147121
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: World History

Reminding us that the Genevan Reformation does not begin and end with John Calvin, this book provides an introduction to Guillaume Farel (1489-1565), one of several important yet often overlooked French-speaking reformers. Born in 1489 near Gap, France, Farel was an important first-generation French-speaking Reformer and one of the most influential early leaders of the Reform movement in what is now French-speaking Switzerland. Educated in Paris, he slowly began to question Catholic orthodoxy, and by the 1520s was an active protestant preacher, resulting in his exile to Switzerland. Part of Farel's aggressive work in this area brought him to Geneva several times, where in 1535 and 1536 he secured votes in favour of the Reform, and later in 1536 persuaded the young theologian John Calvin to stay. Farel also penned Geneva's confession of faith of that year and their ecclesiastical articles of the next. As such, this volume underlines the fact that Calvin entered the reform movement in Geneva in a situation in which Farel had been already deeply involved. To better understand that situation, the book is divided into two parts. The first provides a rich and nuanced portrait of Farel's early thought by way of interpretive essays; the second section offers translations of a number of Farel's key texts. These translations include some of the first widely-accessible full-length translations of Farel's work into English. Offering both a scholarly overview of Farel and his life, and access to his own words, this book demonstrates the importance of Farel to the Reformation. It will be welcomed not only by scholars engaged in research on French reform movements, but also by students of history, theology, or literature wishing to read some of the earliest theological texts originally written in French.

PART I
Guillaume Farel’s Theology and Spirituality

CHAPTER 1
Guillaume Farel in Early French Reform

Jason Zuidema

The need for a reappraisal

In recent years there has been a change in the perception of the influence of particular figures in early French Reformed theology. Far from simply an arcane historical dispute over a date here or an attribution there, this new round of research has brought about a serious reappraisal of the rise and development of French Reformed Protestantism. For several centuries, John Calvin has been viewed as the pre-eminent force in the establishment and development of Reformed thought. On a larger scale, this thesis has been debunked as numerous studies on the so-called ‘Reformers in the Wings’ – Heinrich Bullinger, Wolfgang Musculus, Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr Vermigli, to name only a few – show that Reformed theology is neither totally original to Calvin, nor entirely defined by Calvin’s works.1 On a smaller scale, within the confines of the French Reformation, this also holds true. Calvin’s thinking must be understood alongside that of the other French Reformers. Although several centuries of history – especially the late nineteenth and the twentieth – have lionized Calvin, he was one among several important French Reformers. This is most clearly the case in the early period of the French speaking Reform movement.

One of the French Reformers who is in the process of ‘rehabilitation’ is Guillaume Farel. Popular perceptions have envisioned a fiery-tempered and long-winded reforming preacher handing over the reins of his disorganized Genevan Reformation to the mighty Calvin for codification and solidification.2 Histories that treated Farel as a mere lackey of Calvin did not help.3 Various excesses in Barthian historiography drew on these popular perceptions to portray Farel as Calvin’s foil – Calvin the man far ahead of his times, made in the image of Karl Barth, and Farel the simplistic, vitriolic, violent and subversive trouble-maker.4 These are at best one-sided caricatures, at worst, self-serving inventions.

As for Farel’s long-windedness, it is true that one can observe this together with a somewhat wandering style in some of his writings (one need only read the 488 pages of the 1550 Glaive de la Parolle veritable)5, but one must keep in mind that in French the sentence as we know it was only coming into vogue in Farel’s day. Farel’s sentences which string along one clause after another represent a style found in other writers of the period. Calvin’s writings played an important role in developing the crisper French sentence.6 In addition, crisp sentences or not, there is a great deal more to say about Farel’s theological importance in early Reformed theology, especially his theological relationship to Calvin.7 A fair amount of recent research shows that Farel was still very active in Geneva after the coming of Calvin. Much of this research points out that Farel was not simply eclipsed by the coming of Calvin. Farel certainly wanted the young Calvin to help organize the Reformed cause, but he continued to exert an important influence and to produce influential writings.8 According to Reinhard Bodenmann, editor of the new critical edition of Farel’s works, it is in part because of the lionizing of Calvin that we are only now seeing the publication of this critical edition.9

Several important monographs and essays have highlighted the formation and continuing importance of Farel’s thought on Reformed Theology. Elfriede Jacobs has clearly shown that Bucer and Oecolampadius were more important than Zwingli with regard to the early influences on Farel’s doctrine of the Eucharist. She notes that Farel did not simply swing from being Zwinglian to being Calvinist, but was able to defend his own thinking.10 Too much theological authority and originality are accredited to others when speaking of Farel’s thinking. In fact, much more ought to be said about the influences of French speaking Reformers like Farel on Calvin.

Three short examples on the case of Farel in recent scholarship should suffice. First, in his excellent book on the ties between French Eucharistic and political theology Christopher Elwood remarked that the ancient liturgical concept of sursum corda or ‘lifting one’s heart to God’ idea was introduced into French Protestant Eucharistic thought by Farel in the 1533 Maniere et Fasson.11 Second, the recent attribution of the 1536 Geneva Confession in scholarship principally to Farel shows that whatever the influence of Strasbourg or Zurich on Calvin’s thought, it was evidenced in this first period in his upholding of this Farellian confession.12 Finally, Frans Pieter Van Stam has shown convincingly that Farel was the principal author of the 1537 Geneva articles.13 This was proven in two articles and in a more detailed way in the recent and enormously detailed first volume of Calvin’s correspondence.14 What has been taken at face value as Calvin’s thinking in a great deal of secondary literature now seems to have flowed originally from the pen of Farel.15 For example, François Wendel remarks concerning these 1537 articles, which he attributed to Calvin, that we already find a number of the ‘idées maîtresses qui caractériseront l’oeuvre calvinienne’.16 A frequent communion is often cited as Calvin’s idea, but here we can see that it was equally Farel’s idea if not more so.17 The place of Farel should continue to be studied in light of these important developments of interpretation.18

Farel before Calvin

More attention, then, should be given to the actual thinking of Farel before the coming of Calvin. There is no doubt that Farel recognized in Calvin one who was better equipped to organize Genevan Reform, but Farel was nonetheless capable of propounding and defending Reformed doctrine on his own. He was, after all, a major reformer in several significant cities including Neuchâtel, Lausanne and Geneva. Several of Farel’s early works have come down to us, most notably the Summaire et Brève Déclaration – the Summary and Brief Exposition. Farel was not new to the faith when he wrote the Summaire. His thinking, at times difficult for the reader to understand, was clearly and firmly held. Although his Summaire would not become a great classic of the Reformation, it was nonetheless published at least six times.19

Born in 1489 near Gap, in Dauphiné, France, Guillaume Farel was an important first generation French speaking Reformer and one of the most influential early leaders of the Reform movement in what is now French speaking Switzerland.20 Educated in Paris, he was influenced by the piety and thought of the important humanist Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples. It was through Lefèvre d’Etaples’s influence that Farel took up a teaching post at Collège du Cardinal Lemoine after receiving his Master of Arts in 1517.21 Over the next several years Farel had an intense spiritual struggle and began to criticize current Roman Catholic piety.22

To gain a perspective on his conversion we need to look at Farel’s writings later in life. Although very negative in their perception of his former Catholicism, these short accounts are nonetheless extremely helpful in reconstructing his conversion experience. In his treatise on the Vray Usage de la Croix de Iesus-Christ, Farel reminisces of the ‘first notable idolatry’ of which he partook.23 It was a pilgrimage to the holy cross on a mountain near Tallard in the diocese of Gap. This cross was believed to give sight to the blind. What strikes Farel as ironic (and blasphemous) is that upon seeing the relic of the Cross in the Sainte Chapelle in Paris and other places in Europe, he noticed they were all made of different kinds of wood.24 This evident trickery served as ammunition for his treatment of the ‘true use’ of the Cross in that later treatise, but, as in the Summaire, here it lies behind much of his critique of Catholic piety and doctrine.

The growing mistrust in this outward piety moved Farel towards conversion. Years after the fact, Farel speaks about his conversion in an open letter to all those who helped him.25 For a time he believed in the Pope as much as in God; he had great faith in pilgrimages, images, vows and the like.26 But upon reading scripture, he was shocked at the difference between its teaching and what he was being taught at the University of Paris.27 Farel writes that the more he thought about the stark contrast the more he hated papal teaching as ‘diabolical’ and the ‘Holy Word of God began to have first place in [his] heart’.28 Farel notes that the purging of his heart did not happen all at one time, but, he writes, ‘little by little the papacy fell from my heart’.29

As with other French evangelicals of his time, he became a preacher in Meaux under Bishop Guillaume Briçonnet in 1521.30 The Reform in Meaux would not last for long. The political history of France at this time is important to contextualizing the short duration of the evangelical preaching in Meaux.31 Upon the disastrous defeat of the French forces by the Emperor Charles V at Pavia in February 1525, the King of France was captured and imp...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• PART I: GUILLAUME FAREL’S THEOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY
• PART II: TEXTS OF GUILLAUME FAREL IN TRANSLATION
• Bibliography
• Index