1534
William Farel was a fiery Reformation evangelist in Western Switzerland. Born in France in 1489, he converted to Protestant beliefs in part through the teaching of Jacques Lefèvre d’ Étaples, a French philosopher and Biblical scholar. Without formal ordination, Farel immediately began to preach the gospel zealously in Paris and throughout France until persecution drove him to Switzerland. There he continued to preach.
Because of his missionary zeal, Farel often found himself in danger. He received many beatings, threats, and humiliations. No doubt he brought some of this fury on himself by his violent words, for he thundered forth denunciations of priests and of Rome and led others in smashing images in Catholic churches. Yet God honored his efforts, and in Switzerland he founded Reformed churches in the cantons and cities of Neuchâtel, Berne, Geneva, Lasaunne, and Vaud. He inspired many leaders of the Swiss and French Reformations, including John Calvin, Antoine Froment, and Pierre Viret.
Farel first visited Geneva with the gospel in October 1532 on his way back from a visit to the Waldenses in Savoy, a Christian group to whom he had promised a translation of the Bible. His first action was to summon scholar Robert Olivetan and command him to undertake the translation job. Then he preached privately, but was seized by the city’s priests and stood in real danger of losing his life. They incited a mob to demand he be drowned in the Rhone river. One member of the mob even fired a gun at Farel at point blank range, and though there was a flash, there was no discharge of a bullet. The next day, the magistrates expelled Farel from the city as the mob howled for his blood.
However, the indomitable Farel sent 22-year-old Antoine Fromert to start a grammar school in Geneva and introduce the gospel to its pupils. It was not long before Geneva had a sizable group of Protestants.
In 1534, Farel returned to Geneva. For weeks he and his associates had to content themselves with preaching out of doors, in barns, or in private homes. All the churches of the city were closed to him. His first chance to preach in a church came on this day, 1 March 1534 when the bell of the Franciscan chapel tolled mysteriously and a crowd of Farel’s supporters rushed him into the church. In about an hour it was filled to capacity with both Catholics and reformers and he preached the gospel. Investigators could not identify who had rung the bell. Other churches later opened to Farel as more and more Genevans embraced Reformation teaching.
The city was soon divided between those who wanted the new doctrine and those who clung to Catholicism. Momentum, however, was on Farel’s side. Many desired reform because they saw the movement as a way to secure Geneva’s ancient rights, rights that were under attack by the Duke of Savoy and Geneva’s self-exiled bishop Pierre Baume. Geneva had sacrificed much for these rights over the previous century and was not about to relinquish them without a struggle.
After many ups and downs, Geneva became a Protestant city, the “Rome” of Calvinism, where reformers such as John Knox of Scotland trained. Its council expelled Farel, however, and he settled in Neuchâtel where he married a young woman when he was 69 years old. He remained vigorous until his death in 1565.
1546
On this day, March 1, 1546, soldiers from St. Andrews Castle ushered George Wishart to his place of death. Some beggars at the roadside pleaded with him for alms as he passed, but he replied that with his hands tied, he could give them nothing. He might have added that he had already given away all his money the day he was taken to trial.
The executioner lit the fire and hung sacks of gunpowder around the victim. Wishart knelt to ask God for mercy on himself and forgiveness for his persecutors. Touched, the executioner pleaded for pardon and Wishart gave it. Turning to the crowd, he urged them not to be offended with the gospel because of the end that had overtaken him.
“Had I taught men’s doctrine, I had gotten great thanks by men; but for the word’s sake and the true gospel, which was given to me by the grace of God, I suffer this day by men, not sorrowfully, but with a glad heart and mind,” he said. He was fixed to the stake and burned alive.
Wishart was a reformer (although the Catholic Encyclopedia claims that he was also involved in a plot to kill Beaton). Acting on ordination given to him in England, he preached in Scotland. When church doors were closed to him, he spoke in the fields. Calling all men to repentance, he also preached that only those practices taught by the Bible were binding on them.
Opposed to Wishart was Cardinal Beaton, a cruel and proud man who lived openly with a mistress and was despised by the people. He once disgraced himself at a cathedral door vying for precedence with another churchman. As the two quarreled, their followers shoved each other and tore off one another’s vestments. By contrast, when Beaton sent a priest to assassinate Wishart, Wishart subdued the man and saved him from the fury of the crowd.
After his arrest, Wishart’s accusers charged him with teaching heresy. He replied, “Since the time I came into this realm, I taught nothing but the ten commandments of God, the twelve articles of the faith, and the prayer of the Lord in the mother tongue. Moreover, in Dundee, I taught the epistle of St. Paul to the Romans.” Other charges were that he denied we should pray to the saints and that confession to a priest does not absolve us. In reply to each charge, he showed from scripture the example and teaching of Jesus and the apostles.
Wishart’s execution set in motion a train of events that changed Scotland. It was just one more incident aggravating popular resentment against the Roman Church. The people knew Wishart to be a godly man. Hotheads assassinated Beaton. John Knox, an associate of Wishart, became their chaplain and eventually led the Scottish reformation. The Roman Church was overthrown and the Presbyterian brought in.
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