William Farel

William Farel (Guillaume Farel, 1489-1565) was a French evangelist, and a founder of the Reformed Church in the cantons of Neuchâtel, Berne and Geneva, Switzerland. He is most often remembered for having persuaded John Calvin to remain in Geneva in 1536, and for persuading him to return there in 1541, after their expulsion in 1538. Together with Calvin, Farel worked to train missionary preachers who spread the Protestant cause to other countries, and especially to France. Events March 14 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice. ... Events March 1 - the city of Rio de Janeiro is founded April 27 - Cebu City is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines. ... Evangelism is the proclaiming of the Christian Gospel. ... The Reformed churches are a group of Protestant denominations historically related by a similar Zwinglian or Calvinist system of doctrine but organizationally independent. ... Neuchâtel is a canton of Switzerland. ... The Swiss canton of Bern (German: Kanton Bern; French Canton de Berne) has a population of about 947,000. ... The Republic and Canton of Geneva is the name of the westernmost canton or state of Switzerland, surrounded on almost all sides by France and centered around the city of Geneva. ... John Calvin John Calvin (July 10, 1509 – May 27, 1564) was a preeminent Christian theologian during the Protestant Reformation and is the namesake of the system of Christian theology called Calvinism. ... Coat of arms of the Canton of Geneva Coat of arms of the City of Geneva Geneva (French: Genève, German: Genf, Italian: Ginevra, Romansh Genevra, Spanish: Ginebra) is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zurich), located where Lake Geneva (French: Lac de Genève or Lac L... Events February 2 - Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina. ... Events The first official translation of the entire Bible in Swedish February 12 - Pedro de Valdivia founds Santiago de Chile. ... Events Treaty of Nagyvarad. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ...

Farel was a fiery preacher and an energetic critic of the Roman Catholic Church. In the earliest years of the Reformation in France, he was a pupil of the pro-reform Catholic priest, Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples. While working with Lefevre in Meaux, he came under the influence of Lutheran ideas and became an avid promoter of them. He was forced to flee to Switzerland because of controversy that was aroused by his writings against the use of images in Christian worship. The Roman Catholic Church is the largest religious denomination of Christianity with over one billion members. ... The Protestant Reformation was a movement which began in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but ended in division and the establishment of new institutions, most importantly Lutheranism, Reformed churches, and Anabaptists. ... This article is about the sacrament. ... Jacques Lefevre dEtaples (c. ... The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition. ...

Interesting to note that as Calvin's friend, Farel was a promoter of Lutheran ideas in his youth. Which today Calvinism and Lutheran are two completely separate denominations. They have more in common then what is shown today.