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.

Offering the first study in any language dedicated to the influential publications of the French Reformed theologian Antoine de Chandieu (1534-1591), Theodore Van Raalte begins by recalling Chandieu's reputation as it stood at the death of Theodore Beza in 1605. Poets in Geneva mourned the end of an era of star theologians, reminiscing about Geneva's Reformed triumvirate of gold, silver, and bronze: gold represented Calvin; silver Chandieu; and bronze Beza. Van Raalte's work sets Chandieu within the context of Reformed theology in Geneva, the wider history of scholastic method in the Swiss cantons, and the gripping social and political milieus. Chandieu was far from a mere ivory tower theologian: as a member of French nobility in possession of many estates and castles in France, he and his family acutely experienced the misery and triumph of the French Huguenots during the Wars of Religion. Connected to royalty from at least the beginning of his career, Chandieu later served the future Henry IV as personal military chaplain and cryptographer. His writings run the gamut from religious poetry (put to music by others in his lifetime) to carefully-crafted disputations which saw publication in his posthumous Opera Theologica in five editions between 1592 and 1620. Chandieu had developed a very elaborate form of the medieval quaestio disputata and made liberal use of hypothetical syllogisms. Van Raalte argues that Chandieu utilized scholastic method in theology for the sake of clarity of argument, rootedness in Scripture, and certainty of faith.