Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history. On this episode we will be talking about a Frenchman and if we were to pronounce his name fully the French way it would be Guillaume Ferre. But we will simply anglicize that and call him William Ferreel. Ferreel was born in 1489. He would die on September 13, 1565.

In between, he was a significant figure

in the Protestant Reformation

and is the man who from a purely human standpoint is

responsible for having John Calvin stay at Geneva. Well let's find out a little bit about William Farrell. He was a

student at the University of Paris. This was during the early years of the

Reformation.

This is long before Calvin gets there.

This is when Luther is kicking up dust over in Germany

and it is causing issues over in Paris and there is a student.

Farrell is right in the middle of these reformation ideas.

He comes under the influence of Jacobus Faber, or Jacques Faber, who was a Catholic theologian, but was an acquaintance

with Erasmus and was influenced a little bit by Erasmus and some of Erasmus's work and paid significant attention

to the reformation and all that was something that was of an influence on Ferrel. It was Faber who helped Farrell getting his first job as a

professor of both grammar and philosophy there in Paris and actually following that Farrell would be appointed a preacher by the Bishop in 1522.

In his position as the preacher for the diocese he is responsible for appointing other

ministers under him and a number of the ministers that he appoints are

Protestants and as he meets with them, these Protestant ministers are influencing Farrell and introducing

Farrell to Luther's ideas.

And somewhere in the middle of all of this, Farrell is converted and becomes on the side of the

reformation.

He flees Paris and heads to Switzerland because of the controversies around him and because of his newfound faith.

...