Thus in towns and villages throughout the country do we read of sinners being saved, and of numbers of men and women who were turned from their idols to the living and true God, Farel had this joy in the midst of his many sufferings—much to cheer and encourage him. But he had also to grieve over much that was of the flesh, and not of the Spirit—even in those who ranged themselves on the side of the gospel. It is true that when we read in Romish accounts of the outrages and violence committed by the gospellers, we must bear in mind that these accounts are given by those who believed falsehood was right, if it was to serve the cause of the church. We know too that the opposition to the gospel proceeded really from him who is the father of lies, and as he stirred up his servants to murder and ill-treat the preachers, so did he also stir them up to slander and malign them. Satan is, and was “the accuser of the brethren.” Farel tells us too, that in several places the images were secretly broken by the priests themselves. The priests did this for a double purpose. Firstly, they accused the gospelers of having done it, and thus stirred up a persecution against them. Secondly, they found it a good speculation to make reliquaries of the broken fragments, which they sold at high prices to the ignorant people.
“Also,” adds Farel, “some are found who break down images, and other abominations, merely out of pride and ill-will.”
We must, therefore, not only remember that God was working by imperfect instruments, but also, that there were those who threw themselves into the gospel movement from motives that were of the flesh, and not of God. There were those who simply disliked the tyranny of the priests—those who liked change and excitement—those who were anxiously urged on by friends and relations to take up a cause in which their consciences had never been exercised. We can, therefore, readily believe that unseemly acts of violence, and of insolence, were not unheard of in the opposition made by the gospellers to the priests and their followers. It was an age when coarse words and rude actions were allowed, and were even customary. Farel himself no doubt used language which to our ears would be startling, and he may also have proceeded to violent measures, in which neither the wisdom of the serpent nor the harmlessness of the dove had any part.
We, in these days, go to the other extreme, and find the sword of the Spirit too sharp a weapon; and the fable of the sheep-dogs, who allowed themselves to be beguiled into friendly terms with the wolves, is too often acted out by the pastors and teachers of the church of God, much to the injury of the sheep.
But I would remind you that, even in a great work of God, like that in West Switzerland in those old times, man’s folly, man’s pride, man’s selfishness, and man’s violence and impatience, were weeds which were often cropping up, even amongst the true people of God. And I would remind you, on the other hand, lest you should be stumbled by such weeds amongst God’s people now, that they are not to be taken as a proof of a bad cause, but that the cause must be tried by its own merits, being judged by the Word of God. And where the cause is right, may we be found, even if some that are unworthy of it should be found there too, and actions unworthy of it should be met with in many, alas! perhaps in all.
I could not tell, nor could you remember if I did, all the towns and villages of Western Switzerland where the gospel was heard from the lips of Farel, and believed by numbers whose hearts the Lord had touched. All around were multitudes who entreated to have more preachers sent to them. On all sides they were now meeting in twos and threes to break bread. They had no rules but the New Testament, and all was done in that simple way in which God delights, and which the world despises.
Twice during this year we read of Farel being imprisoned, and constantly of his being attacked, ill-treated, and insulted. The Bishop of Lausanne stirred up these riots on the one hand, Berne put them down on the other.
“I am glad,” wrote the bishop to the people of Avenches, on the occasion of one of these tumults, “that you have proved yourselves virtuous, good, and true Christians and catholics, for which I praise God and our lady, and commend you heartily; and I pray and exhort you, in fatherly affection, to go forward and persevere: for thus doing you will gain the favor of God, profit to soul and body, and in the end the glory of Paradise.”
Soon after, our old friend Wildermuth writes to Berne: “Know that Master William Farel has been so grievously insulted and ill-used this very day, Sunday, at Payerne, that I pitied him sincerely. Would to God I had had twenty Bernese with me! Then, with God’s help, we should not have let things happen as they did. They locked the two churches against Farel, so that he had to preach in the open air, in the churchyard. Thereupon came the banneret, and the town clerk; and the banneret took him off to prison, which was the best thing he could do, as the people wanted to drown him.”
Again Farel writes, in October, that the people of Granson had determined to appeal to Berne, to allow them to have both gospel and mass at the same time. “We answered,” says Farel, “that the gospel and the mass are like fire and water, and that the lords of Berne did not want preachers who sang mass, but who preached the holy gospel, purely and faithfully.” “After this,” he writes further, “they never ceased to make disturbances during the sermon, both inside and outside the church; they rang bells, they screamed, they growled, they beat upon the doors, they mocked and insulted the preachers and hearers. They thrust great crosses in their faces, they made faces at them, they blasphemed and threatened, they beat and abused the preachers. And thus proof was given that those who love the Word are patient, for none of those who cared for the gospel were moved by these injuries and outrages.” It was about this time that a gospeller who had arrived at Granson, wrote, on the following day, to Berne, “The preachers have their faces scratched and torn, as if they had been having a war with the cats, and the alarm bell is rung to rouse the people to attack them, just as when wolves come into the neighborhood.”
A few weeks later, the preacher at a neighboring village, wrote also to Berne, as follows: “The priest of Concise, near Granson, was reading in a Bible in the house of a man called Pillione. One of the daughters of the said Pillione said to him: Tell us something out of that book.’ And he answered, ‘It is not for you to know the affairs of God.’ And she said, It is for me as much as for you, for I am just as much a Christian and a child of the Lord as you are.’ And the priest got up, and went to strike her, saying, with an oath, 'If you were my sister I should hit you such a blow that you would kiss the ground.’ But the girl took a chair and held it before her, so that he did not hit her, for she was shielded by the chair.” Such were the scenes amidst which the Lord’s servants preached and labored from day to day.