ly one thus
far discovered, was found by Professor Baum, of Strasbourg, in the
Library of Zurich.[726]

What lends additional interest to the liturgy of Farel, is the
circumstance that it is at the same time, as the modern editor
remarks, "_the earliest Confession of Faith_ of the Reformed
Churches, _their first apology_ in answer to the atrocious, absurd
and lying accusations which the hatred of their enemies, especially
among the clergy, had invented at will, or had borrowed from pagan
calumnies against the Christians of the first centuries." "Do they
not exclaim," writes Farel in his preface, "that those accursed
dogs of heretics who would uphold this new law live like beasts,
renouncing everything, maintaining neither law nor faith, abjuring
all the sacraments; that they reject Baptism, and make light of
the Holy Table of our Lord; that they despise the Virgin Mary and
the saints, and observe no marriage." To remove the prejudice thus
engendered from the minds of the ignorant, is the chief design of
the writer, who accordingly appeals at each step for his warrant to
the Holy Scriptures, and entreats the reader to have no regard for
the antiquity of the abuses he combats, or for the reputation of
their advocates, but simply to examine for himself what "our good
Saviour Jesus has instituted and commanded." The offices are five
in number; for Baptism, Marriage, the Lord's Supper, Preaching, and
the Visitation of the Sick; but to a certain extent, and
particularly in the last-mentioned office, they are little more
than a series of directions for the orderly conduct of worship. In
other cases the service is very fully written out.

[Sidenote: Calvin's liturgy, 1542.]

Nine years after the publication of this very simple liturgy of
Farel, appeared the first edition of the liturgy of Geneva,
composed by Calvin, or the "Prayers after the fashion of Geneva,"
as they were usually designated by contemporary Roman Catholic
writers. Until recently the first edition was supposed to have been
published in 1543, but Professor Felix Bovet, of Neufchatel, has
been so fortunate as to find a copy in the Royal Library of
Stuttgart, bearing the date of 1542. This is probably the solitary
remaining specimen of the original impression.[727] Although
witho