Antoine Froment

1510-1584. Reformer of Geneva. Born at Tries, near Grenoble, he was educated at Paris, met Lefèvre d'étaples,* and received a canonry on an estate of the queen of Navarre. He accompanied Guillaume Farel* on his evangelistic tours through Switzerland. He went to Geneva (1532), opened an elementary school to teach French, but turned his lessons into sermons. His followers daily increased. In 1533 he protested publicly after an attack on evangelical doctrine by Guy Furbiti, a Sorbonne theologian; he was forced into hiding, but returned with Farel and Pierre Viret.* He became pastor of St. Gervais Church (1537) and was engaged by Bonivard, the republic's historian, to help in his Chronicle (1549). He renounced his ministry and became public notary (1553) and a member of the “Council of the Two Hundred” (1559). He had domestic troubles, was banished after adultery (1562), but was permitted to return in view of past services (1572), and reinstated as notary (1574).