What is Farrellitism?

The "definitions" tag was created in part because Andalusada is relatively high-concept. I'm reworking ideas as well as events, so the content of those ideas needs explaining; and while this whole blog is a Sternbildung, that doesn't justify leaving its readers in the dark. So I'm going to start with Farrellitism, for no reason other than that there's a tag for it already.

Much like IRL, there's two wings of the Reformation* - a northern one (Baltic, in the case of Guntheritism) and a southern one. That southern one, as I hinted when I introduced its pivotal figure, is the one called "Farrellite."

Obviously, it's more complicated than that. Unlike any of IRL's foundational Protestants, Oliver Farrell wasn't Catholic but Waldensian. Farrell never tried to reform Rome, or found a new church; he was simply trying to reform and propagate the one he'd been born into. In the end, he succeeded at all three.

• Farrellitism is tied to Oliver Farrell himself. The churches called "Farrellite" include high-church Waldensians, Alpine presbyterian polities in Swiss Romandy, and chiliastic sectarian dynasties across the Francophone world. One of the only unifying things they have in common is their personal devotion to Oliver Farrell. It sounds vaguer than it is - the Farrellite relationship to Farrell is much closer to that of a Catholic saint than a Protestant reformer.
• Farrellitism is evangelical. From its Waldensian roots it draws a lot of emphasis on preaching in the vernacular.
• Farrellitism is Christocentric. It puts a lot of emphasis on the Incarnation, in ways that border on Franciscanism. I've played with the idea of Farrell introducing "Words of Christ in red" formatting; it's something the Unitas Fidelium seizes on hard when they start the French Wars of Religion.

Farrellite distinctives

Oliver Farrell united in himself several disparate movements, all of which claim his legacy. Aside from his life and work, and the fact that none of them are considered Catholic any more, that's almost all they have in common; "Farrellites" encompass very high-church Presbyterians in Switzerland, Baptist sects in New Andalusia, and pretty much everything in between.

That's a lot less abstract than it sounds, though:

• Free churchery. Güntherites almost from their beginning have been the state religion wherever they established themselves; the Farrellites have had no such success, and for a number of them it's gone so far as to become ideological. Even in Swiss Romandy, where the Waldensians are hegemonic, they aren't enshrined in law; the diaspora of the Unitas Fidelium, which is vastly lower-church and was disenfranchised for most of its existence, has historically been aggressively proud of their separation from the state.
• The Farrellite canon. Zwingli was able to borrow Luther's translation work; Oliver Farrell, blessedly ignorant of Low German, has no such luxury, and has to translate the Bible for himself. In fact, he does so twice, and both of the canons remain in use.
• Farrell was an early adopter of versification, although I'm not sure how his versification ties into the world standards today.
• Donatist successionism. The foundation of Waldensian doxa was that the Papacy forfeited its apostolic succession when it accepted the Donation of Constantine. Farrell put that myth to rest forever (by the first widely-circulated debunking of the Donation), but the Waldensians never gave up their emphasis on the righteousness of priests. To a degree that's unknown in IRL Protestantism (Independent Catholics and their round-robin consecrations come close), Farrellites are anal about apostolic pedigrees, and a fair number of their countless splits and schisms revolve around succession claims. (To this day Farrellites don't recognize Güntherite ordinations as valid; a fair number of the more sectarian ones argue that Güntherites aren't Christian at all.)
• A distinct Eucharistic ceremony. From the Wars of Religion, the Unitas Fidelium resolves some of the succession claims of its squabbling factions by establishing a new convention for celebrating the Eucharist: the entire congregation participates in breaking the bread. This outlasts both the Unitas Fidelium and the agreement to stop squabbling about apostolic successions; to this day, Francophone Farrellites refer to the sacrament as la fraction du pain, "the breaking of bread."

The Unitas Fidelium and the dynasties

United around the child pretender John "the Beloved," the squabbling and disorganized French Farrellites became a serious threat to the stability of France during the Wars of Religion. They owe their success in no small part to the Unitas Fidelium, the unofficial communion that let them put aside all their differences.

With the collapse of the Unitas Fidelium, Farrellites were forced underground, giving rise to the closest thing to denominations that (as of mid-May 2012) I'm aware of: the dynasties. Farrellites have never lacked for charismatic leadership; without any institution-building possible, that leadership entrenched on family lines (broadly in the way Hasidic dynasties did IRL.) Over time, dynastic leadership could and did become very sectarian; this has only started reversing course in the last century or so, since the dynastic Farrellites have had the opportunity for formal theological training.

Farrellites in the world

Farrellites have spread to a surprising number of places.

• Iberia: As ever, Seville under the Five Families was a friendly place to not be Catholic. A small number of Farrellites escaped here and established themselves; some survive to the present day.
• Romandy: Most of the Romand-speaking world was converted to Farrellitism relatively early; while swathes of it were then converted back to Catholicism by the French and Papal armies, that still leaves most of Swiss Romandy. This is historically the most affluent and conservative part of the Farrellite world; some parts of it are basically Catholics in all but liturgical language and church polity.
• Upper Germany: Güntheritism, tied as it is to Low German, never fared very well south of the Speyer Line. Farrellitism has never displaced Catholicism on a state level, but it has managed to establish itself as the de facto minority church.

 In the last 200 years, they've also managed to spread to the New World as well:

• The UCNA: After the Wars of Religion, a fair number of French Farrellites (especially from the north and west of France, where they had access to the coastline) fled to the New World to escape the Inquisition. Once they arrived, they then proceeded to become frontiersmen, specifically to live in places that the Inquisition didn't feel was worth the effort of visiting. Most of them were quite happy to see France-Outremer pass to Moorish control; some have passed into national prominence.
• Russia: When Evgeny I took Russia out of communion with the rest of the Orthodox world with a new calendar, he created a litmus test for theological dissent: all dissenters henceforth had to be strict Julianists. Most of the Old Calendarists, without any stable source of priests, became extremely low-church in short order; in the late Tsarist era (most likely under Evgeny IV, actually), some of these eventually recovered an apostolic succession and were brought into the Farrellite fold.