Pierre with fish

The stone with fish , located Denfert place at Montbeliard in France is the only whole medieval monument to remain in the city. It would have made it possible Guillaume Farel to preach the Réforme.

History

The oldest mention of the stone with fish in a document goes up with 1470, but nothing prohibits to think that it was in place before. It is with the outlet of the street of Fèbvres, with the corner of the borough of the Market, the last born of the districts of the Moyen-âge montbéliardais.

Enclosed towards 1300, separated from the city by a wall and communicating with it by the door of the Clock, the borough is a crossroads, a public place, a shopping mall, and thus the principal place of animation of the city. The stone is useful, as its name indicates it, of stall at the market of fish. The Poisson S of fresh water, fished in the River S and surrounding pond S, and whose consumption is much more important at the time (more than 150 days thin per annum) there are output and sold with shouted.

With the Middle Ages, the stone east encloses in a wood maisonnette. On this table, Guillaume Farel would have preached the Reform. Jules Vittini, artist of the tradition montbéliardaise, even painted this scene, but no historical document reports this episode, however deeply anchored in the collective memory.

In 1523, Guillaume Farel is with Basle where it strengthens its doctrines in contact with the reformer and humanistic local, Œcolampade. It is called by the count Ulrich VI of Wurtemberg to preach the Reform in Montbeliard. For a few years, the city has known a certain effervescence, marked by more tended relations between the city and the canons of Saint-Maimboeuf and by a will to modify the ecclesiastical institution, manners and the faith. In this climate, Ulrich thinks that the ideas of Luther can make followers.

Farel is in Montbeliard between July 1524 and March 1525, preaching without slackening and with vehemence, being attacked by the verbal insult and violences with the mass and the rites. That causes violent incidents and debates with Franciscain S sent of Besancon and with Chanoine S of Saint-Maimboeuf. Part of the population accepts excesses of the preacher badly, whereas the Swiss, anxious cantons from such a vicinity, obtain from Ulrich his departure. It thus leaves the city and regains Basle. Its stay montbéliardais allows him to take for the first time, the word as an independent reformer. This experiment inspires its “ Sommaire and short declaration to him”, first treaty of evangelic liturgy in French. Thereafter, he endeavors to spread the Reform in the Pays of Vaud to Neuchâtel, then with Geneva where he meets Jean Calvin in 1536.

The passage of Farel to Montbeliard is not useless; it prepares the ground with the final installation of the Reform Lutheran. In 1538, Pierre Toussain imposes it in the city with the abolition of the mass and the catholic ceremonies. A thing and thus sure, Guillaume Farel preached the Reform in Montbeliard well. A thing, that it did it, is perched less on the stone with fish.

After more than eight centuries, the tradition and always present and one can wonder about such a persistence. The stone is located in a very attended crossing point and to imagine Guillaume Farel on this one is not absurd. It could thus have benefitted from the presence of an important crowd to diffuse her ideas. In addition, Farel does not take place where to preach because of the vigorous opposition of the clergy and the many catholics. The stone thus becomes a platform from where it can dominate its listeners and to be more easily made hear. Moreover, the image of the preacher haranguant with passion the faithful ones while gesticulant and by pointing a finger avenger corresponds well to the temperament of the ebullient preacher. All these assumptions can explain the legend of the stone with fish. No historical element, on the other hand, comes to confirm it. It is what makes its charm! today, this ancestral stone is always quite present; the place on which it is set up bears the name of Farel public garden.

Sources

Company of Emulation of Montbeliard, François Vion-Delphin
the Principality of Montbeliard , Daniel Seigneur

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