Burnier, Louis

Burnier, Louis a Swiss Protestant theologian, was born at Lutry, Jan. 27, 1795. Having completed his theological course at Lausanne, he was ordained in 1807. He preached at several places in the canton of Vaud. During the first years of his ministry the separation in the national Church took place, and although he regretted this very much, yet he extended the hand of fellowship to his dissenting brethren, and labored, with them in the translation of the New Test. and in other missionary works. He founded the Revue Britannique Religieuse and the Discussion Publique sur la Liberti Religieuse et le

Gouvernement de l'Eqlise, in which he -wrote in defense of liberty and equality of religious exercises. He also agitated the question of having the ecclesiastical ordinances revised on the basis of allowing the laity to participate in ecclesiastical affairs. In 1839 the Swiss Confession was abolished, and in 1841 Burnier resigned his pastorate. In 1845 he became one -of the first founders of the Free Church, and he died Jan. 14,1873. He wrote, Etudes Elementaires et Progressives .de la Parole de Dieu (2d ed. Paris, 1862, 4 vols.) :-Instructions et Exhortations Pastorales (Lausanne, 1843): --Esquisses Evangeliques (1858, 3 vols.) :-Histoire Litteraire de l'Education (1864, 2 vols.). His main work, however, is La Version du N.T. dite de Lausanne, son Histoire et ses Critiques (1866) :-Le Mots du N.T. ,(1871). See Chretien Evangelique, 1873, p. 313-323, .563-565; Ruffet, in Lichtenberger, Encyclopedie des Sciences Religieuses, s.v. (B. P.)