In the Protestant Reformation Bern favored the new Protestant teaching and demanded liberty of preaching for the Reformers Guillaume Farel and Antoine Froment , but Catholic Fribourg renounced in its union with Geneva in 1511 . Geneva , home of Calvinism , was one of the great centres of the Protestant Reformation . While Bern favored the introduction of the new teaching and demanded liberty of preaching for the Reformers Guillaume Farel and Antoine Froment , Catholic Fribourg renounced in 1511 its allegiance with Geneva .