His Simple Exposition of the Christian Faith and the accompanying catechism* was a direct inspiration for the Westminster divines. His Letters of Comfort to the Persecuted Church became a lifeline to Jan Comenius and the harried Husites during the Thirty Years’ War. His book The Christian and the Magistrate helped Nicholas von Amsdorff shape the Magdeburg Confession. And of course, all of them shaped Calvin and the later editions of his magnum opus, The Institutes of the Christian Religion. No wonder Viret was deeply beloved.

Historian and biographer R.A. Sheats wrote:

The visible history of Christ’s church is often hidden in clouds of obscurity. For reasons known only to God, He often chooses to conceal some of His greatest treasures, awaiting their rediscovery by the church in His perfect time.

Thus it has been for Pierre Viret (1511–1571), a nearly forgotten giant of the sixteenth-century Reformation.

Viret was born in Orbe, a village thirty miles north of Geneva. His father was the respected local tailor. His mother was venerated for her saintly devotion and selfless service in the Roman Catholic parish. A gifted student, Viret soon outstripped the capabilities of his parents and tutors and was sent to study in Paris with the Brethren of the Common Life at the Collège de Montaigu—where Desiderius Erasmus, John Calvin, Ignatius of Loyola, John Knox, and William Farel also attended. During Viret’s years there, he was converted to the Protestant faith.

Returning to his home village at the age of nineteen, Viret seized upon a rare opportunity to hear Farel preach the Reformation doctrines of grace. In short order, Farel pressed Viret into assisting him in evangelizing the area. His success and renown were almost immediate. His gentle persuasions, combined with deep theological maturity, helped win over even the most obstinately recalcitrant “Old Catholics.” Before he was twenty-one, Viret had brought the message of the Reformation to the Swiss towns of Orbe, Grandson, Payerne, and Neuchâtel.

In 1534, Viret and Farel began to evangelize and minister in the city of Geneva. Then Viret led the Genevan Disputation of 1535 before moving on to Yverdon and Lausanne, where he witnessed great gospel fruitfulness.

Viret was back in Geneva in 1536, in time for a fateful meeting with the young Calvin and the fiery Farel. It was then that Farel famously threatened Calvin with divine retribution if he did not remain in the city to labor side by side with them. Calvin had only intended to pass through the city on his way to Strasbourg. What is less known about that incident is that Viret likely softened Farel’s fiery warnings, persuading Calvin to stay. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship and partnership as yokefellows in the faith.

The next year, Viret was in Lausanne overseeing a remarkable reforming work in that city. He pastored a thriving church. He helped to evangelize the neighboring districts. He engaged in several public disputations with Catholic hierarchs. He wrote voluminously. He survived two brutal assassination attempts. And he established the first academy for Reformed theological training. Viret set about his work tirelessly, discipling some of the brightest minds in the fledgling Reformation movement.

It was Viret who discipled Theodore Beza, who eventually became the headmaster of the Lausanne Academy, and still later, succeeded Calvin in Geneva.

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