When modern Christians think of the Reformation, they likely think of Martin Luther, the German monk who famously nailed the 95 Theses into the door of the Wittenburg Chapel.
They may also think of theologians and pastors like John Calvin, Theodore Beza, Henry Bullinger, and John Knox.
There is one more Reformer who was highly influential in his day, but who is largely lost in the public consciousness of modern Protestants.
In the first week of March all the way back in 1559, Pierre Viret became the lead pastor of the church in Geneva, Switzerland, according to a feature from Christianity Today.
The minister, who was the son of a poor tailor in the village of Orbe, resonated with the subjects of classics and theology from his boyhood, according to a biography from the Christian History Institute.
He studied at the University of Paris starting in 1528, leaving the city two years later because “the new Protestant ideas that were flourishing at the great university led to Viret’s personal commitment to Christ.”
Viret then embarked on a preaching ministry marked by persecution and unrest.
In the city of Payerne, he was “badly wounded when a band of Catholics attempted to kill him.”
He later took part in the debates alongside Guillaume Farel that “convinced the Council of Geneva to renounce Catholicism.”
Viret was once more targeted by Roman Catholics who poisoned his spinach soup, prompting digestive issues that lasted for the rest of his life.
Next was departing from Geneva to assist the Reformation in Lausanne, where he “founded, supervised, and taught at an academy to train Protestant leaders and established social services to care for the city’s unfortunate.”
When Bernese authorities exiled Viret in 1559, he joined Calvin in Geneva, bringing 1,000 parishioners, all but one of the faculty from the Lausanne school, and many ministers with him.
He was elected a minister of the church in Geneva, but a few years later, he embarked on preaching journeys in French cities like Lyon and Nimes.
“Finally, after much prayer, Viret moved to Montpellier, where he saw the conversion of nearly the entire faculty of the city’s famous medical college,” the Christian History Institute noted.
The remainder of his ministry was frequently disrupted by religious wars.
In the late 1560s, he and 11 other Reformed ministers were captured in a Roman Catholic surprise attack, with the captors executing seven of them while sparing Viret.
But he was rescued by Protestant forces mounting a counterattack.
Despite his often disrupted ministry, Viret was a man of peace who did not enjoy conflict.
He once told Farel that “if I did not have the conviction that it was God who was pressing it on, I would never enter a controversy with a single person.”
The Christian History Institute indeed recognized his “good reputation” and his “gentle spirit” as reasons why he was the “most successful and sought-after Protestant preacher in sixteenth-century France.” He authored over 50 popular books in his day.
Today, more than 460 years after Viret started his ministry in Geneva, this Protestant Reformer ought to serve as an example to modern Christians who similarly live in a time of conflict and strife, reminding us to seek peace while never backing away from defending the truth of Christ when such a defense is necessary.
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