Monday, August 30, 2010

Pierre Viret: A Forgotten Giant of the Reformation: The Apologetics, Ethics and Economics of the Bible



"This little book bears with it a grand subject: the historical and literary resurrection of one of the major figures of the Reformation, the long forgotten Reformer of French-speaking Switzerland, Pierre Viret (1511-1571). Viret was a life-long companion of the better known figures of Guillaume Farel and John Calvin. After his studies in Paris Viret, amid the bonfires of first martyrs of the French Reformation, was won over to the renewed Evangelical Faith, and returned to his native country of Switzerland. Before the coming of John Calvin, Viret labored with Farel to establish the Reformation in Geneva.

"However his main ministry was for some 33 years in Lausanne. There he founded the first properly Reformed academy, later to be the model of the Genevan seminary. In 1559 he was exiled by the Bernese sovereign over Vaud for his defense of the local Church’s disciplinary autonomy from the State. He then undertook a fruitful ministry in France, ending his life in Béarn where, under its famed queen, Jeanne d’Albret, he reorganized the nascent Reformed Churches and set up a new theological academy."   order book

1 comment:

The Schaubing Blogk said...

An interesting figure, and an interesting book... a friend just let me borrow it. I checked out the website in his name, and saw that they are working on translating more documents by him.