Imagine losing your wife to a serious illness, being wounded by opponents, and nearly dying from poison, yet still preaching on with a smile that would become famous. That was the life of Pierre Viret, one of the most beloved and today least remembered reformers of the 16th century.
Born in 1511 in the small town of Orbe, in what is now the Swiss canton of Vaud, the son of a tailor, Viret was sent to Paris to study for the priesthood. There he came into contact with reformed ideas and converted to the evangelical faith while still a student.
Back in Orbe, the reformer Guillaume Farel persuaded him to preach the gospel. His first sermon, in 1531, at the age of twenty, caused such a stir that Viret’s own parents converted soon after.
Preaching came at a cost: in Payerne he was wounded by Catholic opponents, and in Geneva he survived a poisoning that left him with health problems for the rest of his life. Even so, he helped Farel establish the Reformation in the city starting in 1534.
In Lausanne, where he served as chief pastor for more than two decades, he founded in 1537 the first French-speaking reformed theological academy. In 1546 he lost his wife Elisabeth to tuberculosis, writing to a friend that the Lord had taken from him “half of himself”.
A conflict with the authorities of Bern over the church’s autonomy led to his exile from Lausanne in 1559. He moved to Geneva and later went on to serve churches in France, presiding in 1563 over the national synod of the Reformed church in Lyon.
Targeted by a royal decree against foreign pastors, he was expelled from France in 1565 and took refuge in Béarn, at the invitation of Queen Jeanne d’Albret. During the Third War of Religion he was captured along with other pastors and spent about two years in prison, while several of the ministers imprisoned with him were executed.
Viret died in Orthez in 1571, on his way to yet another synod. His gentle, instructive way of teaching the reformed faith, without ever giving up doctrinal firmness, earned him the name “the smile of the Reformation”, a reminder that conviction and gentleness can go hand in hand.
