VIRET, PIERRE. - The “reformer” of French-speaking Switzerland, b. at Orbe (Vaud) on 4 May 1511, d. at Orthez on 4 Apr. 1571.
In 1527 he was in Paris as a student; he embraced Lutheranism and was compelled to flee from Paris, returning to Orbe. The Bernese, lords of the country, received Guglielmo Farel, who entrusted V. with preaching in his native town; he delivered his first sermon on 6 May 1531, when he was not yet twenty. He violently attacked Catholics at Orbe, then at Grandson and Payerne, and finally at Geneva, first with Farel and then with Calvino; subsequently he carried on religious activity at Lausanne for 23 years and took part in the establishment of the city’s Protestant Academy. Deprived of his office by Berne following the conflict concerning excommunication, he moved to Geneva in 1559; but, for reasons of health, he had to emigrate to southern France. He exercised considerable influence in the region of Nîmes and Tarascona, where he drew numerous Catholics—laymen, priests, and religious—into Calvinism. He is found at Lyon in 1562, at Orange in 1565, and finally at Orthez, in Béarn, with Giovanna d'Albret. On 5 May 1875 a monument was erected to him at Orbe.
Numerous works by him are preserved in the libraries of Berne, Lausanne, Neuchâtel, and Geneva. The principal one is: Instruction chrétienne en la doctrine de la Loi et de l'Évangile (Geneva 1564), in dialogue form.