Viret's Holy Commonwealth

Robert Dean Linder, The Political Ideas of Pierre Viret, pp. 122-125:

From the foregoing facts drawn from an examination of Viret's remarks concerning politics, a relatively clear and complete picture can be constructed of what he considered the ideal state to be like. What he envisioned as the epitome of a godly state in which Biblical principles were observed was in many ways comparable to the Holy Commonwealth that the New England Puritans tried to establish in the American wilderness almost a half century after Viret's death. In fact the parallels are so striking as to be noteworthy.

Viret's Universal Church was one in which all true believers were members and which found its visible expression in the form of a local congregation called a "community of saints." The local church was to govern itself like a "free community" and a "celestial republic." In short, the form of ecclesiastical government was to be a type of congregationalism. It is true that Viret's congregational church polity was not exactly like that of the New England churches. He still accepted the ecclesiastical machinery of the Reformed Church with its colloquies and synods, and saw these gatherings as valuable assets to the work of God. However, his fundamental emphasis was always upon the local congregation which was to be governed like a democracy.

Then, too, he assigned to the minister an important and influential role of leadership in the local church. Like the Puritans, he maintained that the pastor was no better than any other believer and that his difference was one of function and office rather than rank. But also like the Puritans, Viret's thought reveals that for all practical purposes he conceived of the minister as the executive head, under Christ, of the local church. 

The Church as a whole was to occupy a position of privilege in Viret's ideal state. The preaching of the true Gospel was to have precedence over all other activities and have free reign among the people. In addition, the civil code of the secular state would be based directly upon the laws of God and conform with them in every possible way. Furthermore, although a Christian magistracy was not absolutely necessary nor for that matter possible in every instance and every country, still in his ideal state the magistrates would all be true Christians. In this manner they could work in complete and harmonious co-operation with the Church. The Christian magistrates would act like "guardians" and "foster-fathers" of the Church, protecting, helping and sustaining it in every way possible consistent with their office. This was also the idea behind the Holy Commonwealth of New England.

Also, the great influence of the clergy in secular government was apparent both in Viret's thinking and in New England Puritan practice. Viret felt that ministers should be consulted by secular officials in order to determine the will of God, especially in all matters relating in any way to religion, and that the head of state should include "true ministers of the Gospel" among his advisors. Furthermore, if the will of the secular government should ever conflict with the will of God, Viret recommended that the ministers go to the civil officials, call their attention to the point in question and admonish them to conform to God's plan rather than to their own.

Still, the provinces of the Church and the state were to be distinct and separate. The minister, though he should have a great deal to say about the practical operation of the state, should never exercise political influence either by law or threats of excommunication and interdict but only by moral suasion. Likewise, the civil magistrate should never use his powers to force acceptance of the Gospel on people or to legislate religion for the masses. Instead he should do everything in his power to protect the Church as it carried out its spiritual mission. He also should make conditions as favorable as humanly possible for the acceptance of the message of repentance and faith in Christ which the Reformers preached. But in no case should the magistrate usurp the office of minister or interfere in the internal affairs of Church, especially in matters of church discipline, and under no circumstances should the minister assume any of the civil powers of the magistracy.

Finally, there are enough democratic elements in Viret's thought to assume that in a political entity where the vast majority of the people were true Christians, he would approve of some kind of Christian Republic based upon popular participation in government. After all, if he was so willing to trust even a common laborer who was one of the elect of God with the government of the Church, why would he be unwilling to commit to this same regenerate individual the reins of power in an ideal secular state where the Gospel was proclaimed freely and regularly and in which nearly everyone was a true believer? Even in a state where true Christians were a minority, Viret's personal preference appears to have been for some sort of democratic republic.

It is true that Viret nowhere sought to restrict political rule to the elect, but he did dream of an ideal state in which all would be united by faith and knowledge in the true religion thus identifying for all practical purposes the elect with the body politic. Therefore, it seems safe to conclude that if it were possible to win nearly everyone in a certain political community to the Reformed faith, he would have endorsed popular participation in both ecclesiastical and civil government. This would have been Viret's idea of a state which conformed most closely to God's will for man on earth.

Book Review: Pierre Viret

At long last, as his 500th birthday approaches, thanks to Jean-Marc Berthoud, Zurich Publishing and the Pierre Viret Association, one of the great French Reformers, Pierre Viret (1511-1571), has been brought out of the shadow of John Calvin, whose 500th birthday we observed last year, and into worthy remembrance (Jean Marc-Berthoud, Pierre Viret: A Forgotten Giant of the Reformation - The Apologetics, Ethics, and Economics of the Bible, Tallahassee, Florida: Zurich Publishing, 2010). I have previously noted the ongoing efforts to translate select Viret works; now Mr. Berthoud's anticipated biographical sketch is available from Zurich Publishing.

With an excellent and succinct introduction by Thomas Ertl, President of the Pierre Viret Association, Mr. Berthoud has sketched for us a brief biography of this neglected Reformer, known as the "Angel of the Reformation," who was perhaps John Calvin's best friend, who as a preacher outrivaled his friend, and the man who in Lausanne in 1537 founded the first Reformed Academy, whose professors later served in Calvin and Beza's Genevan Academy. In this biography, particular attention has been paid to Viret's work as an ecclesiastical reformer, ethicist, apologist, economist, and philosopher, with extracts from his writings on each subject.

A prolific writer, Viret published over 40 works in his lifetime, "some up to a thousand pages in length," few of which have been republished in modern times. The Pierre Viret Association is working to rectify this oversight. As I have noted last year, select translation works are forthcoming. Mr. Berthoud has provided us with a list of Viret's published works in French, and a complete bibliography, including Viret's Latin works, is also forthcoming from Dominique-Antonio Troilo next year, Lord willing. Also expected next year is an English translation of Viret's letters by Michael Bruening.

Viret was greatly concerned to bring truth and application of the evangelical gospel to the people around him. This was the impetus for his academy, his prolific writings addressed most often to laymen, and his apologetic themes.

According to Robert Linder, Viret was probably present to observe first-hand the famous meeting between William Farel and John Calvin at which Farel issued his thunderous call to Calvin to pastor in Geneva (Linder, The Political Ideas of Pierre Viret, pp. 28-29). From the days when Viret, William Farel and John Calvin jointly defended in public debate Farel's 1536 Lausanne Articles, the three men were remarkably united in their friendship and ministry, each with different gifts. Theodore Beza noted that Calvin taught with authority, Farel thundered mightily, and Viret preached eloquently and winsomely (Berthoud, p. 20). Together, they were known as Geneva's Triple Light, or the Genevan Triumvirate. Viret's popularity as a preacher, in fact, exceeded that of Calvin.

Viret believed "that 'good laws' in a truly in Christian state always would be based on on the Ten Commandments of God found in the Holy Scriptures" (Linder, p. 58). Mr. Berthoud, as a theonomist, does not recognize the traditional Reformed threefold distinction of moral, judicial and ceremonial law (Berthoud, p. 35). He views Viret as "not explicitly theonomic (the term did not then exist), [yet] far more consistently and thoroughly Biblical than...his Genevan colleague [Calvin]" (Berthoud, p. 35). In this writer's view, Linder's statement that "Viret, unlike Calvin, was ready to extend openly the authority of the Bible over the state" (Linder, p. 63) is inexplicable in light of Calvin's theocratic statements in his Institutes and elsewhere, and too much is made of this erroneous dichotomy by Mr. Berthoud, in this writer's opinion, when he emphasizes the descent into the particulars Mosaic judicial laws by Viret over Calvin. The theocratic views of Viret in his application of God's law to society and the state as found in his massive Instruction Chrétienne, considered by Pierre Courthial to be "one of the magisterial works of the Reformation" (Courthial, Christian Instruction, Vol. 1, Introduction, p. 19), are apparent and admirable. It is to be regretted that Mr. Berthoud's theonomic views take such precedence in his chapter on Viret's ethics, but the extracts from Viret and Linder are most helpful in bringing forward Viret's ethical views.

Mr. Berthoud also sees Viret as a presuppositional apologist. Berthoud is on stronger ground here, and his discussion of Viret's understanding of common grace as it bears upon discussion of gospel truth with unbelievers, is most interesting. Berthoud is not favorable to the Ramist philosophy adopted by the Puritans (which he views as "binary," Berthoud, p. 82), or the evidentialist apologetic of C.S. Lewis and Alister McGrath, but shows how Viret in his Christian Metamorphosis brings both heathen philosophers and, above all, the holy Scriptures to bear in his witness to the unbeliever, with Viret calling Job the 'greatest of all philosophers' (Berthoud, p. 57). Berthoud rightly distinguishes between the fallacy of "an imaginary common intellectual ground shared in dialogue with the adversaries of the Christian faith" and Biblical wisdom of "mak[ing] use of all aspects of man's intellectual and cultural activities to reach, in a very concrete and practical fashion, the interests of his contemporaries" (Berthoud, p. 57).

Berthoud's discussion of Viret's concern with rightly understanding Biblical magistracy versus tyranny, particularly in the economic sphere, is most illuminating. Viret has much to say about taxes, just and unjust, and Mr. Berthoud highlights this point most appropriately. The gabelle tax was employed in his day, as Berthoud notes, much like a value added tax in our modern society, as a catch-all means of increasing statist power. If the power to tax is the power to destroy, then it is a power that must be reined in by Biblical limitations of civil authority, which Viret discusses at length.

This modern introduction to the life and thought of Viret is very timely as Viret's 500th birthday celebration draws near. As "the most successful and sought-after Protestant preacher in sixteenth-century France" (Linder, "Forgotten Reformer," Christian History No. 71 (July 2001)). He was a very important Reformer, so important that, in my view, the four Reformers presently at the center of the Reformation Wall should have been expanded to five to include him, rather than pushing him to the side. Viret contributed greatly to light of the Reformation which dispelled darkness (Post tenebras lux) and therefore it is most fitting that he should now step out of the shadows. Many thanks to Mr. Berthoud, Tom Ertl and others for bringing Pierre Viret into the light once again.

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