The eighteen chapters in this volume were contributed by participants in an international colloquium at the University of Lausanne in September 2011, ostensibly the 500th anniversary of the birth of Pierre Viret in Orbe, in the present-day Canton de Vaud, Switzerland. However, the editors suggest that recent scholarship places Viret’s birth in 1509 (the year of John Calvin’s birth) or in early 1510. This edited volume presents the latest scholarship on broadly diverse subjects related to Viret, many never before examined in print. The book is useful for specialists yet comprehensible to university students who might not yet have a reading knowledge of French or English, since the five articles in English and the thirteen in French each contain a synopsis in the other language. The book is broadly divided into two large categories: the theological and literary work of Viret, and the historical and religious context.

The editors emphasize that Viret was no mere appendage to Calvin or a second-rate Reformer, as he has sometimes been treated. Viret was a major Reformer in his own right and an effective preacher. Indeed, Theodore Beza’s correspondence with Viret during the Morély affair of the 1560s attests to the fact that Beza treated Viret as an equal, but one who needed to be apprised of Morély’s faults. Olivier Millet, of the University of Paris-Sorbonne, treats Viret’s extant sermons and homiletics. Lee Wandel, of the University of Wisconsin, examines Viret’s views of the Eucharist and finds Viret closer to Zwingli than Calvin. Christian Moser, of the University of Zurich, examines Viret’s relationship to the Zurich Reformers, especially Bullinger. Carlos Eire, of Yale University, finds Viret ardently opposed to Nicodemism, but Karine Crousaz, from the University of Lausanne and coeditor of this volume, finds Viret more positive toward Islam than to Catholicism at times. Daniela Solfaroli Camillocci, of the University of Geneva and an editor of this volume, examines Viret’s pointed interaction with the Jesuits of Lyon (1563–65). Olivier Labarthe, of the Museum of the History of the Reformation in Geneva, finds Viret an ardent opponent of prayers for the dead in Viret’s debate of 1537 with Pierre Caroli. Frederic Amsler, of the University of Lausanne, examines young Viret’s knowledge of the fathers of the church, and Irena Backus, of the University of Geneva, considers Viret as a historian of the church. Michael Bruening, of Missouri University of Science and Technology, covers Viret’s extant letters, and Jean-François Gilmont looks at Viret’s printers, largely Jean Girard and Jean Rivery, and, when Viret was in Lyon, Claude Ravot and Claude Senneton.

As a historian working in social welfare and the circle of Reformers around Calvin, I found the most intriguing chapters to be Claire Moutengou Barats’s (University of Geneva) on Viret’s participation in a proposition for public assistance in Lausanne (1550), and Philippe Chareyre’s (Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour) on Viret in Béarn (1567–71), where Viret died and was succeeded in his capacity as advisor to Queen Jeanne d’Albret by Nicolas Des Gallars (1571–81). Without being able to describe every chapter, I should not fail to note James Blakeley’s (St. Joseph’s College, New York) on the challenges that Viret, Farel, and the first Reformers had in the territories jointly held by Catholic Fribourg and Protestant Bern.

Topics that were not covered in this volume but are covered elsewhere include the suggestion of Robert Kingdon that Viret left Geneva because Theodore Beza had risen to a place in Geneva that Viret might have wanted for himself, and Viret’s position vis-à-vis Jean Morély, the proponent of democracy in the churches. The editors do not pretend, however, to repeat everything that has been done before but rather to cover topics and material that have been neglected, to give us new insights into Pierre Viret and his work. As such, this sturdy paperbound volume of 423 pages is irreplaceable and is a must for every academic library. It is also so reasonably priced by Éditions Antipodes of Lausanne as to be accessible to individual scholars and students as well.