Calvin’s Friends: Farel, Viret, and Beza: Farel, Viret, and Beza

John Calvin did not create the French Reformed movement alone. At every step of the way, he was assisted by close friends and allies. Guillaume Farel preceded Calvin and established many of the key doctrines and practices that would come to define Calvinism. Pierre Viret was perhaps Calvin’s closest friend and worked steadily to implement Calvin’s vision of reform first in Lausanne and later in France, while also popularizing Calvinist theology in his many vernacular dialogues. And Theodore Beza emerged as an important theologian in his own right before taking over as Calvin’s successor as head of the Geneva Company of Pastors, from which position he helped to guide the French Reformed churches during the Wars of Religion and to unify the Swiss Reformed churches behind a common theology.