# Geneva's Triple Light



## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 17, 2008)

In an elegaic poem about Jonathan Mitchell (1624 - 1628) written by one Francis Drake (fl. 1650 - 1668), he refers to "Geneva's Triple Light," meaning William Farel, Pierre Viret and John Calvin. They were the Genevan "Triumvirate" (again to use Drake's phrase) of the age. 

Unlike Caesar, Pompey and Crassus, however, this triumvirate was an example not of rivalry, but of brotherly love. Calvin's dedication to Farel and Viret prefacing his commentary on Titus is a true testimony to this brotherly love:



> TO TWO EMINENT SERVANTS OF Christ,
> 
> WILLIAM FARELL AND Peter VIRET,
> 
> ...


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 17, 2008)

Theodore Beza, _Johannis Calvini Vita_:



> Calvin greatly delighted in that intimate friendship which he enjoyed with Farel and Viret, -- a friendship hateful to the evil-minded, but most gratifying to the good. And it was indeed a fair sight to contemplate these three extraordinary men, endowed with such various gifts, labouring in perfect union together to accomplish this heavenly design. Farel was conspicuous through greatness of soul, and a certain heroic nature; no one could remain unmoved by the thunder of his eloquence, or listen to his fervent prayers without feeling raised towards heaven. Viret, on the contrary, spoke with such exquisite sweetness, that his hearers hung irresistably on his lips. But as to Calvin, as many as were the words which he uttered, so many were the deep thoughts which filled the breasts of his hearers: so that it has often entered my mind, that in the union of the gifts enjoyed by these three, we see that which would constitute the highest perfection of an evangelical teacher.


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