Viret Christopher

Viret Christopher

V iret Christopher,  a Familist, was a joiner by trade, who lived in the borough of Southwark, in the reign of Mary. Honourable mention is made of him by the Ministers of Poland and Transylvania, in their treatise "Concerning the true and false Knowledge of God." He was a follower of Henry Nicolai, many of whose writings he translated from Dutch into English, as, " The Gospel of the Kingdom," " The Prophecie of the Spirit of Love," "The Glass of Righteousnesse," &c. Out of these Ephraim Pagit professes to collect the following, among other errors:—" 1. That Christ is not God; 2. That Christ is not one man; but an estate and condition in men, common to so many as have received H. N., his doctrine," &c. To their primary "Errours," which are ten in number, " Olde Ephraim Pagit," as that writer calls himself, adds fifteen others, the third of which is, "that it is ridiculous to say, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost;' as though by saying these words, they should affirme to be three Gods." That Christopher Viret's efforts to extend the principles of the Familists were not unsuccessful, may be inferred from a work published in 1579, and bearing the following title. "A Confutation of monstrous and horrible Heresies, taught by H. N., and embraced by a Number, who call themselves the Family of Love: by I. Knewstub, &c. Imprinted in London at the Three Cranes in the Vine-tree, by Thomas Dawson, for Richard Sergier." 8vo. The Ever-memorable John Hales of Eton is said to have been a great reader of Stephanus, the Familist ; and to have predicted, that the principles of this sect would one day have many admirers.

(Vidend. Ephraim Pagifs Heresiography, pp. 93—95.)

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