Theologian and poet, born in Vézelay, C France. He studied Greek and law at Orléans, then settled in Geneva and became professor of Greek at Lausanne (154954). His first poetry, Juvenilia (1548), a book of amorous verse, earned him a reputation as a leading Latin poet. Soon afterwards he experienced a religious conversion and for several years travelled throughout Europe in defence of the Protestant cause. In Geneva in 1559 he founded, with Calvin, the new Geneva academy for the promotion of Calvinism, eventually succeeding Calvin as leader of the Protestant Reformation. His De jure magistratum (1574) overthrew the earlier Calvinistic doctrine of obedience to all civil authority and became a major political manifesto of Calvinism. Other works include anti-Catholic tracts, a biography of Calvin, and the Histoire ecclésiastique des Eglises réformées au royanne de France (1580).
Theodore Beza (Theodore de Beze or de Besze) (June 24, 1519 - October 13, 1605) was a French Protestant Christian theologian and scholar who played an important role in the early Reformation.
Early life
Theodore Beza was born at Vezelay (8 miles west-south-west of Avallon), in Burgundy. Beza's father had two brothers;
Young Beza soon followed his teacher to Bourges, whither the latter was called by the duchess Margaret of Angoulême, sister of Francis I. When, in 1534, Francis I issued his edict against ecclesiastical innovations, Wolmar returned to Germany, and, in accordance with the wish of his father, Beza went back to Orleans to study law, and spent four years there (1535-39).
Beza spent two happy years at Paris and soon gained a prominent position in literary circles.
But he fell ill and his distress of body, it is reported, revealed to him his spiritual needs.
Teacher at Lausanne
He was heartily received by John Calvin, who had met him already in Wolmar's house, and was at once publicly and solemnly married in the church. Beza was at a loss for immediate occupation, so he went to Tübingen to see his former teacher Wolmar.
In spite of the arduous work which fell to his lot, Beza found time to write a Biblical drama, Abraham Sacrifiant (published at Geneva, 1550;
About the same time he published his Passavantius, a satire directed against Pierre Lizet of ill repute, formerly president of the Parliament of Paris, and principal originator of the "fiery chamber" (chambre ardente), who, being at the time (1551) abbot of St. Victor near Paris, was eager to acquire the fame of a subduer of heresy by publishing a number of polemical writings.
Of a more serious character were two controversies in which Beza was involved at this time. In defense of Calvin and the Genevan magistrates, Beza published in 1554 the work De haereticis a civili magistratu puniendis (translated into French in 1560).
Journeys in behalf of the Protestants
In 1557 Beza took a special interest in the Waldensians of Piedmont, who were harassed by the French government, and in their behalf went with Farel to Bern, Zurich, Basel, Schaffhausen, thence to Strasburg, Mumpelgart, Baden, and Goppingen. In Baden and Goppingen, Beza and Farel had to declare themselves concerning their own and the Waldensians' views on the sacrament, and on May 14, 1557, they presented a written declaration is which they clearly stated their position.
In the autumn of 1557 Beza undertook a second journey with Farel to Worms by way of Strasburg to bring about an intercession of the Evangelical princes of the empire in favor of the persecuted brethren at Paris. With Melanchthon and other theologians then assembled at the Colloquy of Worms, Beza considered a union of all Protestant Christians, but this proposal was decidedly negatived by Zurich and Bern. False reports having reached the German princes that the hostilities against the Huguenots in France had ceased, no embassy was sent to the court of France, and Beza undertook another journey in the interest of the Huguenots, going with Farel, Johannes Buddaeus, and Gaspard Carmel to Strasburg and Frankfort, where the sending of an embassy to Paris was resolved upon.
Settles in Geneva
Upon his return to Lausanne, Beza was greatly disturbed. This caused many difficulties, and Beza thought it best (1558) to settle at Geneva.
Here he occupied at first the chair of Greek in the newly established academy, and after Calvin's death also that of theology;
More important than this polemical activity was Beza's statement of his own confession. It was originally prepared for his father in justification of his course and published in revised form to promote Evangelical knowledge among Beza's countrymen.
Events of 1560-63
In the mean time things took such shape in France that the happiest future for Protestantism seemed possible. Beza, a French nobleman and head of the academy in the metropolis of French Protestantism, was invited to Castle Nerac, but he could not plant the seed of Evangelical faith in the heart of the king.
In the year following (1561) Beza represented the Evangelicals at the Colloquy of Poissy, and in an eloquent manner defended the principles of the Evangelical faith. The colloquy was without result, but Beza as the head and advocate of all Reformed congregations of France was revered and hated at the same time.
Beza hastily issued a circular letter (Mar. 25) to all Reformed congregations of the empire, and with Conde and his troops went to Orleans. At the request of Conde, Beza visited all Huguenot cities to obtain both. As one of the messengers to collect soldiers and money among his coreligionists, Beza was appointed to visit England, Germany, and Switzerland. but the publication of the unfortunate edict of pacification which Conde accepted (Mar. 12,1563) filled Beza and all Protestant France with horror.
Calvin's Successor
For twenty-two months Beza had been absent from Geneva, and the interests of school and Church there and especially the condition of Calvin made it necessary for him to return. Calvin and Beza arranged to perform their duties jointly in alternate weeks, but the death of Calvin occurred soon afterward (May 27, 1564). As a matter of course Beza was his successor.
Until 1580 Beza was not only moderateur de la compagnie des pasteurs, but also the real soul of the great institution of learning at Geneva which Calvin had founded in 1559, consisting of a gymnasium and an academy. As long as be lived, Beza was interested in higher education.
Course of Events after 1564
As Calvin's successor, Beza was very successful, not only in carrying on his work but also in giving peace to the Church at Geneva. The discussions concerned questions of a practical, social, or ecclesiastical nature, such as the supremacy of the magistrates over the pastors, freedom in preaching, and the obligation of the pastors to submit to the majority of the campagnie des pasteurs.
Beza obtruded his will in no way upon his associates, and took no harsh measures against injudicious or hot-headed colleagues, though sometimes he took their cases in hand and acted as mediator;
His activity was great.
In 1574 he wrote his De jure magistratuum (Right of Magistrates), in which he emphatically protested against tyranny in religious matters, and affirmed that it is legitimate for a people to oppose an unworthy magistracy in a practical manner and if necessary to use weapons and depose them.
To sum up: Without being a great dogmatician like his master, nor a creative genius in the ecclesiastical realm, Beza had qualities which made him famous as humanist, exegete, orator, and leader in religious and political affairs, and qualified him to be the guide of the Calvinists in all Europe. In the various controversies into which he was drawn, Beza often showed an excess of irritation and intolerance, from which Bernardino Ochino, pastor of the Italian congregation at Zurich (on account of a treatise which contained some objectionable points on polygamy), and Sebastian Castellio at Basel (on account of his Latin and French translations of the Bible) had especially to suffer.
With Reformed France Beza continued to maintain the closest relations. it also decided to confirm anew the Calvinistic doctrine of the Lord's Supper (by the expression: "substance of the body of Christ") against Zwinglianism, which caused a very unpleasant discussion between Beza and Ramus and Bullinger.
In the following year (May, 1572) he took an important part in the national synod at Nimes.
The Colloquy of Mumpelgart
The last polemical conflict of importance Beza encountered from the exclusive Lutherans was at the Colloquy of Mumpelgart, Mar. 14-27, 1586, to which he had been invited by the Lutheran Count Frederick of Württemberg at the wish of the French noblemen who had fled to Mumpelgart.
When the edition of the acts of the colloquy, as prepared by Jakob Andrea, was published, Samuel Huber, of Burg near Bern, who belonged to the Lutheranizing faction of the Swiss clergy, took so great offense at the supralapsarian doctrine of predestination propounded at Mumpelgart by Beza and Musculus that he felt it to be his duty to denounce Musculus to the magistrates of Bern as an innovator in doctrine.
As the colloquy was resultless, a debate was arranged at Bern, Apr. 15-18, 1588, at which the defense of the accepted system of doctrine was at the start put into Beza's hands. The three delegates of the Helvetic cantons who presided at the debate declared in the end that Beza had substantiated the teaching propounded at Mumpelgart as the orthodox one, and Huber was dismissed from his office.
Last Days
After that time Beza's activity was confined more and more to the affairs of his home.
The saddest experience in his old days was the conversion of King Henry IV to Catholicism, in spite of his most earnest exhortations (1593). Strange to say, in 1596 the report was spread by the Jesuits in Germany, France, England, and Italy that Beza and the Church of Geneva had returned into the bosom of Rome, and Beza replied in a satire that revealed the possession still of his old fire of thought and vigor of expression.
He died in Geneva.
Humanistic and Historical Writings
In Beza's literary activity as well as in his life, distinction must be made between the period of the humanist (which ended with the publication of his Juvenilia) and that of the ecclesiastic.
Of his historiographical works, aside from his Icones (1580), which have only an iconographical value, mention may be made of the famous Histoire ecclesiastique des Eglises reformes au Royaume de France (1580), and his biography of Calvin, with which must be named his edition of Calvin's Epistolae et responsa (1575).
Theological Works
But all these humanistic and historical studies are surpassed by his theological productions (contained in Tractationes theologicae). In these Beza appears the perfect pupil or the alter ego of Calvin. Beza, in tabular form, thoroughly elucidates the religious views which emanated from a fundamental supralapsarian mode of thought. This he added to his highly instructive treatise Summa totius Christianismi.
Beza's Greek New Testament
Of no less importance are the contributions of Beza to Biblical science.
In the preparation of this edition of the Greek text, but much more in the preparation of the second edition which he brought out in 1582, Beza may have availed himself of the help of two very valuable manuscripts. One is known as the Codex Bezae or Cantabrigensis, and was later presented by Beza to the University of Cambridge; the second is the Codex Claromontanus, which Beza had found in Clermont (now in the National Library at Paris).
It was not, however, to these sources that Beza was chiefly indebted, but rather to the previous edition of the eminent Robert Estienne (1550), itself based in great measure upon one of the later editions of Erasmus. Beza's labors in this direction were exceedingly helpful to those who came after.
Although some lament that Beza's view of the doctrine of predestination exercised too preponderating an influence upon his interpretation of the Scriptures, there is no question that he added much to a clear understanding of the New Testament.
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