BEZA, TEODORO. – Protestant scholar (Théodore de Bèze), disciple and collaborator of Calvin, born at Vézelay (Burgundy) on 24 June 1519, died at Geneva on 13 October 1605. The last of seven children in a Catholic family, while still a boy he was summoned to Paris by an uncle who was a magistrate; in 1528 the latter sent him to Orléans to the school of Melchiorre Womar. From him B. learned a love of literature and Protestant doctrines. In 1530, when Wolmar was summoned to Bourges by Margherita d'Angoulême, B. did not wish to part from him and followed him until his return to Germany. He then reluctantly returned to Orléans to begin his studies of law, which he completed in Paris in 1539. As soon as he had graduated in civil and canon law, B. obtained, in accordance with the practice of the time, the conferment of several ecclesiastical benefices. Little inclined toward the legal profession and rather disposed toward literature, during his stay in Paris B. wrote the Poemata iuvenilia, and, through a simulated marriage performed before several friends, united himself with Claudia Desnoz (1544), with whom he went to Geneva in 1548, where he married her after openly professing Calvinism. From 1549 to 1558 he was professor of Greek at the academy of Lausanne, and during this period he wrote against Castellion Calvin’s famous apology for the execution of Servetus, entitled: De haereticia a civili magistratu puniendis. He also intervened, together with the Protestant Swiss cantons and certain German princes, in favor of the Waldensians and the Huguenots. In 1558 he went from Lausanne to Geneva, where Calvin appointed him rector of the theological school, alternating with him in teaching. He was a skillful instrument in Calvin’s hands. In 1560 he went to Nerac and succeeded in converting the queen of Navarre, Giovanna d'Albret, to Calvinism. In 1561 he returned to France to take part in various conferences between Catholics and Huguenots, which culminated, without result, in the colloquy of Poissy. From then on, the French Calvinists regarded B. as one of their principal counselors and leaders. After a brief stay in Geneva, B. went once more to France as chief adviser to the rebellious Condé, and was present at the battle of Dreux, after which he withdrew to Geneva. Upon Calvin’s death (27 May 1564), he was elected “Moderator,” and as such may be said to have remained, until his death, the head of Calvinism. In 1571 he presided over the Synod of La Rochelle; in 1572, after the famous night of St. Bartholomew, he sheltered many French refugees. During this period he also displayed great literary activity; he maintained negotiations with the Zwinglians and with the English Calvinists and Puritans. A few months after his wife’s death, in 1588, already seventy years old, he married the widow Genoveffa del Piano; he was visited by his brother and also by S. Francesco di Sales, both of whom sought, but in vain, to bring him back to the ancestral faith before his death (cf. A. J.-M. Hamon, Vie de s. François de Sales, I, Paris 1909, pp. 239–62).
B.’s character and personality have been the subject of controversies and contradictory judgments, not only between Catholics and Protestants, but also among Protestants themselves. In the eyes of his admirers he was a man of pure morals; during the civil wars in France, up to the battle of Dreux, he rigorously remained in the capacity of a simple minister or chaplain to the troops, and afterward as an adviser to the Huguenots. His moderation and balance are singularly celebrated. For the Bezamastigi, as his opponents are called, the judgment is entirely different. It is not easy to find the middle ground. Certainly, in his youth B. was dissolute, and his Poemata iuvenilia show him to have been so; but he later repented and condemned those poems of his. The simulated marriage with Desnoz also dates from that period; it is impossible to excuse him from the charge of having lived for several years in practical concubinage. The new marriage contracted at the age of seventy likewise gave his adversaries ample grounds for criticism.
With regard to the religious wars in France, although it cannot be proved that he took part in the assassination of the Duke of Guise perpetrated by Poltrot, and still less in the conspiracy of Amboise, nevertheless, according to the testimony of one of his admirers and biographers, “non tantum publicis concionibus profuit, sed documentis, admonitionibus, cohortationibus privatim illum (il principe di Condé) ac reliquam nobilitatem gallicam, quae a partibus illius principis stabat, plurimum adiuvit”. If one carefully considers the meaning that such words may bear in the context of so many years of fierce wars, which devastated France and during which the eyes of the Huguenots, as another Protestant writer says, were fixed upon him, one will have no difficulty attributing considerable responsibility to him for those ruins. Although on many occasions he showed himself balanced and moderate, it is certain that in the book De haereticia a civili magistratu puniendis he admitted and recommended things that the Protestants themselves condemn in the tribunal of the Inquisition; indeed, he went much further when he wrote to the Duke of Württemberg that the heretic should be rejected by every means that God had placed in his hands, and that he could find no torment adequate to the enormity of heresy. This treatise was also bitterly criticized by Protestants themselves. In his polemic with Castellion, moreover, no signs of moderation are evident, nor are they found in chapter 7 of his Confessio Christianae Fidei, entitled Brevis antithesis Papatus et
Christianismi. In general, his polemics contain expressions and epithets which, although they may be explained by the virulence of the language then customary in this kind of writing, nevertheless demonstrate the falsity of the saying: “Bezam sine felle vivere”, since certainly “cum felle scripsit”.
There is no doubt that B. strove to defend Calvin’s doctrines, even the most radical, and attacked contrary doctrines, both Catholic and Lutheran; nevertheless, when compelled by necessity or in order to avoid further controversy, he separated from him on points of doctrine that were also important. Thus, in his memorandum to the Lutheran Duke of Württemberg, which some regard as an irenic exposition of the Reformed faith, he made such concessions concerning the real presence that they provoked harsh censure from his fellow believers. In the Second Helvetic Confession he admitted certain statements on predestination that are not consistent with Calvin’s doctrine.
B.’s numerous writings may be classified as follows:
Literary writings: The Poemata invenilia; a tragedy on the Sacrifice of Abraham and several Latin poems.
Historical writings: The life of Calvin, or rather a panegyric of Calvin; The history of the Reformed Churches in France, a collection of memoirs sent to Geneva; his Autobiography in the preface to the Confessio Christianae Fidei, etc.
Biblical writings: editions of The Psalms; of the Latin text (1556) and the Greek text (1565) of the New Testament, very accurate, for which he used Cod. D., or the Codex of B., which came into his hands after the Huguenots’ sack of the monastery of S. Ireneo in Lyon, and the Codex Claromontanus, discovered by him at Clermont. He collaborated in the translation of the Bible made by the pastors of Geneva. He wrote various commentaries on different books, such as the one on Job.
Polemical writings: The most famous is the one already mentioned, De puniendis haereticis. He also wrote against the Lutherans on the Lord’s Supper and the ubiquity of Christ; against Castellion on predestination; against Ochino on polygamy; against Saravia on the hierarchy and missions among the pagans, where he shows himself opposed to missions; against the Catholics, etc.
Theological writings: B. is the author of the three volumes of Tractationes... theologicae, which consist of a collection of treatises, the first of which is his Confessio Fidei Christianae, whose chapter 7 is directed against the Catholic Church; Various writings, that is, various letters, homilies, speeches, etc.
vino, trad. ital. di A. Prospero, Bari 1939, p. 255 sgg., passim; P. Polman, L'élément historique dans la controverse religieuse du XVIe siècle, Gembloux 1932, pp. 126-35. Camillo Crivelli