Beza, Theodore

BEZA, THEODORE. - Protestant scholar (Théodore de Bèze), disciple and collaborator of Calvin, b. at Vézelay (Burgundy) on 24 June 1519, d. at Geneva on 13 Oct. 1605. The last of 7 children of a Catholic family, while still a child he was summoned to Paris by an uncle of his who was a magistrate, who in 1528 sent him to Orléans to the school of Melchior Wolmar. From him B. learned the love of literature and Protestant doctrines. In 1530, Wolmar having been called to Bourges by Margaret of Angoulême, B. did not wish to be parted from him and followed him until his return to Germany. Then reluctantly he returned to Orléans to begin the study of law, which he completed later in Paris in 1539. As soon as he had taken his degree in civil and canon law, B. obtained, according to the custom of the time, the conferral of certain ecclesiastical benefices. Little inclined to the bar and rather inclined to literature, during his stay in Paris B. wrote the Poemata iuvenilia, and with a mock marriage performed before some friends he united himself with Claudia Desnoz (1544), with whom he went to Geneva in 1548, where he married her, after having openly professed Calvinism. From 1549 to 1558 he was professor of Greek at the academy of Lausanne, and during this time he wrote against Castellio the famous apology of Calvin on the execution of Servetus, entitled: De haereticis a civili magistratu puniendis. He also intervened, together with the Swiss Protestant cantons and some German princes, in favor of the Waldensians and the Huguenots. In 1558 he passed from Lausanne to Geneva, where by Calvin he was made rector of the theological school, alternating with him in teaching. He was a skillful instrument in the hands of Calvin. In 1560 he went to Nérac, and knew how to bend the queen of Navarre, Jeanne d'Albret, to Calvinism. In 1561 he returned to France to take part in various conferences between Catholics and Huguenots, which culminated, without results, in the colloquy of Poissy. From then on the French Calvinists had B. as one of their principal counselors and directors. After a brief stay in Geneva B. went again to France as principal counselor of the rebel Condé, and was present at the battle of Dreux, after which he withdrew to Geneva. On the death of Calvin (27 May 1564), he was elected "Moderator," and as such it may be said that he 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 time he also displayed great literary activity; he maintained negotiations with the Zwinglians, and with the English Calvinists and Puritans. A few months after the death of his wife, in 1588, already seventy years old, he married the widow Genoveffa del Piano; he was visited by his brother and also by St. Francis de Sales, all of whom tried, but in vain, to bring him back to the faith of his fathers before his death (cf. A. J.-M. Hamon, Vie de s. François de Sales, I, Paris 1909, pp. 239-62).

The character and personality of B. have been the subject of polemics and contradictory judgments, not only between Catholics and Protestants, but also among Protestants themselves. For his admirers he was a man of pure morals; in the civil wars of France, until the battle of Dreux, he kept himself rigorously in the office of simple minister or chaplain of the troops, and then in that of counselor of the Huguenots. His moderation and his balance are celebrated in a singular way. For the Bezamastiges, as his opponents are called, the judgment is quite different. It is not easy to find the right middle ground. Certainly B. in his youth was a libertine, and his Poemata iuvenilia show him as such: but later he repented of it, and blamed those poems of his. From the same time is the mock marriage with the Desnoz; it is not possible to excuse him from the charge of having lived for some years in practical concubinage. Also the new marriage contracted at seventy years of age gave good material to the criticisms of his adversaries.

Regarding the religious wars of France, although it cannot be proved that he had a part in the assassination of the duke of Guise perpetrated by Poltrot, and much less in the conspiracy of Amboise, nevertheless, according to the confession of one of his admirers and biographers, "non tantum publicis concionibus profuit, sed documentis, admonitionibus, cohortationibus privatim illum (the prince of Condé) ac reliquam nobilitatem gallicam, quae a partibus illius principis stabat, plurimum adiuvit." If one considers well the sense that such words can have in so many years of bitter wars, which desolated France and during which the eyes of the Huguenots, as another Protestant writer says, were fixed on him, one will have no difficulty in attributing to him much responsibility in those ruins. If on many occasions he showed himself balanced and moderate, it is certain that in the book De haereticis a civili magistratu puniendis, he admitted and counseled 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 had to be repelled with all the means that God had placed in his hands, and he found no torment adequate to the enormity of heresy. This treatise has also been bitterly criticized by the Protestants themselves. In the polemic then with Castellio no sense of moderation is discernible, as likewise in ch. 7 of his Confessio Christianae Fidei, entitled Brevis antithesis Papatus et

Christianismi. In general, moreover, in his polemics there are found expressions and epithets which, if they can be explained by the virulence of the language then in use in that 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 the doctrines of Calvin, even the most radical ones, and attacked the contrary doctrines, both Catholic and Lutheran; yet when he saw himself constrained by necessity or in order to avoid further polemics, he separated from him on doctrinal points even important ones. Thus in his memorial to the Lutheran duke of Württemberg, which some consider an irenic exposition of the reformed faith, he made such concessions on the real presence that they aroused harsh censures on the part of his coreligionists. In the Second Helvetic Confession he admitted certain expressions on predestination that are not in conformity with the doctrine of Calvin.

The numerous writings of B. can be classified in this way:

Literary writings: The Poemata iuvenilia; a tragedy on the Sacrifice of Abraham and some 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 of the Confessio Christianae Fidei, etc.

Biblical writings: editions of the Psalms; of the Latin text (1556) and Greek text (1565) of the New Testament, very accurate, for which he made use of Cod. D. or Codex of B., which came into his hands after the sack made by the Huguenots of the monastery of St. Irenaeus at Lyon, and of the Codex Claromontanus discovered by him at Clermont. He cooperated in the translation of the Bible made by the pastors of Geneva. He wrote various commentaries on different books, such as that of Job.

Polemical writings: The most famous is the already cited De puniendis haereticis. He also wrote against the Lutherans on the supper and on the ubiquity of Christ; against Castellio on predestination; against Ochino on polygamy; against Saravia on the hierarchy and on missions among the pagans, where he shows himself contrary to missions; against the Catholics, etc.

Theological writings: the three volumes of Tractationes... theologicae are by B., which consist of a collection of opuscules, of which the first is his Confessio Fidei Christianae, whose ch. 7 is directed against the Catholic Church; Miscellaneous writings, that is, various letters, homilies, discourses, etc.

Camillo Crivelli