699 



BEZA. 



BEZA. 



690 



editions, and obtained Bewick a great reputation. The designs in this 

 work are by Bewick and his brother John, who was his pupil ; and 

 they are all executed with great natural truth, and in a free correct 

 manner. The cuts themselves are superior to anything that was ever 

 done in the same style before, and are inferior only to the best cuts of 

 the present day in mechanical execution and clearness of line. As 

 works of art they still have the advantage. His history of Quad- 

 rupeds was followed, in 1795, by Goldsmith's ' Traveller ' and 

 ' Deserted Village,' Parnell's ' Hermit,' and Somerville's ' Chase.' The 

 ' Chase ' was the last work in which Thomas was assisted by his 

 brother ; all the cuts were executed by Thomas, but the designs were 

 by John. John Bewick died of consumption in 1795, aged thirty-five. 

 In 1797 Thomas published the first volume of his ' History of British 

 Birds,' which is his best serial work : the second volume was published 

 in 1804. This is also the last work he undertook in partnership with 

 Mr. Beilby. They dissolved partnership during its progress. 



Bewick had a numerous school, and was latterly much occupied in 

 teaching ; and in his last works was greatly assisted by his pupils, of 

 whom Harvey and Clennel have since particularly distinguished them- 

 Belves in the same line of art. 



The most considerable of Bewick's latest works is ' The Fables of 

 .iEsop and others.' He prepared some vignettes for a work on ' British 

 Fiflhes," but they were not published. His very la^st work wasr a 

 cut of nn old horse, for the head of a paper against cruelty to 

 animals. He died in 1 828, aged seventy -five. His masterpiece is con- 

 sidered to be a large cut of a bull of the ancient Caledonian breed, 

 from ChilUugham Park ; a proof of this cut ou vellum has been sold 

 for twenty guineas. Bewick's services and merits are fully discussed 

 in ' The Hibtory of Wood Engraving, with Illustrations ' by J. Jackson ; 

 and there is a memoir of him, of considerable detail, in the ' Geutle- 

 man's Magazine' of 1829. 



BEZA, an eminent theologian of the Calviuistic branch of the 

 reformed church. He is commonly known by the Latinised name of 

 Ik'za, but his real name was Thdodore de ] Icze. He was a Frenchman, 

 born of noble parents, in 1519, at Yezelai, a small town of which his 

 father was bailli, in the department of Yonne. While yet only an 

 infant he was sent to Paris, and placed under the care of an uncle, 

 Nicolas de Beze, who held the office of judge in the parliament of 

 Paris. The cause of this early separation from his parents does not 

 appear. This uncle brought him up tenderly, and before he was ten 

 years old placed him under the care of Melchiur Wolomr, a learned 

 German, resident at Orleans, who was especially skilled in the Greek 

 language. On Wolmar being appointed to a professorship in the 

 university of Bourges, Beza accompanied him, and remained, in the 

 whole, for seven years under bis tuition. During this time he became 

 an excellent scholar, and he afterwards acknowledged a deeper obliga- 

 tion to his tutor, for having " imbued him with the knowledge of true 

 piety, drawn from the limpid fountain of the word of God." In 1535 

 Wolmar returned to Germany, and Brza repaired to Orleans to study 

 law ; but his attention was chiefly directed to the classics and the 

 composition of verses. His Latin verses, published in 1548, were 

 chiefly written during this period of his life. 



Beza obtained his degree as licentiate of civil law when he had 

 just completed his twentieth year, upon which he went to Paris, where 

 he spent nine years. He was young, possessed of a handsome person, 

 and of ample means; for though not in the priesthood, he enjoyed 

 the proceeds of two good benefices, amounting, he says, to 700 golden 

 crowns a-year. The death of an elder brother added considerably to 

 his income, and an uncle, who was abbot of Froidmond, expressed an 

 intention of resigning that preferment, valued at 15,000 livres yearly, 

 in his favour. Under such circumstances, in a city like Paris, ho was 

 exposed to strong temptation ; and his conduct during this part of 

 his life has incurred great censure. That his life was grossly immoral 

 he denies ; but he formed a private marriage with, or rather engaged 

 to marry, a woman of birth, he says, inferior to his own, but possessed 

 of such virtue that he never found reason to repent of the connection. 

 It was covenanted that he should marry her publicly as soon as the 

 obstacles to that ktep should be removed, and that in the meantime 

 he should not take orders, a thing entirely inconsistent with taking a 

 wife. Meanwhile his relations pressed him to enter into the church ; 

 his wife and his conscience bade him avow his marriage and his real 

 belief; bis inclination bade him conceal both and stick to the rich 

 benefices which he enjoyed ; and in this divided state of mind he 

 remained till a serious illness brought him to a more manly and a 

 more holy temper. Immediately on his recovery he fled to Geneva, 

 at the end of October 1548, aud there publicly solemnised his marriage 

 and avowed his faith. 



The more serious charges brought against him in after life in the 

 heat of controversy, appear to rest on no good foundation. Ono is 

 to be excepted. The charge of general licentiousness has been sup- 

 ported by reference to the indecency of some of his early poems 

 published at Paris in 1548, in his 'Juvenilia,' which his enemies justly 

 alleged to be inconsistent with the character of a reformer and father 

 of the church. This offence, which Beza never sought to extenuate, 

 is a grave one, but it affords no ground for casting the imputation of 

 hypocrisy, or any other, on his subsequent life. When he became 

 earnest in his religion, he repented of his indecency ; and both by 

 public avowals of his contrition, and by endeavouring to suppress 

 BIOO. BIT. VOL. i 



the offensive verses, he made such amends as he could for his offence 

 against morality. 



After a very short residence at Geneva, and subsequently at Tubin- 

 gen, Beza was appointed Greek professor of the college of Lauaanne. 

 During his residence here he took every opportunity of going to 

 Geneva to hear Calvin preach, at whose suggestion he undertook to 

 complete Clement Marot's translation of the Psalms into French 

 verse. Marot had translated 50, so that 100 Psalms remained : these 

 were first printed in France with the royal licence in 1561. Beza, at 

 this time, employed his pen in support of the right of punishing 

 heresy by the civil power. His treatise, ' De Hsereticis a Civili Magis- 

 tratu puuiendis,' is in defence of the execution of Servetus at Geneva 

 in 1553. Beza was not singular in maintaining this doctrine ; the 

 principal churches of Switzerland, and even Melaucthon, concurred in 

 justifying by their authority that act which has been so fruitful of 

 reproach against the party by whom it was perpetrated. His work 

 ' De Jure Magistratuum,' published at a much later time in his life 

 (about 1572), presents a curious contrast to the work 'De Hoereticis,' 

 &c. In this later work he asserted the principles of civil and religious 

 liberty and the rights of conscience; but though he may be considered 

 as 'before most men of his age in the boldness of his opinions as to the 

 nature of civil authority, his views of the sovereign power, as exhibited 

 in this work, are confused and contradictory. During his residence at 

 Lausanne, Beza published several controversial treatises, which his 

 friend, colleague, and biographer, Antoiue la Faye, confesses to be 

 written with a freer pen than was consistent with the gravity of the 

 subject. To this portion of Beza's life belongs the translation of the 

 New Testament into Latin, completed iu 1556, and printed at Paris by 

 R. Stephens in 1557. The best edition is said to be that of Cambridge, 

 1642. It contains the commentary of Camerarius, as well as a copious 

 body of notes by the translator himself. For this edition he used a 

 manuscript of the four Gospels, which in 1 581 he gave to the University 

 of Cambridge. It is generally known as Beza's Codex, and a fac-simile 

 edition of it was published in 1793. 



After ten years' residence at Lausanne, Beza removed to Geneva in 

 1559. The admiration which he already felt for Calvin was greatly 

 increased by closer intimacy. About this time he entered into holy 

 orders. At Calvin's request he was admitted to \)i a citizen of Geneva; 

 he was appointed to assist that remarkable man iu giving lectures iu 

 theology ; aud on the academy or university of Geneva being founded 

 by the legislature, he was appointed rector, upon Calvin declining 

 that office. It seems to have been in the same year that, at the 

 request of some leading nobles among the French Protestants, he 

 undertook a jouraey to Nei ac, in hope of winning the king of Navarre 

 to Protestantism, or at least of inducing him to interfere in mitigation of 

 the persecution to which theFrench Protestants were then exposed. His 

 pleading was successful, and he remained at Nerac until the beginning 

 of 1561, and at the king of Navarre's request attended the conference 

 of Poissy, opened in August of that year, in the hope of effecting a 

 reconciliation between the Catholic and Protestant churches of France. 

 Beza was the chief speaker on behalf of the French churches. He 

 seems on the whole to have managed his cause with temper and ability, 

 and to have made a favourable impression on both Catherine of Medicis 

 and Cardinal Lorrain. 



Catherine requested him to remain in France, on the plea that his 

 presence would tend to maintain tranquillity, and that his native 

 country had the best title to his services. He consented ; aud after 

 the promulgation of the edict of January 1562 often preached publicly 

 in the suburbs of Paris. The short-lived triumph of toleration was 

 ended by the massacre of Vassy aud the civil war which ensued. 

 During that contest, which closed iu March 1563, Beza attached him- 

 self to the person of Condi, at that priuce's earnest request. He was 

 present at the battle of Dreux, where Comic" was taken prisoner; but 

 not as a combatant, as he positively asserts in his answer to his 

 calumniator, Claude de Xaintes. We may here notice the accusation 

 brought against him of having been concerned in plotting the murder 

 of the Duke of Guise in 1563, founded ou the confession of the 

 murderer Poltrot ; but Poltrot retracted this accusation, and, to the 

 hour of his death, asserted the innocence of Beza, 



At the end of the war Beza returned to Geneva. In 1564 he was 

 appointed teacher of theology, on the death of Calvin, whose labours 

 he had shared, and with whom he had lived in strict union and friend- 

 ship. He then took an assistant, as Calvin had taken him : at a later 

 period Antoine la Faye filled that office. Beza succeeded not only to 

 the place, but to the influence of Calvin, and thenceforth was regarded 

 as the head and leader of the Genevese church. In 1571 he was 

 requested to attend the general synod of French Protestants held at 

 Rochelle ; and he was elected moderator or president of that assembly, 

 by which the confession of faith of the Gallican church was settled. 

 In 1572 he was again requested to attend a synod held at Nismes, 

 where he opposed successfully a new form of church discipline, which 

 Jean Morel attempted to introduce. After the massacre of St. Bartho- 

 lomew, in 1572, Beza showed himself prompt to succour the distressed 

 Protestants who flocked to Geneva. He supported, according to La 

 Fayo, fifty clergymen, who were among them, for three years, chiefly 

 by his exertions in raising subscriptions in their behalf in England, 

 Germany, and France. 



His first wife died in 1588. In the course of a few months he took 



2 T 



