BEY 



357 



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with snow till the month of June. On this plain there are 

 several lakes, of which some of the Portuguese geographers 

 relate many wonderful stories. According to their accounts 

 these lakes are bottomless, and in some of them masts ol 

 ships have been found. The lakes, however, are nothing 

 more than great reservoirs in which the melted snow is col- 

 lected, and from which several streams of the province 

 spring. The Serra de Estrella is chielly composed of a 

 greyish granite, the surface of which is easily decomposed 

 by the action of the air. In the interior of this greyish 

 granite are found round blocks of a harder kind and a 

 darker colour, of the size of the largest cannon ball. The 

 other chain of this province is the Serra de Alcoba, which, 

 commencing at the banks of the Douro, runs south-west- 

 ward along the right bank of the Mondego and terminates 

 on the sea-shore at the mouth of that river, forming Cape 

 Mondego : between this range and the Serra de Estrella is 

 the beautiful valley to which the Mondego gives its name. 

 The highest point of the Serra de Alcoba, called Cabeca de 

 Cao or Dogs-head, is 1758 feet above the lovel of the sea. 

 Cape Mondego has an elevation of 696 feet. From these 

 two principal chains smaller ones branch out in different 

 directions, occupying the greatest part of High Beyra. All 

 these high lands are almost without trees, and only produce 

 pasture for cattle and food for small game. 



The principal rivers of Beyra proceeding from east to west 

 are the Elgas, the Aravil, the Ponsul, the Vereza, and the 

 Zezere, all which flow southward into the Tagus. The Tu- 

 rones (which is joined by the Agueda), the Coa (which is fed 

 by the Pinhel and the Lamegal), the Tavora, and the Pavia, 

 flow northwards into the Douro. The Mondego springs in 

 the Lago Escura in the Serra de Estrella, flows to the north- 

 west as far as Fornos, where it bends to the south-west, and 

 leaving Coimbra on its left bank falls into the Atlantic at 

 Figueira: its whole course may be about 100 miles. The 

 Vouga crosses and fertilizes the north-western districts of 

 Viseu and Aveiro. [See AvEino.] Except the Mondego, 

 the Zezere, and the Vouga, the rivers of Beyra are very 

 inconsiderable, though none are dry in summer : they all 

 abound in delicate fish. 



The general character of this province is very hilly. The 

 valleys are fertile, and produce wheat, Indian corn, rye, wine, 

 and fruit. The valley which is watered by the Mondego is 

 one of the most fertile and picturesque in the province, 

 abounding in lemon and orange trees : the hills which 

 enclose the valley are crowned with vines, and fig and other 

 fruit trees; indeed, in all Portugal there is scarcely a view so 

 splendid as that which the province of Beyra presents when 

 it first opens to the traveller coming from Estremadura, from 

 the heights north of Condeixa. The valley of the Mon- 

 dego is also seen to great advantage from the observatory 

 of Coimbra. The honey of Beyra is celebrated through 

 Portugal, and the fish of its coast are also in high re- 

 pute. Both in the mountains and valleys small game is 

 found in abundance. The western and southern parts of 

 the province are very productive, but in the mountainous 

 districts the products are scarcely sufficient for the support 

 of its inhabitants, many of whom resort to Lisbon, where 

 they employ themselves as carriers and in other menial 

 occupations. 



The greatest breadth of the province from east to west is 

 about 120 miles, and the greatest length from north to south 

 about the same. Antillon gives it an area of 753 Spanish 

 square leagues of twenty to a linear degree, and a popula- 

 tion of 1,121,595 souls. 



For the civil government, the province is divided into 

 eleven comarcas, or districts, viz., on the west, Coimbra, the 

 capital, which comprises 100 parishes; Aveiro, with 99; 

 Feira, on the north-west, with 75 ; Lamego, on the north, 

 with 152 ; Viseu with 206 ; Trancoso, nearly in the centre 

 to the east of Viseu, with 199; Pinhel, between Almeida 

 and Castel Rodrigo, with 39 ; La Guarda, to the south-west 

 of Pinhel, with 190; Linhares, to the west of La Guarda, 

 with 41 ; Lagos, on the left bank of the Alva, an affluent 

 of the Mondego, with 49 ; and Castello Branco, in the south 

 of the province, with 97. The ecclesiastical division of the 

 province is into seven bishopricks, Coimbra, Aveiro, Viseu, 

 Lamego, Pinhel, La Guarda, and Castello Branco. The prin- 

 cipal military stations are Castel Rodrigo and Almeida, the 

 latter being the chief fortification of the province, and about 

 twenty-three miles from Ciudad Rodrigo in Spain. 



The inhabitants of Beyra are chiefly employed in agri- 

 culture, and on the coast in fishing and commerce. There 



| are, however, some manufactories of cloth, hats, and other 

 ' articles of dress at Coimbra, which town is also the seat of 

 the only Portuguese University. 



(See the Map of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 

 Knowledge ; Antillon ; Bory d'e St. Vincent, Resume Geo- 

 graphique de la Peninsule Iberique, Paris, 1827; Mi- 

 nano, &c.) 



BEZA, an eminent theologian of the Calvinistic branch 

 of the reformed church. He is commonly known by the 

 Latinized name of Beza, but his real name was Theodore 

 de Beze. He was a Frenchman, horn of noble parents, in 

 1519, at Vezelai, a small town of which his father was 

 Bailli, in the district of the Nivernais, or, according to 

 modern divisions, in the department of Yonne. As soon as 

 he was weaned he was sent to Paris, and placed under the 

 care of an uncle, Nicolas de Bcze, who held the office of 

 Corvseiller, or judge, to 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 Melchior Wolmar, 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 accom- 

 panied him, and remained, in the whole, for seven years 

 under his tuition. During this time he became an excellent 

 scholar, and he afterwards acknowledged a deeper obligation 

 to his tutor, for having ' imbued him with the knowledge 

 of true piety, drawn from the limpid fountain of the word 

 of God.' In 1 535 Wolmar returned to Germany, and Beza 

 repaired to Orleans to study law; but/his attention was 

 chieHy directed to the classics and the composition of verses. 

 His Latin verses, published in 1548, and dedicated to 

 Wolmar, were chiefly written during this period of his life , 

 we shall have to speak of them hereafter. 



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, 

 and possessed of a handsome person and of ample means ; 

 for though not in the priesthood, he enjoyed the pro- 

 ceeds 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 pre- 

 ferment, valued at 15,000 livres yearly, in his favour. 

 Under such circumstances, in a city like Paris, he was ex- 

 posed to strong temptation ; and his conduct during this 

 part of his life has incurred great censure. We shall give 

 first his own account of it, in his letter to Wolmar, and then 

 a short notice of the statements of his enemies. He ac- 

 knowledges in the most open manner that, ' being better 

 provided with temporal advantages than with wisdom,' and 

 attracted by the splendour and pleasures of the world, he 

 was driven about without any fixed principle ; and though 

 his conscience bade him profess the reformed religion, yet, 

 partly from fear of giving offence, partly, as he candidly 

 says, ' because, like an unclean dog at a greasy hide, I was 

 not yet frighted from that iniquitous profit which I derived 

 from church property," he continued externally to conform 

 to the dominant church. That his life was grossly immoral 

 lie denies ; and as a preservative from immorality, 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 

 connexion. It was covenanted that he should marry her 

 publicly as soon as the obstacles to that step should be 

 removed, and that in the mean time he should not take 

 orders, a thing entirely inconsistent with taking a wife. 

 Meanwhile his relations pressed him to adopt some ' cer- 

 tain method of life,' or, in other words, to enter into the 

 church : his wife and his conscience bade him avow his 

 marriage and his real belief; his inclination bade him con- 

 ceal 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 tem- 

 per. Immediately on his recovery he fled to Geneva, at 

 the end of October, 1548, and there publicly solemnized his 

 marriage and avowed his faith. 



In after times, when Beza became a leader among the 

 reformers, and a zealous and formidable controversialist, he 

 was charged with having been addicted to the most revolting 

 licentiousness during this part of his life ; and it was said 

 that he fled to Geneva to escape from a prosecution insti- 

 tuted against him in Paris. To rake into the dirt of past 



