B E Z 



358 



B E Z 



|M it neither pleasant nor profitable; and we shall confine 

 ouneUei to expressing our full concurrence with the con- 

 clusion of Bayle (art ' Bize,' note U), that us the charges 

 against Bexa rest solely on assertion, which is met by de- 

 nial, as the gravest of thorn were of such nature thai they 

 wight readily have been supported by evidence, and as no 

 exidenco in support of them was ever given, it is fair to 

 conclude that they were altogether calumnious. The charge 

 of general licentiousness has been supported by reference 

 to the indecency of some of his early poem* 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 IH-M-I 

 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. During his residence in Paris, by his own 

 acknowledgment, though he might have a speculative pre- 

 ference for the reformed religion, he had no ruling sense of 

 religion at all. When he became earnest in his religion, he 

 i ted of his indecency; and both by public avowals of 

 his contrition, and by endeavouring to suppress the offensive 

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

 against morality. But what can be said in defence of those 

 who indulged in the most violent invective against Beza for 

 having composed such poems, and then republished them 

 again and again to bring the author into contempt and 

 odium? 



After a very short residence at Geneva, and subsequently 

 at Tubingen, Beza was appointed Greek professor of the 

 college of Lausanne. 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 fifty, so that one hundred 

 Psalms remained : these were first printed in France with 

 the royal license in 1561. Beza, at this time, employed 

 his pen in support of the right of punishing heresy by the 

 civil power: his treatise, De Hcerettcis a Civili Magistral u 

 puniendis, is in defence of the execution of Servetus at 

 Geneva in 1 553. Beza was not singular in maintaining 

 this doctrine: the principal churches of Switzerland, and 

 even Melancthon, concurred in justifying, by their autho- 

 rity, that act which has been so fruitful of reproach against 

 the party by whom it was perpetrated. The persecuted 

 party, be it which it might, was ready enough to com- 

 plain, and to persecute when its turn came round. The 

 reformers, after rejecting opinions which had been lopg 

 received as fundamental truths, were determined not to 

 allow others the same liberty which they had taken them- 

 selves. His work De Jure Afagistratuum, published at a 

 much later time in his life (about 1572), presents a curious 

 contrast to the work De Hcereticis, &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 

 a* 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 contra- 

 dictory. During his residence at Lausanne, Beza pub- 

 lished several controversial treatises, which his friend, col- 

 league, and biographer, Antoine La Faye, confesses to be 

 written with a freer pen than was consistent with the gravity 

 of the subject. Some Lutheran writers attack, in the IN I 

 violent and insulting language, the grossness displayed in 

 these works. That there was some ground for the charge 

 we may collect from La Faye's declaration, that the author 

 expunged the obnoxious passages in subsequent editions ; 

 and perhaps it is no wonder that a lively and humorous 

 temper, not trained in the purest of schools at Paris, should 

 have required a long course of discipline to be brought 

 under habitual and complete control. To this portion of 

 Beza's life belongs the translation of the New Testament 

 int i Latin, completed in 1556, and printed at Paris by 

 IIH in |j.)7. The liest edition is said to Irs thii't 

 of Cambridge, 1642. It contains the commentary of Came- 

 rarun, as well as a copious body of notes by the translator 

 himself. 



After ten year*' residence at Lausanne, Beza removed to 

 Geneva in 1559. The admiration which he already felt for 

 1 ;n was greatly increased by closer intimacy : ' he 

 'putted him, and in his ninety made great progress both in 

 matters of doctrine and of church discipline.' 1 1. 1 t'aye, p. 19.) 

 About tin- ntered into holy orders. At Calvin's 



request he was admitted to be a citizen of Geneva ; he was 



appointed to assist that remarkable man in giving lectures 

 in theology ; and on the academy or university of Geneva 

 being founded by the legislature, he was appointed i < 

 upon Calvin's 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 ajourn 



. in hope of winning the 1. 



autism, or at least of inducing him to i."ii 



of the persecution to winch the French Protes: 

 then exposed. His preaching was successful ; and he re- 

 mained at Nerac until the beginning of 1561, and at the 

 king of Navarre's request attended the conference of I'oissy. 

 opened iii August of that year, in the hope of 

 reconciliation between the Catholic and Protestant chu^K 

 jf France. Beza was the chief speaker in behalf of the 

 latter, and though certain of his expressions WOK 

 excepted to, he seems on the whole to have managed his 

 cause with temper and ability ; and to have made a favour- 

 able impression on both Catherine of Medicis and Cardinal 

 Lorrain. (See La Faye, pp. 28-40 ; and D Thou, Thuarri 

 Histona. lib. 28, pp. 40, 48, vol. ii. Genev. 1620.) 



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 ; and 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, and the civil war which ensued. 

 [See L'HUPITAL.] During that contest, which closed in 

 March, 1663, Beza attached himself to the person of Condi", 

 at that prince's earnest request. He was present at the 

 battle of Dreux, where C'onde was taken prisoner : but not 

 as a combatant, as he positively asserts in his answer to \.,, 

 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 

 on the confession of the murderer Poltrot : but Poll rot re- 

 tracted 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 

 in strict union and friendship. He then took an assist- 

 ant, as Calvin bad taken him: at a later period Antoine 

 La Faye filled that office. From the number of tr. 

 which Beza wrote during a few years after his return to 

 Geneva, we may judge that he returned with avidity from 

 the interruption of war to his studies, and to the work ot 

 controversy. He succeeded not only to the place, but to the 

 influence of Calvin, and from thenceforth was regarded a* 

 the head and leader of the Genevese church. In I .'.71 he 

 was requested to attend the general synod of French Pro- 

 testants held at Rochellc ; 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 auain 

 requested to attend a synod held at Nismes. win-re he op- 

 posed successfully a new form of church discipline, which 

 Jean Morel attempted to introduce. In the course of his 

 life, Beza was engaged in several other conferences, which, 

 as they produced no important results, it is not necess 

 give any account of. 



After the massacre of St. Bartholomew, in 1572, Beza 

 showed himself prompt to succour the distressed 1'iotcMants 

 who flocked to Geneva. He supporter], acci.rdin^' 

 Faye, fifty clergymen, who were among them, lor three 

 years, chiefly by his exertions in raising subscriptions in 

 their behalf in England, Germany, and France. 



In 1575 began Heza's correspondence with the lord chan- 

 cellor of Scotland on the subject of church polity. A : 

 time the code of Scots ecclesiastical law, called the > 

 Booh of Discipline, was in course of framing: and tin- lord 

 chancellor, who saw and feared the destruction of the spi- 

 ritual estate in parliament by the settlement of Prnshy to- 

 rianism, entered on an epistolary correspondence with He/a 

 on the subject. Beza answered the queries submitted to 

 him, and the treatise which he composed on the occasion 

 having been printed, and soon after translated, tin 

 thority of his name and the force of his arguments had 

 great influence on the public mind. 



His first wifedied in 1588. In the course of a few months 

 he took a second wife, a young widow, to whose care his de 

 clinini: years were indebted for much comfort. He scai 

 manifested the infirmities of age until 1597, when he was 



