BEZA BEZOAR. 



521 



rcvcrs : on of his valuable abbey Froidmond, and lived 

 on the income of two benefices and the property 

 which he had inherited from a brother. His habits 

 at this time were dissipated. His liandsome figure, 

 his talents, and his connexion with the most distin- 

 guished families, opened to him the most splendid 

 prospects. But a clandestine marriage, in 1543, re- 

 called him from his excesses, and a dangerous illness 

 confirmed the intention, which he had formed at Or- 

 leans, of devoting himself to the service of the 

 reformed church ; so that, after his recovery, he for- 

 sook all the advantages of his situation in Paris, and 

 repaired with his wife to Geneva, in 1547. Soon af- 

 ter, he accepted a professorship of the Greek lan- 

 guage at Lausanne. During the ten years of his 

 continuance in this office, he wrote a tragi-comic 

 drama, in French, the Sacrifice of Abraham. 

 which was received with much approbation ; deli- 

 vered lectures (which were numerously attended) on 

 the Epistle to the Romans and the Epistles of Peter 

 (which served as the basis of his Latin translation of 

 the New Testament, of which he afterwards publish- 

 ed several editions, always with improvements) ; 

 finished Marot's translation of the Psalms in French 

 verse ; and obtained to such a degree the confidence 

 of the Swiss Calvinists, that he was sent, in 1558, on 

 an embassy to the Protestant princes of Germany, to 

 obtain their intercession at the French court for the 

 release of the Huguenots imprisoned in Paris. In 

 the following year, he went to Geneva as a preacher, 

 and, soon after, became a professor of theology, and 

 the most active assistant of Calvin, to whom he had 

 already recommended himself by several works (on 

 the punishment of heretics by the magistrate, the 

 vindication of the burning of Servetus, and some vio- 

 lent controversial writings on the doctrine of predes- 

 tination and the communion, against Castalio, West- 

 phal, and Hesshuss). His talents for negotiation 

 were now often put in requisition by the Calvinists. 

 He was sent to the court of Anthony, king of Navarre, 

 at Nerac, to obtain the toleration of the French Hu- 

 guenots, and, at his desire, he appeared, 1561, at the 

 religious conference at Poissy, where he spoke in be- 

 half of his party with a boldness, presence of mind, 

 and energy, which gained him the esteem of the 

 French court. He often preached in Paris before the 

 queen of Navarre and the prince of Conde : also in 

 the suburbs. At the conference of St Germain, in 

 1562, he spoke strongly against the worship of ima- 

 ges, and, after the commencement of the civil war, 

 accompanied the prince of Conde as chaplain, and, 

 on the capture of the prince, joined the admiral Co- 

 ligny. After the restoration of peace, he returned 

 to Geneva, in 1563, where, besides discharging the 

 duties of his offices, he continued to engage in theo- 

 logical controversies in support of the Calvinists ; 

 and, after Calvin's death, in 1564, became his succes- 

 sor, and was considered the first theologian of this 

 c! lurch. He presided in the synods of the French 

 Calvinists at La Ilochelle (1571) and at Nismes (1572), 

 where he opposed Morel's proposal for the alteration 

 of clerical discipline ; was sent by Conde (1574) to 

 the court of the elector palatine ; and, at the reli- 

 gious conference at Montpellier (1586), opposed the 

 theologians of Wurtemberg, particularly James An- 

 ilrcas. At the age of sixty-nine years, he married 

 his second wife (1588), and still continued to repel, 

 with the power of truth and wit, the attacks and 

 calumnies which his enemies, apostatized Calvinists 

 (such as Volsec), Lutherans, and especially the Je- 

 suits, heaped upon him. They reported, in 1597, 

 that he had died, and returned before his death to 

 the Catholic faith. B., now seventy-eight years old, 

 met his assailants in a poem full of youthful enthusi- 

 asm, and resisted, in the same year, the attempts of 



St Francis de Sales to convert him, and the alluring 

 offers of the pope. In 1600, he visited Henry IV. 

 in the territory of Geneva, who presented him with 

 500 ducats. After having enjoyed excellent health 

 during almost his whole life, he died Oct. 13, 1605, 

 of old age. By a rigorous adherence to the princi- 

 ples of Calvin, in whose spirit he presided over the 

 church of Geneva, he had become the chief of his 

 party, and enjoyed for forty years the reputation of a 

 patriarch, without whose approbation no important 

 step was taken. In order to preserve the unity and 

 permanency of his church, he sacrificed his own opi- 

 nions to the established dogmas of Calvin ; and ren- 

 dered the most important services by his various 

 erudition, his constant zeal, his active spirit, his bril- 

 liant eloquence, and even by the impression of his 

 personal appearance, which age made still more 

 striking. He defended his doctrines with ability 

 and enthusiasm, and often with merciless severity 

 and obstinacy. Among his many works, his exegetic 

 writings, and the able and correct History of CaTvin- 

 ism in France, from 1521 to 1563, which is ascribed 

 to him, are still much esteemed. His correspondence 

 with Calvin is to be found in the ducal library at 

 Gotha. A catalogue of his works is given by An- 

 thony la Faye, who has written an account of his 

 life. 



BEZANT ; round, flat pieces of pure gold, without 

 any impression, supposed to have been the current 

 coin of Byzantium. This coin was probably intro- 

 duced into coat-armour by the crusaders. Dr Henry, 

 in his History of England, estimates its value at 9s. 

 4^d. sterling. The gold offered by the king of 

 England on the altar, at the feast of the Epiphany 

 and the Purification, is called bezant. 



BEZOAK (Persian, pazar, a goat, or pazachar, 

 against poison) ; a concretion or calculus, of an orbi- 

 cular or oval form, met with in the bodies of various 

 animals. These substances are found in the stomach, 

 gall-bladder, salivary ducts, and pineal gland, but 

 especially in the intestines of certain animals of the 

 order ruminantia. They were formerly celebrated 

 for their supposed medicinal virtues, and distinguish- 

 ed by the name of the countries from which they 

 came, or the animals in which they were found. They 

 were considered as highly alexiphannic ; so much so, 

 that other medicines, supposed to possess the same 

 virtues, obtained the name of lezoardics. So effica- 

 cious were these once thought, that they were ea- 

 gerly bought for ten times their weight in gold. 

 Besides being taken internally, they were worn 

 around the neck, as preservatives from contagion. 

 For this purpose, it is said, that in Portugal it was 

 customary to hire them at the price of about ten 

 shillings per day. On analysis, these substances are 

 found to contain, for the most part, bile and resin. 

 It is almost needless to add, that the accounts of their 

 extraordinary virtues must now be considered as to- 

 tally fabulous A strange origin was assigned to the 

 bezoar by some of the old naturalists. The Oriental 

 stags, when oppressed with age and infirmity, were 

 said to feed upon serpents, which restored their 

 youthful vigour. To counteract the poison, which 

 by this means was absorbed into their system, they 

 plunged into some running stream, leaving their 

 heads only above water. In this situation, a viscous 

 fluid distilled from their eyes, which was indurated 

 by the heat of the sun, and formed tke bezo- 

 ar. The great value of the l>ezoar at one time 

 gave birth to many imitations of it, and various tests 

 have been proposed to detect the artificial stones. 

 The following cruel and absurd one is given by 

 Clusius : Thread a needle, and draw the thread 

 through a leaf plucked from a yew-tree ; then pass 

 the needle through a dog's foot, and leave the thread 

 3 a x 



