B E Z 



493 



BEZ 



Bcrkanser, Soorut-Sing, the rajah of Beykanecr, lias absolute 

 Ikza. power over the lives and properties of his subjects. 



v ~ "" v """""' By dissipating the treasures of Iiis ancestors, he has 

 oppressed his subjects with the most cruel exactions ; 

 and is obliged to maintain his power by an army of 

 4800 infantry, 3200 cavalry, and 30 pieces of artil- 

 lery. Though he has several Europeans in his ser- 

 vice, his invasions of the Batnians and of Churoo 

 have generally been unsuccessful. The revenues of 

 this province are about three lacs of rupees, though 

 this sum has been sometimes doubled by imposts 

 upon the merchandise which pass through the coun- 

 try. This rapacity, however, has forced the merchants 

 to carry their goods by a different route, (h) 



BEYKANEER, the capital of the province of 

 Beykanecr, is a large and well built town, surround- 

 ed by a wall. About an English mile to the south- 

 east of the town is situated the fort, which is the re- 

 sidence of the rajah. It is a strong place, encircled 

 with a wide and deep ditch. This place, however, 

 derives it chief security from the disclte of water in 

 the neighbourhood, (h) 



BEZA, THEODORE, a celebrated French reform- 

 er, was born of noble parents, at Vezelai, in Burgun- 

 dy, on the 21th of June 1519. His uncle, who was 

 counsellor of the parliament of Paris, took the charge 

 of him during his infancy, and sent him to Orleans in 

 1528, to be instructed by Melchior Wolmar, under 

 whom he continued about seven years, and made ra- 

 pid progress in the various branches of polite litera- 

 ture. When Wolmar returned to Germany, his na- 

 tive country, in 1535, Beza was sent to study law at 

 Orleans; but he preferred the cultivation of classical 

 learning, and employed a considerable portion of his 

 time in the composition of verses. In 1539, he took 

 his licentiate's degree, and went to Paris, where he 

 was provided with two good 'benefices. He succeed- 

 ed also to the benefices of his elder brother ; and his 

 uncle, the Abbe de Froidmond, had promised to re- 

 sign his abbey to him, which was worth 15,000 livres 

 a-year. In such opulent circumstances, Beza was 

 strongly tempted to continue in the Catholic faith, 

 though he declares, that he never gave up the resolu- 

 tion of abandoning it. Having been afflicted with a 

 dangerous illness, he renewed his vow to profess the 

 reformed religion ; and as soon as he had recovered 

 sufficient strength, he fled to Geneva, along with a 

 lady whom he had formerly promised to marry, and 

 arrived in that city on the 24th October 1548. In 

 the following year he accepted of the Greek profes- 

 sorship at Lausanne, where he continued nine years 

 fulfilling the duties of his office, and occasionally 

 reading lectures on the New Testament to several 

 French refugees who resided in that town. In con- 

 uence of an assembly of 400 Protestants having 

 been surprised and taken prisoners at Paris in 1557, 

 Beza, along with Farellus and John Budeus, went 

 as a deputy to some of the German princes, to beg 

 their intercession with the court of France in behalf 

 of the persecuted Protestants ; but he returned to 

 Lausanne, without having completely gained the ob- 

 iect of his mission. Desirous to devote himself whol- 

 ly to divinity, and actuated by other motives which 

 Beza himself declines to mention, he left Lausanne, 



6 



and returned to Geneva, where he became the col- 

 league of Calvin, both in the church and the univer- 

 sity, and co-operated with that zealous reformer in 

 promoting the great objects of the Reformation. 

 At the earliest solicitation of some of the leading 

 men in the kingdom, Beza was invited to Nerac, to 

 convert the king of Navarre ; and, at the desire of 

 this prince, he assisted at the conference of Poissy. 

 His speech before this assembly was received with 

 the utmost attention, till he declared, " that the 

 body of Jesus Christ was as distant from the bread 

 and wine, as the highest heaven is from the earth." 

 At this sentiment the prelates murmured, and made 

 a noise : Some of them exclaimed, Blasphemuvit ! 

 others left the assembly ; and the Cardinal de Tour- 

 non requested the king, either to silence Beza, or to 

 permit him and the other ecclesiastics to withdraw. 

 The king however refused to interfere, and Beza 

 concluded his able and intrepid harangue. 



At the desire of Katherine de Medicis, Beza re- 

 mained in France. After the massacre of Vassi, on 

 the 1st of March 1562, he was deputed to complain 

 of this violence to the king ; and, during the civil 

 war which ensued, he attached himself to the Prince 

 of Conde, and was present as a clergyman at the 

 battle of Dreux. After the confinement of the 

 Prince of Conde, Beza lived with Admiral de Co- 

 ligni, till his return to Geneva, after the peace of 

 1563. In 1568, he went to Vezelai, to settle his 

 father's affairs, and to attempt the conversion of his 

 sister, who had retired to a convent. In 1571, he 

 again went to France, to assist at the synod of Ro- 

 chelle, where he was elected moderator ; and, in 

 1572, he was present at the synod of Nismes, where 

 he opposed the introduction of a new discipline, pro- 

 posed by the party of John Morel. In 1574, the 

 Prince of Conde invited him to Strasbourg, to go on 

 a mission to Prince John Casimir, administrator of 

 the palatinate. In 1586, he was engaged in the con- 

 ferences of Montbeliard, and in those of Bern in 

 1588. Having lost his wife, he married, during the 

 same year, a widow, who survived him. In conse- 

 quence of a report raised by the Jesuits, that Beza 

 was dead, and had professed on his deathbed the Ca- 

 tholic rsligion, he wrote verses full of vigour against 

 that body ; and in the year 1600, he wrote a votivu 

 gratulatio to Henry IV. His health now' began to 

 decline, and he died on the 13th of October 1605, 

 and was buried in the cloister of St Peter. 



It is difficult to discover the true character of 

 Beza amidst the gross calumnies of the Catholics 

 ana the exaggerated encomiums of his own party. 

 He has been accused of hypocrisy, infidelity, mur- 

 der, and crimes that cannot even be named ; but 

 there is every reason to believe, that these charges 

 were the malicious inventions of his theological op- 

 ponents. It does not appear, however, from a care- 

 ful examination of the life of Beza, that he was distin- 

 guished by that untainted purity and irreproachable 

 conduct that we would wish to admire in the charac- 

 ter of a reformer. 



Beza was the author of numerous works in theo- 

 logy, of which his Latin translation of the New Tes- 

 tament is the principal. His Juvenal .Pieces were 



Bezs. 



