B E Z 



tTie circle of Weflplialia, anJ duchy of Berg, ontheWippcr, 

 3 miles north of L: iinep. 



BEYERLAND.an ifjand bclonfrinfr to HoH;ind, fituatcd 

 on the Mcufc, with a town of the fame name ; 4 kaguea 

 wc-ft of Doi-t. 



REYERN, a town of Germany, in the circle of Swabia, 

 and county of Fullenberg,fituated on the Danube, 4 leagues 

 from D-.illingen. 



BEYHARTING, a town of Germany, in the circle of 

 Bavaria, 24 miles E.S.E. of Munich. 

 BEYKE. See Beki. 



BEYLA, a town and diftrift of Abyffmia, in Sennar, 

 about I I miles weft of Teawa, and 3 1 { m'les due fouth, in 

 N. lat. 31^42' 4". Between Tcawa and Beyla there is no 

 water. Imgededema, and a number of villages, were fnp- 

 plied with water from wells, and had large crops of iTidian 

 corn fown about their pofleiTions. But the Arabs Daveinu 

 have deftroyed thefe places, filled up their wells, burnt their 

 crops, and expofed all the inhabitants to die by famiuc. 



BEYMONT, or Beywort, a town of Germany, in the 

 bifiiopric of Liege, 8 miles fouth of Litge. 



BEYNAT, the chief place of a canton in the diftridl of 

 Brivc-s, and department of Correze, containing 1462 inhabi- 

 tants ; thofe of the canton being 548>^. The territory com- 

 prehends 1 •?5 kiliometres and 6 communes. 



BEYS, GiLLES, in Biography, a printer at Paris, in the 

 l6th centun-, who firft introduced into his editions the dif- 

 tinfTion fuggeiled by Ramus in his grammar between _;' and v 

 confonants, and the vowels / and ;;. He died in 1595. 



BEYSZKER, (Ge/n. Tlnerb.) in Ichthyjosy, a name of 

 the cobitis foffilh . Gir.elin. 



BEZA, Theodore, or Theodore de Be/.e, in Bio- 

 graphy, an eminent divine among the firft reformers in Ge- 

 neva, was born of parents nobly defcended, in 15 19, at 

 Vezelai in Burgundy, and fent by his uncle, who was a 

 counfellor in the parliament of Paris, to Orleans, in 152S, 

 to be educated by M',-lchior Wolmar, a protcftant and an 

 excellent teacher. Having continued fevcn years under his 

 tuition, he commenced the ihidy of the law at Orleans; but 

 his tafte led him to the cultivation of polite literature, and 

 he compofed fcveral Latin poems, which were confidered by 

 the learned as a promifing fpecimen of his talents. After 

 taking a law-degree, he returned, in 1539, to Paris, where 

 his p.U'ents, who had intended him for the ecclcfiallical pro- 

 ftffion, had procured for him a valuable abbacy. Addifted 

 to the delights of an eafy and voluptuous life, he remained 

 for fome years at Paris; but under the influence of fenli- 

 ments imbibed in his youth from his protellant preceptor, 

 he determined fooncr or later to break his fetters. A mar- 

 riage contratled from confcientious motives rendered it ne- 

 ceflar)' for him to refign his benefices, and haftened in the 

 execution of his purpofe by the reflexions attending a fevere 

 illnefs, he and his female companion fled, in 1548, to Ge- 

 neva. In the following year he accepted the offer of a 

 Greek profeflorfhip at Laufsnne, in the exercife of which 

 he continued with reputation lor nine or ten years. Here 

 he read leisures in French on the New Teflament, and pub- 

 lilhcd fevcra! books ; one of which was a tragi-comedv, in 

 Trench, entitled " Abraham's Sacrifice," which paflcd 

 through feveral imprcffions. Having frequent opportunities 

 of vifiting Calvin at Geneva, he was induced by his pcrfua- 

 fion to Rnilh the vcrfion of the Pfalms, whicii had been be- 

 gun by Marot. During his refidence at Laufanne, he pub- 

 lilhcd a treatife, " Dc Hcreticis a Magiftratu puniendis," in 

 reply to a book written by Caftalio, after the execution of 

 Servetus ; and in this treatife he maintained a doftrine no 

 lefs dangerous in its tendency than inconfiftent with his 

 principles as a reformer and a protcftant, that it was the 



B E Z 



duty of the civil magiftrate to punift herefy. He alfo wrote 

 on pred.ilination, and the eucharlll, in oppofition to the Lu- 

 tlierans, ar.d others, and in a ftyle of raillery which a ma- 

 turer judgment and after-refltClion led him to correft. In 

 I ^58, he was fcledted as one of tlie deputies commifiioncd by 

 the p'-oteftants, to engage the German princes \n favour of 

 their brethrLn imprifoned at Paris, and of the perfecuted in- 

 habitants of the va'.lies of Piedmont. In the following year he 

 removed to Geneva, v/here he became theco'ltague of Calvin, 

 both in the church and univerfity, and where by his abilities, 

 learning, a::d zeal, he co-eperated with him hi advancing the 

 reformation. In 1561, he dil.in^uifiiedhinifclf by his eloquence 

 on behalf ^f the Protcftant party, at the conference of PoilTy ; 

 although he gave offence by his declared oppofition to the 

 doarine of the real prefence. Continuing in France, he 

 attended the prince of C^irdc- as a minifter, when the civil 

 war broke out, and accompanied him to the battle of Dreux. 

 LIpon his return to Geneva, in 1563, he wrote feytral books 

 in thed'ogical controveify, with an acrimony that cannot be 

 juftilied by perfons of moderation and candour. In 157 1, 

 he officiated as moderator in the national fynod of Rochclle, 

 and in the following year aflifted in that of Nifmes. In 

 1586, he held a difputation with Andreas, a Lutheran divine 

 of Tubingen ; and through the whole courfe of his hfe, the 

 party to which he belonged availed itfelf, on many occa- 

 fions, of his talents and reputation. Having loll his firft 

 wife in 1588, he foon married another. Although the in- 

 firmities of his advanced age required his withdrawing from 

 the duties of public inftrufrion, the ardour of his genius 

 remained to the clofe of his life, and he wrote Latin verfes 

 a few years before his death, which happened in Oftober 

 1605, after he had pafTed his 86th year. Of his fingular 

 natural talents and literary acquirements no doubt can be 

 entertained ; nor need we wonder that bigotted Catholics 

 fliould have calumniated him vvhilft he lived, and reviled 

 his memory after his death. He has indeed, by his enemies, 

 been unjuftlv traduced as a hypocrite, and a perfon of lax 

 morals ; but charges of this kind are refuted by the uniform 

 tenour of his life. His partial advocates, however, mult 

 regret that, as a difputant, he was violent, impetuous, and 

 dogmatical, and dehcient in candour and charity. His ju- 

 venile pieces, in Latin poetry, in which critics have detected 

 many numerous deviations from claffical purity, were firft 

 printed in 1548. Some of thefe, with correftions, together 

 with others of a more ferious caft, were printed by the 

 Stephenfes at Paris, in 1597, 410. under the title of 

 " Theod. Beza; Poemata varia." His French works are of 

 an inferior kind. His theological works arc numerous. Of 

 thefe, the moft generally read, and the moft highly efteemed, 

 is his " Latin verfion of the New Teftament," with critical 

 and theological remarks. For an account of the MS. in his 

 poffcftion, fee Cambridge MS. Gen. Did. 



B.EZABA, in Geography, a river of Spain, which runs 

 into Orio, in the province of Guipufcoa. 



BEZABDA, or Gozerta, G'.ziret ebn-Omar, in Ancient 

 Geography, a town of Afia, on the right bank of the Tigris, 

 fuuth-weft of Tigranocerta, in the country called Zabdi- 

 cana. 



BEZ.ANT, reprefents, in HcrnUry, round flat pieces of 

 gold. They were firft borne by the foldiers of the holy 

 wars, being the current coin of Byzantium (the modern 

 Conftantinople,) with which the ftipends of the army were 

 difchirged, and from whence they took their name. They 

 are always emblazoned gold, but the foreign heralds make 

 them both gold and filver. 



BEZANTIE, in //iraW/^', is when the field is powdered 

 with bezants, or when fupporters, or crefts, are ftrewed with 

 them. The proper heraldic term is bezantie. When a 



bordure 



