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History of the Christian Church

VOLUME 8

Modern Christianity, The Swiss Reformation

By Philip Schaff

CH819

Chapter 19:

History of the Christian Church Volume 8 Modern Christianity, The Swiss Reformation

CH819 Table of Contents

Chapter 19: Theodore Beza...... 2 8.167. Life of Beza to his Conversion ...... 3 8.168. Beza at Lausanne and as a Delegate to the German Princes ...... 5 8.169. Beza at ...... 6 8.170. Beza at the Colloquy of Poissy ...... 7 8.171. Beza as the Counsellor of the Huguenot Leaders...... 8 8.172. Beza as the Successor of Calvin, down to 1586 ...... 9 8.173. Beza’s Conferences with Lutherans ...... 11 8.174. Beza and Henry IV ...... 11 8.175. Beza’s Last Days ...... 12 8.176. Beza’s Writings ...... 13

Theil, 1861, with Anhang die Beilagen Chapter 19: Theodore Beza enthaltend, 1862 (unfortunately this masterly Sources: BEZA’S Correspondence, mostly book only extends to 1663).—*HEINRICH HEPPE: unprinted, but many letters are given in the Theodor Beza. Leben und ausgewaehlte Beilagen zu BAUM’S Theodor Beza (see below), Schriften, Elberfeld, 1861 (contains the whole and in HERMINJARD’s Correspondance des life, but is inferior in style to Baum).—Art. Beza réformateurs dans les pays de langue française by BORDIER in La Protestante. (vols. VI. sqq.); and his published works (the JEROME BOLSEC: Histoire de la vie, maeurs, list to the number of ninety is given in the doctrine, et déportements de Theodore de Bèze, article “Bèze, Théodore de,” in HAAG, La France , 1682; republished by an unnamed Protestante, 2d ed. by Bordier, vol. II., cols. Roman Catholic in Geneva, 1836, along with 620–540). By far the most important of them Bolsec’s “Life of Calvin,” to counteract the are, his Vita J. Calvini, best ed. in Calvin’s Opera, effect of the celebration of the third centennial XXI., and his Tractationes theologicae (1582). of the Reformation. It has no historical value, He also had much to do with the Histoire but is a malignant libel, like his so-called “Life ecclesiastique des églises reformées au royaume of Calvin,” as this specimen shows: “Bèze, toute de France, best ed. by Baum, Cunitz, and so jeunesse, a été un trèsdébauché et dissolu, Rodolphe Reuss (the son of Edward Reuss, the sodomite, adultère et suborneur de femmes editor of Calvin), Paris, 1883–1889. 3 vols. mariées [Bolsec elsewhere asserts that small quarto. Claudine Denosse was married when Beza ANTOINE DE LA FAYE: De vita et obitu Th. Bezae, seduced her], larron, trompeur, homicide de so Geneva, 1606.—FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH SCHLOSSER: propre géniture, traître, vanteur, cause et Leben des Theodor de Beza und des Peter instigateur d’infinis meurtres, guerres, Martyr Vermili, Heidelberg, 1809.—*JOHANN invasions, brûlemens de villes, palais et maisons, WILHELM BAUM: Theodor Beza nach de saccagemens de temples, et infinies autres handschriftlichen Quellen dargestellt, Leipzig, I. ruines et malheurs (ed. 1835, p. 188). Theil, 1848, with Beilagen to bks. I. and II. II.

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Much use has been made of the allusions to followed. His mother died when he was not Beza in HENRY M. BAIRD’S Rise of the quite three years old,—but already was he a (New York, 1879), and Huguenots and Henry of stranger to his father’s house; for one of his Navarre (1886), also of the article on “Bèze, uncles, Nicolas de Besze, seigneur de Cette et Theodore de,” in Haag, La France Protestante, de Chalonne, and a councilor in the mentioned above. See also Principal Parliament of Paris, had taken him with him CUNNINGHAM: The Reformers, Edinburgh, 1862; “Calvin and Beza,” pp. 345–413 (theological to Paris and adopted him, so great was the and controversial). love he bore him, and when the time came he was put under the best masters whom money 8.167. Life of Beza to his Conversion and influence could secure. The boy was The history of the Swiss Reformation would precocious, and his uncle delighted in his not be complete without an account of progress. One day at table he entertained a Calvin’s faithful friend and successor, guest from Orleans, who was a member of the Theodore Beza, who carried on his work in royal council. The conversation turned upon Geneva and France to the beginning of the the future of Theodore, whereupon the friend seventeenth century. commended Melchior Wolmar, the famous In the ancient duchy of Burgundy is the Greek scholar at Orleans, who was also the village of Vezelay. It was once the scene of a teacher of Calvin, as the best person to great gathering, for to it in 1146 came Louis educate the lad. The uncle listened VII. and his vassals, to whom Bernard attentively, and sent Theodore thither and preached the duty of rescuing the Holy secured him admission into Wolmar’s family. Sepulcher from the infidels so convincingly, This was in 1528, when Theodore was only that the king and his knights then and there nine years old. With Wolmar he lived till took the oath to become crusaders. Four and 1535, first at Orleans and then at Bourges, forty years later (1190), in the same place, and doubtless learned much from him. Part of Philip Augustus of France and Richard the this learning was not at all to the mind of his Lionheart of England, under similar father or his uncle Claudius, the Abbot of the pleadings, made the same vow. Cistercian monastery of Froimont in the diocese of Beauvais, who, on the death of his The village clusters around the castle in brother Nicolas, on Nov. 29, 1532, had which, in 1519, lived the rich Pierre de Besze, undertaken the pious duty of superintending the bailiff of the county, a descendant of one the boy’s education; for Wolmar, in common of the proudest families of the duchy. His wife with many sober-minded scholars of that day, was Marie Bourdelot, beloved and renowned had broken with the Roman Church and taken for her intelligence and her charities. They up the new ideas inculcated by Luther, and had already two sons and four daughters, which were beginning to make a stir in when on the 24th of June in that year, 1519, France. Indeed, it was his known adherence another son was born who was destined to to these views which compelled his flight to render the name illustrious to the end of time. Germany in the year 1535. Thus the future This son was christened Theodore. Thus the reformer, in his tenderest and most future reformer was of gentle birth a fact susceptible years, had impressed upon him which was recognized when in after years he the doctrine of justification by faith in the pleaded for the Protestant faith before kings, righteousness of Christ, heard much of the and princes, and members of the nobility and corrupt state of the dominant Church, and of the fashionable world. was witness to the efforts of that Church to But the providential preparation for the part put to death those who differed from her he was destined to play extended far beyond teaching. the conditions of his birth. Gentle breeding

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Nothing was further from the mind of the compromised him with the company in which father and uncle, and also from that of he lived. The fact that they lived together Theodore himself, than that he should be an happily for forty years shows that they advocate of the new views. The career followed the leading of sincere affection, and marked out for him was that of law, in which not a passing fancy. In 1548 he published his his uncle Nicolas had been so distinguished. famous collection of poems—Juvenilia. This To this end he was sent to the University of gave him the rank of the first Latin poet of his Orleans. Although very young, he attracted day, and his ears were full of praises. He attention. He joined the German nation—for dedicated his book to Wolmar. It did not the students in universities then were divided occur to him that anybody would ever into factions, according to their ancestry, and censure him for his poems, least of all on Burgundy was accounted part of Germany— moral grounds; but this is precisely what and rapidly became a favorite. But he did not happened. Prurient minds have read between give himself up to mere good-fellowship. He his lines what he never intended to put there, studied hard, and on Aug. 11, 1539, attained and imagined offences of which he was not with honor the degree of licentiate of the law. guilty even in thought. And what made the His education being thus advanced, Beza, now case blacker against him was his subsequent twenty years old, came to Paris, there, as his . Because he became a leader of father desired, to prosecute further law the Reformed Church, free-thinkers and livers studies; but his reluctance to such a course and the adherents of the old faith have was pronounced and invincible, so much so brought up against him the fact that in the that at length he won his uncle to his side, and days of his worldly and luxurious life he had was allowed by his father to pursue those used their language, and been as pagan and literary studies which afterwards accrued so impure as they. richly to the Reformed Church; but at the time The book had scarcely begun its career, and he had no inkling of his subsequent career. By the praises had scarcely begun to be received, his uncle Claudius’ influence the possessor of ere Beza fell seriously sick. Sobered by his two benefices which yielded a handsome gaze into the eyes of death, his conscience income, and enriched further by his brother’s rebuked him for his duplicity in receiving death in 1541, well-introduced and well- ecclesiastical benefices as if he was a faithful connected, a scholar, a wit, a poet, handsome, son of the Church, whereas he was at heart a affable, amiable, he lived on equal terms with Protestant; for his cowardice in cloaking his the best Parisian society, and was one of the real opinions; for his negligence in not acknowledged leaders. keeping the promise he had voluntarily made That he did not escape contamination he has to the woman he had secretly married four himself confessed, but that he sinned grossly years before; and for the general condition of he has as plainly denied. In 1544 he made in his private and public life. The teachings of the presence of two friends, Laurent de Wolmar came back to him. This world Normandie and Jean Crespin, eminent jurists, seemed very hollow;. its praises and honors an irregular alliance with Claudine Denosse, a very cloying. The call to a higher, purer, burgher’s daughter, and at the time declared nobler life was heard, and he obeyed; and, that when circumstances favored he would although only convalescent, leaving father publicly marry her. His motive in making a and fatherland, riches and honors, he fled secret marriage was his desire to hold on to from the city of his triumphs and his trials, his benefices. But he was really attached to and, taking Claudine Denosse with him, the woman, and was faithful to her, as she crossed the border into Switzerland, and on was to him; and there was nothing in their Oct. 23, 1548, entered the city of Geneva. He relationship which would have seriously was doubtless attracted thither because his

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 5 CH819 Volume 8, Chapter 19 a Grace Notes course intimate friend Jean Crespin, one of the righteous. I hope, however, that he will be witnesses of his secret alliance, was living given back to us in answer to our prayers.” there, likewise a fugitive for religion’s sake— Lausanne was then governed by Bern. It was and there lived John Calvin. therefore particularly interested in Bern’s From being the poet of the Renaissance, alliance with Geneva, and when this was bright, witty, free, Beza, from the hour he renewed in 1557, after it had been suffered to joined the Reformed Church, became a leader lapse a year, Beza considered it very in all its affairs and one of the chiefs of providential. In the spring of that year, 1557, Protestantism. persecution broke out against the neighboring Waldenses, and on nomination of 8.168. Beza at Lausanne and as a Delegate the German clergy and with special to the German Princes permission of Bern, Beza, and Farel began a Beza’s earliest business after greeting Calvin series of visits through Switzerland and upon was to marry in church Claudine Denosse. the Protestant princes of Germany in the Then he looked around for an occupation that interest of the persecuted. The desire was to would support him. He considered for a time stir up the Protestants to unite in an appeal to going into the printing business with Crespin, the king of France. Beza was then thirty-eight but on his return from a visit to Wolmar at years old and had been for eight years a Tuebingen he yielded to the persuasions of successful teacher and preacher. He was Pierre Viret, who entertained him as he was therefore of mature years and established passing through Lausanne, and on Nov. 6, reputation. But what rendered the choice of 1549, became professor of Greek in the him still more an ideal one was his Academy there, and entered upon a course of aristocratic bearing and his familiarity with great usefullness and influence. He showed court life. He accepted his appointment with his zeal as well as biblical learning by giving alacrity, as a man enters upon a course public lectures on the Epistle to the Romans particularly suited to him. Thus Beza started and on the Epistles of Peter; and that he still out upon the first of the many journeys which was a poet, and that, too, of the Renaissance, furnished such unique and invaluable only in the religious and not usual sense (of services to the cause of French Protestantism. regeneration and not renascence), by The two delegates made a favorable continuing the translation of the Psalms impression everywhere. The Lutherans begun by Clement Marot, and by publishing a especially were pleased with them, although drama, classically constructed, on the at first inclined to look askance upon two Sacrifice of Abraham. All these performances such avowed admirers and followers of were in the French language. Calvin. But when they had returned full of While at Lausanne, Beza was taken sick with rejoicing that they had accomplished their the plague. Calvin in writing of this to Farel, design and that the Protestant princes and under date of June 15, 1551, thus pays his cantons would unite in petitioning the French tribute to the character of Beza: “I would not king on behalf of the persecuted Waldenses, be a man if I did not return his love who loves albeit to small effect, alas! they were called to me more than a brother and reveres me as a sharp account because at Goeppingen on May father: but I am still more concerned at the 14, 1557, they had defined their doctrine of loss the church would suffer if in the midst of the in terms which emphasized the his career he should be suddenly removed by points of agreement and passed by those of death, for I saw in him a man whose lovely disagreement. This was in the interest of spirit, noble, pure manners, and open- peace. They rightly felt that it would be mindedness endeared him to all the shameful to shipwreck their Christian attempt upon the shoals of barren

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 6 CH819 Volume 8, Chapter 19 a Grace Notes course controversy. But the odium theologicum work of Calvin, and however far and compelled their home friends to charge them frequently he might go from Geneva, it was with disloyalty to the truth! Calvin, however, there that he left his heart. raised his voice in defence of Beza’s conduct, On Calvin’s nomination, Beza was admitted to and the strife of tongues quickly ceased, citizenship at Geneva, and shortly afterwards How little Beza had suffered in general (March 17, 1559) he succeeded to the reputation, or at least in the eyes of the pastorate of one of the city churches. But each powerful Calvin, was almost immediately new labor imposed upon him only manifest. demonstrated his capacity and zeal. The On the evening of the 4th of September, 1557, Academy and the congregation flourished three or four hundred Protestants in Paris under his assiduous care, and Calvin found who had quietly assembled in the Rue St. his new ally simply invaluable. There was Jaques to celebrate the Lord’s Supper were soon a fresh call upon his diplomacy. Anne Du set upon by a mob, and amid insults and Bourg, president of the Parliament of Paris, injuries haled to prison. Their fate deeply boldly avowed his Protestantism before stirred the Protestants everywhere, and Beza Henry II., and was arrested. When the news with some companions was again sent to the reached Calvin, he despatched Beza to the Protestant cantons and princes to invoke Elector Palatine, Frederick Ill., to interest this their aid as before, and because the princes powerful prince. The result of his mission was were quicker at promising than performance a call on Du Bourg from the Elector to become he went again the next year. But Henry II. professor of law in his university at paid small attention to the note of the Heidelberg. But the intervention availed Protestant powers. nothing. Du Bourg was tried, and executed Dec. 23, 1559. 8.169. Beza at Geneva Shortly after his return, Beza was sent forth In 1558 the city of Geneva established a high again, July 20, 1560. The occasion was, school, and Beza was called, at Calvin’s however, quite different. The Prince de suggestion, to the Greek professorship. Much Condé, shorn of his power by the Guises, had to the regret of Viret and his colleagues, he fled to Nérac. He desired to attach to the accepted. He was influenced by various Protestant party his brother, Antoine de considerations, the chief of which were his Bourbon-Vendôme, king of Navarre. Calvin desire to escape from the trouble caused by had already, by letter, made some impression Viret’s establishment of the Genevan church on the irresolute and fickle king, but Condé discipline, which had led to a falling out with induced his brother to send for Beza, who, Bern, Lausanne’s ruler, and from the with his eloquence and his courtly bearing, embarrassments still resulting from his well- quite captivated the king, who declared that meant attempts at union among the he would never hear the mass again, but Protestants, and probably still more by his would do all he could to advance the desire to labor at the side of Calvin, whom he Protestant cause. His zeal was, however, of so greatly revered and whose doctrines he so very short duration; for no sooner did his vigorously and honestly defended. He was brother, the cardinal of Bourbon, arrive, than honorably dismissed to Geneva and warmly he and his queen, Jeanne d’Albret, who commended to the confidence of the brethren afterwards was a sincere convert to there. When on June 5, 1559, the Academy Protestantism, heard mass in the convent of was opened, he was installed as rector. Thus, the Cordeliers at Nérac. Beza, seeing that in his fortieth year, he entered upon his final Antoine would not hold out, but was certain place of residence and upon his final labors. to fall into the power of the Catholic party, Henceforward he was inseparable from the quietly left him, Oct. 17, and after many

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 7 CH819 Volume 8, Chapter 19 a Grace Notes course dangers reached Geneva early in November. confession of sins used in the Genevan liturgy The journey had taken three weeks, and had, of Calvin. He then addressed the assembly for the most part, to be performed at night. upon the points of agreement and of disagreement between them, and was quietly 8.170. Beza at the Colloquy of Poissy listened to until he made the assertion that Beza was now considered by all the French the Body of Christ was as far removed from Reformed as their most distinguished orator, the bread of the Eucharist as the heavens are and next to Calvin their most celebrated from the earth. Then the prelates broke out theologian. This commanding position he had with the cry “Blasphemavit. blasphemavit!” attained by many able services. When, (“he has blasphemed”), and for a while there therefore, the queen-mother Catherine was much confusion. Beza had followed the determined to hold a discussion between the obnoxious expression with a remark which French prelates and the most learned was intended to break its force, affirming the Protestant ministers, the Parisian pastors, spiritual presence of Christ in the Eucharist; seconded by the Prince of Condé, the Admiral but the noise had prevented its being heard. Coligny, and the king of Navarre, implored Instead, however, of yielding to the clamor Beza to come, and to him was committed the the queen-mother insisted that Beza should leadership. At first he declined. But in answer be heard out, and he finished his speech. The to renewed and more urgent appeals he Huguenots claimed the victory, but the came, and on Aug. 22, 1561, he was again in Roman Catholics spread the story that they Paris, for the first time since his precipitate had been easily and decidedly beaten. The flight, in October, 1548—thirteen years prelates requested the points in writing, and before. The preliminary meeting was in the it was not till Sept. 16 that they made a reply. famous château of St. Germain-en-Laye, on The Cardinal of Lorraine was the spokesman. the Seine, a few miles below Paris. There, on No opportunity was given the Protestants to Aug. 23, he made his appearance. On the rejoin, as they were ready to do at once. evening of that day he was summoned to the On Sept. 24 a third conference was held, but apartments of the king of Navarre, and in the in the small chamber of the prioress, not in presence of the queen-mother and other the large refectory, and a fourth in the same persons of the highest rank, he had his first place on Sept. 26. But the Colloquy had encounter in debate with Cardinal Lorraine. degenerated into a rambling debate, and its The subject was transubstantiation. The utterly unprofitable character was manifest Cardinal was no match for Beza, and after a to all. The queen-mother did, it is true, flatter weak defence, yielded the floor, saying that herself that there might be an agreement, and the doctrine should not stand in the way of a zealously labored to produce it. But in vain. reconciliation. On Tuesday, Sept. 9, 1561, the Her expectation really showed how shallow parties to the Colloquy assembled in the nuns’ were her religious ideas. refectory at Poissy, some three miles away. It was soon evident that there was not to be any Beza stayed at St. Germain until the beginning real debate. The Catholic party had all the of November, and then, worn out, and advantages and acted as sole judges. It was a threatened with a serious illness, he sought foregone conclusion that the verdict was to rest in Paris. There he had a visit from his be given to the Catholic party, whatever the oldest step-brother, and also a pressing and arguments might be. Nevertheless, Beza and affectionate letter from his father, who had his associates went through the form of a learned to what honor his son had come, debate, and courageously held their ground. forgave him for his persistence in heresy, and In characteristic fashion they first knelt, and expressed a great desire to see him. Beza Beza prayed, commencing his prayer with the started for Vezelay, but on the way met a courier with the intelligence that the

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Protestants required his instant attendance to but the king responded roughly and laid all help them at a crisis in their affairs, because the blame on the Protestants, who, he acts of violence against them had taken place declared, had excited the attack by throwing in all parts of France. And Beza, ever stones at the Duke of Guise. “Well then,” said subordinating private to public duties, turned Beza, “he should have punished only those back to Paris, and no further opportunity of who did the throwing.” And then he added seeing his father ever came to him. these memorable words: “Sire, it is in truth the lot of the Church of God, in whose name I 8.171. Beza as the Counsellor of the am speaking, to endure blows, and not to Huguenot Leaders strike them. But also may it please you to On the 20th of December an assembly of remember that it is an anvil that has worn out notables, including representatives from each many hammers.” of the parliaments, the princes of the blood, Civil war now broke out, Condé on one side and members of the Council, had been called and the Guises on the other; and Beza, to suggest some decree of at least a although so unwilling, was fairly involved in provisional nature upon the religious it. question. It was January, 1562, before it In a lull in the strife the third national convened. It enacted on Jan. 17 the famous of the Reformed Church was held at Orleans law known as the “Edict of January,” whereby on April 25. Beza was present, and his the Huguenots were recognized as having translation of the Psalms was sung upon the certain rights, chief of which was that of streets. assembling for worship by day outside of the walled cities. The churches which they had On May 20, 1562, the Prince of Condé sent a seized were, however, not restored to them, memorable answer to the petition of the and they were forbidden to build others. Guises that King Charles would take active measures to extirpate heresy in his domains. Beza counselled the Protestants to accept the The reply was really the work of Beza, and is edict, although it gave them very much less a masterpiece of argument and eloquence. than their rights; and they obeyed. The necessity of securing allies induced On Jan. 27, 1562, he was again at St. Germain Condé to send Beza to Germany and by command of Catherine, to argue with Switzerland. He went first to Strassburg, then Catholic theologians upon the use of images to Basel, and at length on Friday, Sept. 4, he and the worship of saints. As before, the gulf arrived at Geneva. How earnest must have between Protestants and Roman Catholics been the conversations between him and stood revealed, and the conference did no Calvin! How glad must his many friends have good except to show that the Protestants had been to welcome back home the leader of some reason, at all events, for their opinions. French Protestantism! Yet they did entertain hopes of maintaining the peace, when the news that on March 1 the Beza resumed his former mode of life. Two Duke of Guise had massacred hundreds of weeks passed and he had just begun to feel defenceless Protestants, in a barn at Vassy, himself able in peace to carry out his plans for while engaged in peaceful worship, spread the Academy and the Genevan churches, consternation far and wide. The court was when a messenger riding post haste from then at Monceaux, and there Beza appeared D’Andelot, a brother of Coligny, and his as deputy of the Protestants of Paris to fellow-deputy to the German princes, demand of the king of Navarre punishment announced the fresh outbreak of trouble in for this odious violation of the Edict of France. Beza was at first inclined to stay at January. The queen-mother received the home, mistrusting the necessity of his demand graciously and promised compliance, presence among the Huguenot troops, but

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Calvin urged him to go, and so he went, and Sunday before, he had preached his farewell for the next seven months Beza was with the sermon, in which he expressed his Huguenot army. He acted as almoner and disappointment that the Edict of Pacification treasurer. He followed Condé to the battle of had brought the Huguenots so little Dreux, Dec. 19, 1562, at which Condé was advantage. taken prisoner. It was made a matter of On his way back he passed through Vezelay. reproach that he took an active part in the His father was dead, but there must have battle. He did indeed ride in the front rank, been many associations of childhood which but he denied that he struck a blow. He was in endeared the place to him. Here he learned citizen’s dress. He then retired to Normandy that his wife was safe at Strassburg with with Coligny. The expected help from England Condé’s mother-in-law. Bending his steps did not arrive, and it was determined to send thither, he rejoined her, and together they him to London. So utterly sick was Beza of the made the journey home, where they arrived military life that he seriously meditated going May 5, 1563. directly back to Geneva from London. But the As they journeyed they knew that they were Pacification Edict of March 12, 1563 freed in perpetual danger, but they did not know Condé and ended hostilities, and Beza did not that some of their enemies were looking for make his contemplated English journey. them to turn towards the Netherlands. But so This unexpected turn in his affairs was it was. In June of that year a rumor was brought about by an untoward event. On the circulated at Brussels that there had been a 18th of February, 1563, the Duke of Guise quarrel between him and Calvin, and that in was assassinated by a poor fanatical consequence he would not return to Geneva. Huguenot wretch, who, under torture, Margaret of Parma, then regent of the accused Beza of having instigated him by Netherlands, thought to do a splendid deed, promising him Paradise and a high place and gave orders that if he entered her among the saints if he died for his deed. The domains he was to be taken, dead or alive, calumny was afterwards denied by the man and offered to his capturer or murderer a who had made it, but Beza considered himself thousand florins. But there having been no obligated to make a formal reply. He called such break, Beza, on the contrary, took the upon all who had heard him to declare if he shortest practicable route for Geneva. had ever favored any other than strictly legal measures against the late Duke. And as for his 8.172. Beza as the Successor of Calvin, alleged promise, he said that he was too good down to 1586 a Bible student to declare that any one could Beza received his warmest welcome from win Paradise by works. Calvin, who was already under the shadow of Peace having come, Beza was at liberty to death. There was no one else whom the great return home. But his heart was heavy because Reformer could so confidentially take into his the affairs in France were in a very counsels. And as the time of his departure unsatisfactory condition. Still, there was drew near, he relied more and more upon nothing to be accomplished by staying, and him. Their friendship was based upon respect so, loaded down with thanks and praises from and affection and was never disturbed. The the leading Huguenots for his invaluable relation of the two men resembled that services in the field, in the camp, at the between Zwingli and Bullinger, and was most council-board, and in the religious assembly, useful to the Church. surrounded with the leaders of the Huguenot It was of course perfectly understood by Beza army and the preachers and nobles, amid that he was to be Calvin’s successor, so the shouts and sighs, Beza, on Tuesday, March 30, year which passed before Calvin died was a 1563, took his departure from Orleans. On the

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 10 CH819 Volume 8, Chapter 19 a Grace Notes course year of preparation for the new duties. At last nephews; and this errand, after a great deal of the time came, and Calvin passed away. Beza trouble, he accomplished successfully. conducted the funeral, and shortly after In 1571, after an absence of some eight years, wrote his classical life of his patron, friend, he was again summoned to France, this time and predecessor. The city Council elected him by Coligny and the young Prince de Béarn, to Calvin’s successor; the Venerable Company of attend the seventh national Synod of the Pastors, as the presbytery of Geneva called Reformed Church of France convened in La itself, elected him their moderator, and Rochelle. The Venerable Company of Pastors continued him in this office till 1580, when he would not part with him without a protest, compelled them to allow him to retire. So he but yielded to the express wish of the Syndics continued Calvin’s leadership in city and of the Republic. Beza himself was reluctant to church affairs. He preached and lectured to go, and indeed had declined a previous the students. He received the fugitives from summons; but the crisis demanded an France, and the visitors from other lands. He authoritative expression of the views of the gave his advice and opinion upon the Swiss Churches upon the proposed reforms in innumerable things which turned up daily. He the discipline of the Church, and so he went. conducted an enormous correspondence. And The Synod lasted from the 2d to the 17th of every now and then he had to enter the field April. He was elected its moderator. A revised of controversy and repel “heretics,” like Confession of Faith was drawn up, and a Ochino and Castellio, or Lutherans like vigorous reply made to the demand for Andreae and Selnecker. increased authority on the part of the Nor could this leadership have fallen into temporal chiefs. On his way back to Geneva better hands. For Beza, although inferior to he took part in another Synod, held at Nismes, Calvin in theological acquirements and and was specially charged with the refutation acumen, was his superior in knowledge and of the opponents to the established discipline. experience of court life and in grace of On St. Bartholomew’s Day, Sunday, Aug. 24, manner. He was eminently fitted to be the 1572, very many Protestants were murdered host of the Protestant scholars and martyrs, in Paris, and for days thereafter the shocking who flocked or fled to Geneva from every scenes were repeated in different parts of quarter. And so the theological school became France. On the 1st of September the first under him the most famous of its kind in the company of fugitives, many covered with world, and the little republican city was the wounds, made their appearance in Geneva. A virtual capital of Continental Protestantism. day of fasting and prayer was ordered, and Incessantly occupied as he was by public Beza exhorted his Swiss hearers to stand firm affairs, but bearing his burdens with courage and to provide all needed help to their and faith, he was suddenly called upon to stricken brethren. Four thousand livres were transact delicate business of a private nature. collected in Geneva, and the wants of the In 1568 the plague entered Geneva and crowd of sufferers attended to. carried off his stepbrother Nicolas, who had In 1574 Beza met Henry of Condé by succeeded his father as bailiff of Vezelay, appointment at Strassburg, and successfully joined the Huguenots, and come as a fugitive undertook the negotiations which resulted in to Geneva with his wife, Perrette Tribolé, enlisting John Casimir to come with an army when Vezelay fell into Roman Catholic hands. to the succor of the Huguenots. He had been only a few days in the city when But Beza’s advice was not always considered he died. Beza felt it incumbent upon him to go prudent by the city authorities, who were to Burgundy to see whether he could not save more alive than he to the great risk the city at least a part of their inheritance for his two ran of reprisals in view of its connivance with

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 11 CH819 Volume 8, Chapter 19 a Grace Notes course the Huguenot schemes. Thus in December of had not lasted long, and the country was this year, 1574, Beza countenanced a bootless again plunged in the horrors of civil war. military errand in the direction of Mâcon and The Montbéliard conference had an echo in Châlons, and the magistrates gently but firmly the Bern Colloquy of April 15th to 18th, 1588, called him to account, and plainly told him in which Samuel Huber, pastor at Burgdorf, that he should never act so imprudently. near Bern, a notorious polemic, and Beza On Nov. 26, 1580, the Peace of Fleix brought represented the Lutheran and Calvinist rest to France for a little while. Beza showed parties, respectively. It was Beza’s last his courage and fidelity on this occasion by appearance as a public disputant, and the writing to King Henry of Navarre, the hero of so many wordy battles once more Protestant leader, a letter in which he carried off the palm. In fact, his victory was candidly informed the king that he himself much more decided than such contests were and his court stood in great need of usually, as the Bernese Council condemned reformation. It is proof of the respect in Huber for misrepresenting Beza and which the Reformer was held that the king generally. received the rebuke in good part, and of the Beza had left Geneva with a heavy heart king’s light-mindedness that he did not because his faithful and beloved wife had just attempt to reform. died, and when he returned, found public 8.173. Beza’s Conferences with Lutherans matters in a critical condition. The magistrates had felt themselves compelled by The bitter theological differences between the condition of the city treasury to Lutherans and Reformed had long been a economize as much as possible, and had disgrace. Beza had in early life brought dismissed two of the professors in the trouble upon himself by minimizing them, as Academy, and contemplated other has been already recorded, but in his old age retrenchments. Beza knew that these extreme he made one more attempt in that direction. measures would probably greatly cripple the Count Frederick of Wuertemberg, a Lutheran, institution, and so, old as he was, and failing, but a friend of reconciliation, called a he undertook to give a full course of conference at Montbéliard (or Moempelgard), instruction in theology, and persisted with it a city in his domains in which were many for more than two years,—until the crisis was Huguenot refugees, with whom the Lutherans passed,—and for these extra duties he would would not fraternize. The count hoped that a not take any compensation. discussion between the leaders on each side might mend matters. Accordingly he 8.174. Beza and Henry IV summoned Beza, confessedly the ablest In the course of his long life Beza had few advocate of Calvinism. On March 21, 1586, joys, aside from the abiding one of his the conference began. It took a wide range, religion, and many sorrows. His heart was but it came to nothing. Beza showed a bound up with the fortunes of the Reformed beautiful spirit of reconciliation, but Andreae, Church in France, and they were usually bad. the Lutheran leader, in the very spirit of Still he took courage every time a little Luther at the famous Conference improvement was noticeable. Much hope had with Zwingli (1529), refused to take Beza’s he cherished in consequence of the accession hand at parting (March 29). of Henry of Navarre (1589), because he was a Undeterred by this churlish exhibition, Beza Protestant. But early in the summer of 1593, left Montbéliard for another round of visits at the news reached Geneva that the king, upon German courts to induce them once more to whom religion and morality sat very lightly, plead with France to restore to the Huguenots in the interests of peace and national their rights of worship; for the Peace of Fleix prosperity, was determined to abjure the

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Protestant faith. Alas for all their hopes! Beza to be sick. Then he took the prudent course of was greatly moved, and addressed the giving up one by one the duties which he had monarch a letter in which he set forth the so long discharged. In 1586 he was excused eternal consequences of the change the king from preaching daily, and henceforth till 1600 was about to make. He felt assured, however, preached only on Sunday. In 1598 he retired that Henry would be delivered from the from active duty in the Academy, and sold his machinations of his and their enemies, and library, giving part of the proceeds, which not take the fatal step. But ere Beza’s letter were considerable, to his wife, and part to the reached him the deed was done. In the poor. In 1600 he rendered his last public ancient abbey church at St. Denis on the services in the Academy, and preached his morning of Sunday, July 25, 1593, King Henry last sermon—the only one preached in the of Navarre, the son of Jeanne d’Albret, the seventeenth, by a reformer of the sixteenth, only Huguenot who ever sat upon the throne century. of France, abjured his faith, and took a solemn Occasionally something of the old wit flashed oath to protect the Roman Catholic, and forth. As when he made his reply to the silly Apostolic religion. rumor that he had yielded to the Beza was deeply grieved at this apostasy. But argumentation of François de Sales and had when he learned that the king favored his old gone over to Rome. The facts are these: co-religionists in many ways, and especially, François came to Geneva in 1597 with the when in 1598, he published the Edict of express purpose of converting Beza. He was Nantes, which put the Protestants on a nearly then thirty years old, very zealous, very common footing with the Roman Catholics in skillful, and in many other cases had been France, Beza took a more hopeful view of the successful. But he met his match in the old king’s condition. In 1599 the king, in the Reformer, who however listened to him course of a war with Charles Emmanuel, courteously. What argument failed to approached near Geneva. The city saw in this accomplish, the priest thought money might a chance to obtain from the king the promise do, and so he offered Beza in the name of the of his protection, especially against the Duke pope a yearly pension of four thousand gold of Savoy, who had built a fort called St. crowns and a sum equal to twice as much as Catherine, quite near Geneva. To effect this the value of all his personal effects! This the city sent a delegation headed by Beza, and brought matters to a climax, and Beza the interview between the monarch and the dismissed him with the polite but sarcastic reformer was honorable to both. The king and decisive rebuke, “Go, sir; I am too old and gladly gave his promise, and the next year the too deaf to be able to hear such words.” fort was destroyed. He also came to Geneva But from some quarter the report got abroad and received its hospitality. that Beza had yielded. This was added to as it 8.175. Beza’s Last Days passed along until it was confidently asserted that Beza and many other former Genevan Beza’s life was now drawing to its close. The Protestants were on their way to Rome to weight of years had become a grievous enter the papal fold. Their very route was burden. His bodily powers gradually deserted told, and on an evening in the middle of him. He partially lost his hearing. His memory September, 1597, the faithful people of Siena became so enfeebled that the past only waited by the gate of their city to receive the remained to him, while recent events made great leader! But for some reason he did not no lasting impression. It was the breaking up come. Then it was said that he was dead; but of an extraordinarily vigorous constitution, that ere he died he had made his peace with which had so supported him for sixty-five the Church and had received extreme unction. years that he had scarcely known what it was

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When the friends of Beza heard these idle His public life was an extraordinary one. Like tales, they merely smiled. But Beza concluded the Apostle Paul he could say that he had to give convincing proof of two facts: first, been “in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, that he was not dead, and second, that he was in perils of robbers, in perils from my own still a Protestant of the straitest Calvinistic countrymen, in perils in the city, in perils in school; and so quite in the old manner he the wilderness, in perils among false nailed the lie by a biting epigram. brethren; in labor and travail, in watchings When in 1600 François would hold a public often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, discussion with the Genevans, Beza, knowing in cold and nakedness. Besides those things how unprofitable such discussions were, that are without, there is that which presseth forbade it. Whereupon it was given out that upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches” (2 the Reformers were afraid to meet their Cor. 11:26–28). It was indeed a brilliant opponents! service which this versatile man rendered. Under his watchful care the city of Geneva Another flare of the old flame of poetry was enjoyed peace and prosperity, the Academy occasioned by the visit from King Henry IV., flourished and its students went everywhere already alluded to. It was a poem of six preaching the Word, while the Reformed stanzas, Ad inclytum Franciae et Navarrae Church of France was built up by him. Calvin regem Henricum IV. (“to the renowned King of lived again and in some respects lived a France and Navarre, Henry IV.”) “It was his bolder life in his pupil and friend. last, his swan song.” It is pleasant to get glimpses of Beza’s home Wearied by the vigils of a perilous and life. Men like him are seldom able to enjoy exciting time, Beza had long anxiously looked their homes. But Beza had for forty years the for his final rest. He had fought a good fight love and devotion of the wife of his youth. and had kept the faith and was ready to They had no children, but his fatherly heart receive his crown. On Sunday, Oct. 13, 1605, may have found some expression in adopting he died. his wife’s niece Genevieve Denosse, whom he In his will Beza ordered his burial to be in the educated with great care, and also in his common cemetery of Plain Palais, where parental solicitude for his brother’s children. Calvin was buried, and near the remains of It is perhaps to be taken as indicative of the his wife. But in consequence of a Savoyard domestic character of the man that, on the threat to carry off his body to Rome, by order advice of friends, within a year after his wife of the magistrates, he was buried in the died (1589), he married Catherine del Piano, cloister of the cathedral of St. Peter, in the city a widow of a Genevese. He also adopted her of Geneva. grand-daughter. It is probable that he always Of the six great Continental Reformers,— lived in some state; at all events his will Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, Bullinger, proves that he had considerable property. Calvin, and Beza,—Beza was the most finished gentleman, according to the highest 8.176. Beza’s Writings standard of his time. He was not lacking in Beza’s name will ever be most honorably energy, nor was he always mild. But he was associated with biblical learning. Indeed, to able to hold court with courtiers, be a wit many students his services in this department with wits, and show classical learning equal will constitute his only claim to notice. Every to that of the best scholars of his age. Yet with one who knows anything of the uncial him the means were only valued because they manuscripts of the Greek New Testament has reached an end, and the great end he had ever heard of the Codex Bezae, or of the history of in mind was the conservation of the the printed text of the New Testament has Reformed Church of Geneva and France. heard of Beza’s editions and of his Latin

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 14 CH819 Volume 8, Chapter 19 a Grace Notes course translation with notes. The Codex Bezae, and this version influenced the Authorized. As known as D in the list of the uncials, also as Beza was undoubtedly the best Continental Codex Cantabrigiensis, is a manuscript of the exegete of the closing part of the sixteenth Gospels and Acts, originally also of the century, this influence of his Latin version Catholic Epistles, dating from the sixth and notes was on the whole beneficial. But century. Its transcriber would seem to have then it must be confessed that he was also been a Gaul, ignorant of Greek. Beza procured responsible for many errors of reading and it from the monastery of St. Irenæus, at Lyons, rendering in the Authorized Version. when the city was sacked by Des Adrets, in Beza was the chief theologian of the 1562, but did not use it in his edition of the Reformed Church after Calvin. Principal Greek Testament, because it departed so Cunningham has shown the part Beza played widely from the other manuscripts, which in bringing about the transition from the departures are often supported by the original Calvinism to the scholastic form, hard ancient Latin and Syriac versions. He and mechanical, and so unconsciously presented it to the University of Cambridge in preparing the way for the great reaction from 1581, and it is now shown in the library Calvinism, viz. Arminianism; for Arminius had among the great treasures. been a student in the Genevan Academy Beza was also the possessor of an uncial under Beza. Beza drew up in the form of a manuscript of the Pauline Epistles, also dating chart a curious scheme of a system of from the sixth century. How he got hold of it theology, and he published it in his is unknown. He merely says (Preface to his 3d Tractationes (mentioned below) along with a ed. of the N. T., 1582) that it had been found commentary, Summa totius Christianismi sive at Clermont, near Beauvais, France. It may descriptio et distributio causarum salutis have been another fortune of war. After his electorum et exitii reproborum, ex sacris literis death it was sold, and ultimately came into collecta et explicata, pp. 170 sqq. Heppe the Royal (now the National) Library in Paris, reprints the chart. and there it is preserved. Beza made some The chief work published by Beza, though not use of it. Both these manuscripts were acknowledged by him, is the famous and accompanied by a Latin version of extreme invaluable Histoire ecclésiastique des Églises antiquity. Réformées au royaume de France, originally Among the eminent editors of the Greek New issued at Antwerp in 1580, 3 vols. 8vo. The Testament, Beza deserves prominent best edition of which is that by Baum (d. mention. He put forth four folio editions of 1881), Cunitz (d. 1886), and Rodolphe Reuss, Stephen’s Greek text; viz. 1565, 1582, 1589, Paris, 1883–89, 3 vols. small quarto. It is well with a Latin version, the Latin Vulgate, and known to scholars that the first four books Annotations. He issued also several octavo are in a great degree composed of extracts editions with his Latin version, and brief from contemporaneous works, especially the marginal notes (1565, 1567, 1580, 1590, Histoire des Martyrs by Crespin, and the 1604). Histoire de l’estat de France, attributed to What especially interests the English Bible Regnier de la Plancée, but no indication is student is the close connection he had with given whence the extracts are taken. This the Authorized Version. Not only were his defect in modern eyes is removed in the editions in the hands of King James’ revisers, edition spoken of. The genesis of the work but his Latin version with its notes was seems to be this, that Beza received reports constantly used by them. He had already from all parts of France in reply to the influenced the authors of the Genevan version Synod’s recommendation that the churches (1557 and 1560), as was of course inevitable, write their histories for the benefit of posterity, that he arranged these, and

History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff 15 CH819 Volume 8, Chapter 19 a Grace Notes course inserted much autobiographical matter, but as he had to employ unknown persons to assist him, he modestly refused to put his name to the book.