BEZA, Wiz; or DE BEZB, biz, Theodore, Calvinistic divine: b. of a noble family at Vezelay, in Burgundy, 24 June 1519; d. 13 Oct. 1605. He was educated in Orleans under Melchior Vo!mar, a German philologer devoted to the Reformation; and, early famil iar with the ancient classkal literature, he be came known at the age of 20 years as a Latin poet by his petulant and witty (Juvenilia)(a col lection of poems of which he was afterward ashamed). In 1539 he was made a licentiate of law, and went to Paris. He received from his uncle the reversion of his valuable abbey Froid mond, and lived on the income of two benefices and on property which he inherited from a brother. Wit, scholar and poet, his habits were dissipated, but a clandestine marriage in 1543 recalled him from his excesses, and a danger ous illness confirming the intention which he had formed at Orleans of devoting himself to the Reformed Church, he went to Geneva with his wife in 1547. He accepted a Greek pro fessorship at Lausanne in 1549. During his 10 years in this office he wrote a tragi-comic drama in French,—(The Sacrifice of Abra ham) (1550)— which was received with much approbation; delivered lectures (which were numerously attended) on the Epistle to the Romans and the Epistle of Peter (which served as the basis of his Latin translation of the New Testament, of which he afterward published several editions) ; 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 a.s a preacher, and soon after became a profes sor of theology and the most active assistant of Calvin, to whom he had already recommended himself by several works, in which many of the views of that eminent theologian were advo cated with great zeal and no small measure of ability, so that he was generally regarded as Calvin's ablest coadjutor and the person des tined to be his successor. His talents for nego tiation, which were distinguished, were now often put requisition by the Calvinists. He was sent to the court of Anthony, King of Navarre, at Nerac, to obtain toleration for the French Huguenots; and at his desire he ap peared, 1561, at the religious conference at Poissy, where he spoke in behalf 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 Saint Germain, in 15621 he spoke strongly against the worship of images, and after the com mencement of the civil war accompanied the Prince of Conde as chaplain, and. on the cap ture of the Prince joined Adnural Coligny. After the restoration of peace he returned to Geneva in 1563, where, besides discharging the duties of his offices, he continued to engage in theological controversies in support of the Cal vinists; and after Calvin's death in 1564 became his successor, and was considered the first theo logian of this Church. He presided in the synods of the French Calvinists at La Rochelle (1571) and at Nunes (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 re ligious conference at Montpellier (1586) op posed the theologians at Wfirtemberg, particu larly James Andreas. At the age of 69 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 ene inies, apostatized Calvinists (suc.h as Bolsec), Lutherans and Jesuits, heaped upon him. They reported in 1597 that he had died, and re turned before his death to the Roman Catholic faith. Reza, now 78 years old, met his assail ants in a racy poem full of youthful enthu siasm, and resisted in the same year the at tempts of Saint 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. Among his many works, his exegetic writings are now very little read, but the able and cor rect (History of Calvini9m in France from 1521 to 1563,' which is ascribed to him, is still much esteemed. Beza's name is associated with the Codex which he presented to the University of Cambridge, for an account of which see Bine. Consult the (Life) of H. M. Baird (New York 1899).