Beza, Theodore

(1519–1605)

   Theologian.

   Beza was born in Vézelay, Burgundy. His family had intended him for the priesthood, but at the age of twenty-nine he formally embraced Protestantism. At the invitation of John calvin, he became Professor of Greek at the University of Geneva in 1558. In 1561 he played a leading part in the Colloquy of Poissy, which had been summoned by catherine de medici to discuss the religious differences between Catholics and Protestants. When Calvin died in 1564, Beza assumed the leadership of the Swiss Calvinists. He is primarily remembered as a theologian and classicist. In 1564 he produced a major critical edition of the Greek New Testament for which he consulted all the available sources and variants. His Confessio Christianae Fidei, written in 1560, was a straightforward exploration of Calvinist theology and he was the author of a eulogistic biography of Calvin. He was also responsible for a history of the Reformed Churches of France. His works appeared in French and English as well as Latin and his influence was widespread. His biblical scholarship informed the translators of the English Authorised Version of the Bible (published in 1611) and his rigid doctrines of biblical literalism, double predestination and his defence of Church discipline did much to consolidate the thinking of the Reformed Churches in the seventeenth century.

   H.M. Baird, Theodore Beza: The Counsellor of the French Reformation (1899);

   J.S. Bray, Theodore Beza’s Doctrine of Predestination (1975);

   R.M. Kingdom, Geneva and the Consolidation of the French Protestant Movement (1967).