biography
| name: |
Beza, Theodore
|
| |
Fr Bèze, Théodore de
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pronunciation:
[bayza]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1519–1605)
|
| biography:
| Theologian and poet, born in Vézelay, C France. He studied Greek and law at Orléans, then settled in Geneva and became professor of Greek at Lausanne (1549–54). His first poetry, Juvenilia (1548), a book of amorous verse, earned him a reputation as a leading Latin poet. Soon afterwards he experienced a religious conversion and for several years travelled throughout Europe in defence of the Protestant cause. In Geneva in 1559 he founded, with Calvin, the new Geneva academy for the promotion of Calvinism, eventually succeeding Calvin as leader of the Protestant Reformation. His De jure magistratum (1574) overthrew the earlier Calvinistic doctrine of obedience to all civil authority and became a major political manifesto of Calvinism. Other works include anti-Catholic tracts, a biography of Calvin, and the Histoire ecclésiastique des Eglises réformées au royanne de France (1580). |
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