Theodore Beza (David Jones)
Theodore Beza is a
name that is not as well-known as Luther, Calvin or Zwingli, but was still a
very important figure in the Protestant Reformation. He was born June 24th, 1519, at
Vezelay, in Burgundy, France. He was the son of Pierre de Beze, who was the
royal governor of Vezelay. He owed much
of his education to his uncle, Nicolas de Besze, a counsellor of the Paris parliament.
He was placed under the tutorage of Melchior Wolmar. In 1935, he went to
Orleans to study law and after completing his education in 1539, he established
a practice in Paris and published a book of Latin poetry call Juvenilia in 1548. That same year, Beza
was stricken with a severe illness that revealed to him his spiritual needs.
Upon recovering, Beza traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, the city of refuge for
Evangelicals, arriving there on October 23, 1548 and joining the church of
Calvin. In November of 1549, a meeting with Pierre Viret in Lausanne,
Switzerland brought about his appointment as a professor of Greek at the
academy. While teaching there, Beza wrote his defense of the burning of the
anti-Trinitarian heretic Michael Servetus and pleaded for the Waldenses, who
suffered terrible persecution. In the late 1550s, John Calvin invited Beza to
Geneva to help with establishing the Academy of Geneva, which would become the
training ground for future ministers for the reformed cause. He taught Greek at
first, and later took over the role of Theologian after Calvin’s death. When Calvin died in 1564, Beza succeeded him
as the head of the Academy and the leader of the Protestant Reformation
centered in Geneva. He served with distinction at the Colloquy of Poissy and
contributed Greek editions and Latin translations of the New Testament. He also
donated to the University of Cambridge the Codex Bezae, a manuscript from the 5th
century containing Greek and Latin versions of the four Gospels and Acts. He
remained the chief pastor of the Geneva church until his death in 1605.
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