Theodore Beza

Theodore Beza (Theodore de Beze or de Besze) (June 24, 1519 - October 13, 1605) was a French Protestant Christian theologian and scholar who played an important role in the early Reformation. He was closely associated with Calvinism. He lived most of his adult life in Switzerland.

Calvin's Successor

For twenty-two months Beza had been absent

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from Geneva, and the interests of school and Church

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there and especially the condition of Calvin made

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it necessary for him to return. For there was no

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one to take the place of Calvin, who was sick and

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unable longer to bear the burden resting on him.

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Calvin and Beza arranged to perform their duties

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jointly in alternate weeks, but the death of Calvin

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occurred soon afterward (May 27,

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1564). As a matter of course Beza was

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his successor.

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Until 1580 Beza was

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not only moderateur de la compagnie

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des pasteurs, but also the real soul of the great

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institution of learning at Geneva which Calvin had

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founded in 1559, consisting of a gymnasium and

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an academy. As long as be lived, Beza was

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interested in higher education. The Protestant youth

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for nearly forty years thronged his lecture-room to

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hear his theological lectures, in which he expounded

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the purest Calvinistic orthodoxy. As a counselor

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he was listened to by both magistrates and pastors.

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Geneva is indebted to him for the founding of a

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law school in which Francois Hotman, Jules Pacius,

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and Denys Godefroy, the most eminent jurists of

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the century, lectured in turn (cf. Charles Borgeaud,

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L'Academie de Calvin, Geneva, 1900).

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