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Theodore
of Beza
(Vezelay
1519 - 1605 Geneva)
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Version
française
Theodore
of Beza, a Protestant writer and theologian, played a central role in the
Poissy Colloquy. As a young man, Beza was attracted
to the reform while studying in Bourges and Orleans. In 1548, after a serious
illness, Beza disavowed his Catholicism to follow Luther and his Protestant
teachings. First a professor of Greek in Lausanne, in 1558 he became a
professor of theology, and subsequently a minister of the Protestant church.
Beza was devoted to Calvin, serving as one of
his lieutenants and upon Calvin's death in 1564, he assumed Calvin's role
as director of the Geneva Academy.
Bèze
played the role of ambassador for the Protestants, and on many occasions
negotiated Protestant interests in the face of Catholic oppression. Perhaps
his most important mission was the Poissy Colloquy. When Catherine
de Medici invited Beza and his Protestant representatives to the Colloquy
to discuss and negotiate the differences between the two doctrines, she
intended to secure a compromise between the two parties so that the immanent
violence might be avoided. Under royal protection, Beza arrived in Poissy
to discuss his beliefs with the representative of the Catholic church:
the Cardinal of Lorraine. This meeting was extraordinary in its day, in
that the Reformed theologians, such as Beza, were regarded by their Catholic
opponents as heretics, there being no room to compromise or discuss the
merits of the two doctrines. When Beza presented his case before the Queen
and the Catholic priests, he started by first outlining the points on which
the two parties were agreed. When he broached the subject of the Eucharist,
a subject of immense controversy between the Calvinists and Catholics,
the staid Catholics exploded, denouncing Beza as a heretic and blasphemer.
Demands to discontinue the meeting were made to the King but, nonetheless,
Beza was allowed to finish his oratory. When the Cardinal of Lorraine spoke
on behalf of the Catholics he surprisingly proposed a compromise. When
both parties refused to accept the grounds of the Cardinal's compromise,
the Colloquy broke down. Later Beza and his Protestant team were invited
by the Queen to Saint Germain to hold private talks, which likewise, proved
unfruitful and no compromise was reached. Beza was also a prolific writer
in both Latin and French. Both as a translator and writer Beza presents
scholars with an interesting study. Although Beza wrote many religious
works, he likewise wrote for the theater, (explicitly denounced my Calvin
and his followers). In this way Beza falls into a tradition of Protestant
writers whose artistic intuitions led them to integrate both the profane
and the sacred in order to produce their desired effect.
Version
Francaise
