Beza
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or BEZE, THEODORE DE, a re- French Protestant theologian and 1519. After former, born in Vezelai, in , he studying at Orleans and Bourges 2-Vol. II-Cyc BÉZIERS went, in 1539, to Paris, where he spent nine years. He was appointed Professor of Greek at Lausanne, a post which he held for 10 years. In 1558, he was sent to ask the intercession of several German princes in behalf of the persecuted Huguenots in France. The next year THEODORE DE BEZA he settled at Geneva, and was thenceforth the associate of Calvin till his death, and his successor as Professor of Theology and head of the Protestant party. Beza undertook a mission to the King of Navarre, and succeeded in winning him to the side of the reformers. He took a leading part at the celebrated Colloquy of Poissy, and was allowed to preach in Paris. He attended the Prince of Condé during the Civil War, and was at the battle of Dreux. His energy and health, activity of mind, like his bodily health, continued unabated. He only ceased preaching in 1600. Among his works are a Latin translation of the New Testament and "History of the Reformed Churches in France." He died in 1605. BÉZIERS (bez-yār'), a town in southern France, department of Hérault, beautifully situated on a height and surrounded by old walls, its chief edifice being the cathedral, a Gothic structure, crowning the height on which the town stands; manufactures: woolens. hosiery, liquors, chemicals, etc., with a good trade in spirits, wool, grain, oil, verdigris, and fruits. In 1209 Béziers was the scene of a horrible massacre of the Albigenses. It suffered also in the religious wars of the 16th century. Pop. about 52,000.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The biographical outline Collier's gave in 1921 — born at Vézelay in 1519, Greek professor at Lausanne, Calvin's associate and successor at Geneva, spokesman at the Colloquy of Poissy in 1561, dead in 1605 — still stands as written. What the entry passes over is the work for which Beza is now best known outside church history: his Greek and Latin New Testament editions, which fed the Textus Receptus behind the King James Version of 1611, and the fifth-century bilingual manuscript he presented to Cambridge University Library in 1581, still called Codex Bezae in his honour. Modern critical editions of the Greek New Testament long ago displaced his text, but the codex remains one of the most studied of all New Testament manuscripts. Scholars today also give more weight to his political writing on the right of resistance to tyrants, and less to the diplomatic successes Collier's credits him with at the court of Navarre.
Written for this edition, 2026.