Friday, October 13, 2023

It is the 13th of October, 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Earlier this week, we remembered Jacob Arminius, a man whose life and theology is often taught in light of his disagreements with John Calvin, or at least with what “Calvinism” was in the Netherlands in the late 16th and early 17th century. Unfortunately for Arminius, Calvin is the center of gravity, and he is a satellite.

So, too, is often the case with another luminary of the 16th century: Theodore Beza. He is often remembered as Calvin’s “right-hand man” at best and his “scholastic re-interpreter” at worst. So, on this anniversary of his death on the 13th of October in 1605, we will attempt to introduce this giant of Geneva in a fair light.

He was born to minor nobility in 1519, a son of the Catholic Church. He was taken by his Uncle to study in Paris. There, he would move to Orleans to study law under Melchior Wolmar. This is important as he had also taught Calvin and would be the link between the two.

On account of his family's status, he was granted a benefice which made his early adult life one of general leisure. He was untroubled by the Reformation and spent his leisure time writing romantic verse in Latin.

And stop me if you’ve heard this before: after a serious illness, he devoted himself to his faith. He was a fairly quick convert to the Reformation doctrines of John Calvin and soon made his way to Geneva through an introduction by their common professor at Orleans. Here, Beza would become an ardent defender of Calvin, and his attacks on Catholics and Anabaptists led to his reputation as pardon the anachronism- one of the first of the Young, Restless, and Reformed. This would be his reputation and is, to some, up to the present. He laid an emphasis on the other side of the divine election- that is, as active reprobation or damning of the non-elect. He would also play with what he believed to be the logical necessity of a “limited atonement,” that is, that Christ died only for the elect, not the entire world. As “Calvinism” spread internationally in the 17th century, it was sometimes tinged with these inflection points from Beza.

But he has also been hailed for his work in the theological and political sphere, with some of the earliest works on resistance theory. That is, for Beza, it was not only allowed but called on Christians to resist and overthrow tyrannical rulers. His De Jure Magistratuum was written at the time of the St. Bartholomew’s Massacre and the descent of France into religious warfare between Catholics and Huguenots.

But added to this was his work as a sincere man of the church and academy. He came to Geneva in 1548, and by 1559, he was both a professor at the Geneva Academy and pastor of the church in Geneva. When Calvin died, Beza would become the moderator of the company of pastors in Geneva. He would also take his poetical talents, once used for amorous poetry, to help Clement Marot translate the Psalms into French for congregational singing.

He would edit and annotate the Greek New Testament- the ancient manuscript he used was donated to Cambridge University, where it is today known as the Codex Bezae.

As a Frenchman, he was concerned with the events that precipitated the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre and Wars of Religion. He was invited to a colloquy with Catholic Bishops in France in the company of Queen Catherine De Medici, and his address to the magistrates was instantly copied and became a call to French Protestant resistance. He would remain an advisor to the Protestant French Huguenots throughout his life.

His work did mirror that of his Scholastic contemporaries, but he took care to rely on biblical texts and kept an eye on the usefulness of the doctrines for the life of the church. He was a theologian, a firebrand, a pastor, and a poet and left an indelible stamp on both Geneva and the Reformed tradition. He was the youngest of the first generation of Reformers, and thus, when he died on the 13th of October in 1605, one historian noted that it marked both the closing of a chapter in the history of Geneva and the end of an epoch in the history of Europe. Born in 1519, Theodore Beza was 86 years old.

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary and the book of James.

“God opposes the proud
    but shows favor to the humble.”

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 13th of October 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man not afraid of today, Friday the 13th. He is Christopher Gillespie. 

The show is written and read by a man who, since this Friday the 13th, reminds you it was Jason Voorhees- a distant relative at most- I’m Dan van Voorhis. 

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be OK.