A native of Alzano, who entered in the congregation of the Lateran canons. He embraced the tenets of the Protestants by the conversation of Peter Martyr, who was of the same establishment; and, afraid of persecution, he retired, 1553, to Strasburg, where he taught divinity and the philosophy of Aristotle. He quitted Strasburg, in 1563, for Chiavene, and, in 1568, removed to Heidelberg, where he was appointed professor of theology, and where he died 19th November, 1590, aged eighty-four. He was author of “Commentaries on St. Paul’s Epistles,” and other works, published together at Geneva, in eight volumes, folio, 1613. In his character he was a man of moderation, learned, benevolent, and pious. Theodore Beza. one of the most eminent of the reformers, was born at Vezelai, in the Nivernois, in 1519, and was originally a Catholic, and intended for the law. At the age of twenty, he gained an unenviable reputation by the composition of Latin poetry which was at once elegant and licentious, and which, some years afterwards, he published under the title of “Juvenile Poems.” Though not in orders, he possessed benefices of considerable value. These, however, he abandoned in 1548, and retired to Geneva, where he publicly abjured Popery. To this he was induced by his having meditated, during illness, upon the doctrines which he had heard from his Protestant tutor, Melchior Wolmar; and perhaps also, in some measure, by his attachment to a lady, whom he carried with him to Geneva, and married. He now accepted the Greek professorship at Lausanne, which he held for ten years. It was while he was thus occupied that he produced his tragedy of “Abraham’s Sacrifice,” his version of the New Testament, and his hateful defence of the right of the magistrate to punish heretics. In 1559, he removed to Geneva, and became the colleague of Calvin, through whom he was appointed rector of the academy, and theological professor. Two years after this, he took a prominent part in the conference at Poissy, and was present at the battle of Dreux. He returned to Geneva in 1563, succeeded Calvin in his offices and influence, and was thenceforward considered as the head of the Calvinistic church. After an exceedingly active life, he died on the 13th of October, 1605. Leo X.