, one of the chief promoters of the Reformation, was born at Vezelai,
, one of the chief promoters of the
Reformation, was born at Vezelai, a small town of Nivernais, in France, June 24, 1519. His father was Peter
Beza, or cle Beze, bailiff of the town, and his mother
Mary de Bourdelot. He passed his first years at Paris,
with his uncle Nicholas, a counsellor of parliament, who
sent him to Orleans, at the age of six, for education.
His master, Melchior Wolmar, a man of greater learning,
and particularly eminent as a Greek scholar, and one of
the first who introduced the principles of the reformation
into France, having an invitation to become professor at
Bourges, Beza accompanied him, and remained with him
until 1535. Although at this period only sixteen, he had
made very uncommon progress in learning and in the ancient languages, and having returned to Orleans to study
law, he took his licentiate’s degree in 1539. These four
last years, however, he applied less to serious studies than
to polite literature, and especially Latin poetry; and it
was in this interval that he wrote those pieces which were
afterwards published under the title of “Poemata Juvenilia,
” and afforded the enemies of the reformation a better handle than could have been wished to reproach his
early morals.