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Theodore Beza (or de Bèze), the protégé, colleague, biographer, and successor of J. Calvin (1509–64), was born on June 24, 1519, at the castle of Vézelay in Burgundy, where his father was the governor. At the age of five he was given into the care of his uncle, Nicholas de Bèze, who brought the boy to Paris and eventually entrusted his education to the humanist scholar Melchior Wolmar, of Orléans. Beza lived and studied with Wolmar from 1528 to 1534. In May of 1535 Beza matriculated at the Unive…

1. Lutheran Orthodoxy 1.1. Epoch The term “Lutheran orthodoxy” (sometimes “old Lutheran orthodoxy” or “old Protestant orthodoxy”) is ill adapted to describe this specific form of Reformation Christianity, which extended between the Reformation and the Enlightenment. Radical Pietism called the period orthodox because of (1) its interest in pure doctrine alone and not also in a holy life in devout fellowship and (2) the alliance between ecclesiastical and secular government. But this summary was a cari…