Theodore Beza

Theodore Beza (1519–1605) was a French-born Reformed theologian, classical humanist, and churchman who became John Calvin's closest collaborator and, from 1564, his successor as Moderator of the Company of Pastors in Geneva — a role he held formally until 1580, when a rotating weekly presidency replaced the standing office. He served as first rector of the Geneva Academy (1559–1562), shaping a generation of Reformed ministers across Europe, and his rigorous systematization of double predestination anchored later Calvinist orthodoxy. As a textual scholar he owned and in 1581 donated the ancient Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis to Cambridge University, and his annotated Greek–Latin New Testament went through numerous editions that influenced later Bible translation. Beza also led the French Reformed delegation at the Colloquy of Poissy (1561) and guided international Reformed confessionalism through decades of religious conflict, making him one of the most consequential figures of second-generation Protestantism.