Théodore de Bèze: Poète et Théologien (review)

Alain Dufour joined the team editing the Correspondance of Théodore de Bèze in 1962. He has co-signed all 27 volumes since then (Vol. 28, 1587, appeared in 2006). He has therefore an intimate knowledge of the Reformer's life and works, and is uniquely qualified to write a biography of the great man. Yes, great: beyond the stereotyped image of Calvin's stolid successor, responsible for the sclerosis of early scholastic Calvinism and the pitiless schematization of the Table of Predestination, we find a man of many parts, poet, dramatist, pamphleteer, theologian of course, anchorman of the developing Reformed Churches in France, respected diplomat, and finally … historic monument. The scope is vast. Dufour keeps to a chronological presentation for the early years, up to Calvin's death in 1564; thereafter, Bèze's multiple activities necessitate a partly thematic approach: chapters on conflicts with the Lutherans over the Eucharist are interwoven with others on the French Wars of Religion and with Bèze's ongoing literary activities, his theological works, his historiographical involvement (Dufour reinstates Bèze as the author of the Histoire ecclésiastique, a status denied, we are told, by Paul-F. Geisendorf 'pour la bonne raison que Théophile Dufour [grandfather of the present author] avait pris le parti inverse'), his continued passion for Latin poetry, and his surprising venture into the realm of images in the Icones and the Emblemata. Geisendorf is Bèze's most recent biographer; his work is twice the length of Dufour's. For the other essential component of our knowledge to date of Bèze, the bibliography of his works, Frédéric Gardy's exhaustive survey, occupies 244 pages. By comparison, Dufour's 272 pages seem lightweight, more an essay than a full biography. There are areas where we could wish for more information—no mention here of Bèze's involvement in the mid-century debate about French orthography, or of his friend Jacques Peletier Du Mans, who recorded the discussions and Bèze's position in them, disappointingly little about Bèze's immense stature as a poet in the French language (a subject admittedly much treated previously). The most regrettable omission is the absence of a bibliography, which could have filled us in on some of these matters (I have in mind Mario Richter on Bèze's French poetics, Susan Baddeley on orthography and the Reformation, Jean-François Gilmont on the Mémoires de Condé, Stephen Rawles and Alison Adams on emblems). But this is to miss the main point. Dufour may have omitted other things, but he has for the first time distilled the information derived from Bèze's correspondence into an account of his life (if Dufour reinstates Bèze as author of the Histoire ecclésiastique, for example, it is because of references in the letters); and second, he has incorporated the rich harvest of new insights provided by the 2005 Bèze commemorative colloquium held in Geneva, and which in many respects renew our perception of Bèze. Finally, Dufour has given us an eminently readable life of Bèze, lively and lucidly presented, with the occasional shaft of wit characteristic of both the author and his subject. How to characterize the lilting verse form Bèze uses in his Poemata? 'Comparé à l'hexamètre épique, il est un peu comme un tango comparé à une marche.' Altogether a delightful, and admirably informative, book.