§ 171. BEZA AS THE COUNSELl.( )K. 861
London. So utterly sick Avas Beza of the military life that he seriously meditated going directly back to Geneva from London. But the Pacification Edict of March 12, 15(]3, freed Condd and ended hostilities, and Beza did not make his contemplated English journey.
This unexpected turn in his affairs was brought about by an untoward event. On the 18th of February, 1563, the Duke of Guise was assassinated by a poor fanatical Huguenot wretch, M'ho, under torture, accused Beza of having instigated him by promising him Paradise and a high place among the saints if he died for his deed.i The caluniny was afterwards denied by the man who had made it, but Beza considered liimself obligated to make a formal reply. He called upon all who had heard him to declare if he had ever favored any other than strictly legal measures against the late Duke. And as for his alleged promise, he said that he was too good a Bible student to declare that any one could Avin Paradise by works.^
Peace having come, Beza was at liberty to return home. But his heart was heavy because the affairs in France were in a very unsatisfactory condition. Still, there was nothing to be accomplished by staying, and so, loaded down M'ith thanks and praises from the leading Huguenots for his invaluable services in the field, in the camp, at the council-board, and in the religious assembly, surrounded with the leadere of the Huguenot army and the preachers and nobles, amid shouts and sighs, Beza, on Tuesday, March 30, 1563, took his departure from Orleans. On the Sunday before, he had preached his farewell sermon, in which he expressed his disappointment that the Edict of Pacification had brought the Huguenots so little advantage.^
On his way back he passed through A'ezelay. His father
1 Bauni, II. 711; Baird, II. 105.
2 Haiim, II. 714, 710. « Baird, II. IIH.
862 THE EEFOKIVIATION IN" FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
was dead, but there must have been many associations of childhood which endeared the place to him. Here he learned that his wife was safe at Strassburg with Conde's mother-inlaw. Bending his steps thither, he rejoined her, and together they made the journey home, where they arrived May 5, 1563.1
As they journeyed they knew that they were in perpetual danger, but they did not know that some of their enemies were looking for them to turn towards the Netherlands. But so it was. In June of that year a rumor was circulated at Brussels that there had been a quarrel between him and Calvin, and that in consequence he Avould not return to Geneva. Margaret of Parma, then regent of the Netherlands, thought to do a splendid deed, and gave orders that if he entered her domains he was to be taken, dead or alive, and offered to his capturer or murderer a thousand florins. But there having been no such break, Beza, on the contrary, took the shortest practicable route for Geneva.^
§ 172, Beza as the Successor of Calvin^ down to 1586.
Beza received his warmest welcome from Calvin, who was already under the shadow of death. There was no one else
1 Referring to the entire length of service in France, Baum says : " He had been absent twenty-two months. They were the most wearing and the most perilous, but also the most fruitful months in his life. For during that period, with courage and dignity, with learning and acuteness, with penetrating force and charming eloquence, he had before princes and kings preached the gospel and exalted the name of Christ. As the representation in this work has abundantly shown, amid incessant struggles against unwise or faint-hearted friends, against cunning and powerful foes, many times and most daringly at the risk of his own life, he developed into one of the great leaders who procured for the Reformed Church of France its soul-liberty, which, though, it is true, less than it claimed should have been given, was still secured to it by law." With these words Baum (II. 731) closes his authoritative but, alas, unfinished work upon Beza.
2 Baird, II. 388. In the regent's proclamation, Beza was described as " homme de moienne stature, ayant barbe a demy blanche, et le visage hault et large."