§ 17."). ukza's last days. 869
emy, and sold his library, givincr part of the proceeds, which were considerable, to his wife, and part to tlie poor. In IGUO he rendered his last public services in the Academy, and preached his last sermon — the only one preaclied in tlu; seventeenth, by a reformer of the sixteenth, century. ^
Occasionally something of the old Avit flashed forth. As when he made his reply to the silly rumor that he had yielded to the argumentation of Fran(;ois de Sales and had gone over to Rome. The facts are these : Francois came to Geneva in 1597 with the express purpose of converting Beza. He was then thirty years old, very zealous, very skilful, and in many other cases had been successful. But he met his match in the old Reformer, who however listened to him courteously. What argument failed to accomplish, the priest thought money might do, and so he offered Beza in the name of the pope a yearly pension of four thousand gold crowns and a sum equal to twice as much as the value of all his personal effects! Tliis brought matters to a climax, and Beza dismissed him with the polite but sarcastic and decisive rebuke, " Go, sir ; I am too old and too deaf to be able to hear such words." ^
But from some quarter the report got abroad that Beza had yielded. This was added to as it passed along until it was confidently asserted that Beza and many other former Genevan Protestants were on tlieir way to Rome to enter the papal fold. Their very route was told, and on an evening in the middle of September, 1597, the faithful people of Siena waited by the gate of their city to receive the great leader ! But for some reason he did not come. ^Fhen it was said that he was dead ; but that ere he died he had made his peace with the Church and had received extreme unction.
When the friends of Beza heard these idle tales, they merely smiled. But Beza concluded to give convincing proof of two facts : first, that he was not dead, and second, that he was
1 Heppe, 307. - Ibid. .lU.
870 THE EEFOEMATIOX IX FRENCH SWITZEELAXD.
still a Protestant of the straitest Calvinistic school ; and so quite in the old manner he nailed the lie by a biting epigram.
When in 1600 Frangois would hold a public discussion with the Genevans, Beza, knowing how unprofitable such discussions were, forbade it. Whereupon it was given out that the Reformers were afraid to meet their opponents !
Another flare of the old flame of poetry was occasioned by the visit from King Henry IV., already alluded to. It was a poem of six stanzas. Ad inclytum Francice et Navarrce regem Henricum IV. (" to the renowned King of France and Navarre, Henry IV.") ^ It was his last, his swan song." ^
Wearied by the vigils of a perilous and exciting time, Beza had long anxiously looked for his final rest. He had fought a good fight and had kept the faith and was ready to receive his crown. On Sunday, Oct. 13, 1605, he died.
In his will ^ Beza ordered his burial to be in the common cemetery of Plain Palais, where Calvin was buried, and near the remains of his wife. But in consequence of a Savoyard threat to carry off his body to Rome, by order of the magistrates, he was buried in the cloister of the cathedral of St. Peter, in the city of Geneva.
Of the six great Continental Reformers, — Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, Bullinger, Calvin, and Beza, — Beza was the most finished gentleman, according to the highest standard of his time. He was not lacking in energy, nor was he always mild. But he was able to hold court with courtiers, be a wit with wits, and show classical learning equal to that of the best scholars of his age. Yet with him the means were only valued because they reached an end, and the great end he had ever in mind was the conservation of the Reformed Church of Geneva and France.
His public life was an extraordinary one. Like the Apostle Paul he could say that he had been "in journeyings often,
1 Heppe, 310.
* Given at length in a German translation by Heppe, 304—306.