Theodore Beza A Booke of Christian Questions and Answers

Early years
Beza was born in Vezelay on June 24, 1519 to Pierre de Besze and Marie Bourdelot. Theodore's mother died when he was only three years old and so he went off to Paris to be raised by a wealthy uncle.

But he fell ill and his distress of body, it is reported, revealed to him his spiritual needs. Gradually he came to the knowledge of salvation in Christ, which he apprehended with a joyous faith. He then resolved to sever his connections of the time, and went to Geneva, the French city of refuge for Evangelicals (adherents of the Reformation movement), where he arrived with Claudine on October 23, 1548.

Settles in Geneva
The academy in Geneva was organized in 1558 and Beza now assumed the role of Greek instructor and in March he also assumed the pastorate of a city church. He would also begin to go out and intervene for certain members of the nobility who were being persecuted for their conversion to Protestantism and through his effors he quickly developed a reputation as the most capable spokesman for the French Reformation and second in theological abilities only to John Calvin himself.

More important than this polemical activity was Beza's statement of his own confession. It was originally prepared for his father in justification of his course and published in revised form to promote Evangelical knowledge among Beza's countrymen. It was printed in Latin in 1560 with a dedication to Wolmar. An English translation was published at London 1563, 1572, and 1585. Translations into German, Dutch, and Italian were also issued.

As war broke out between the Prince of Conde (Huguenot Protestant) and the Duke of Guise