Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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firmly called him to account, and plainly told him that he should never act
so imprudently. f1302
On Nov. 26, 1580, the Peace of Fleix brought rest to France for a little
while. Beza showed his courage and fidelity on this occasion by writing to
King Henry of Navarre, the Protestant leader, a letter in which he candidly
informed the king that he himself and his court stood in great need of
reformation. It is proof of the respect in which the Reformer was held that
the king received the rebuke in good part, and of the king’s lightmindedness
that he did not attempt to reform. f1303
§ 173. BEZA’S CONFERENCES WITH LUTHERANS.
The bitter theological differences between Lutherans and Reformed had
long been a disgrace. Beza had in early life brought trouble upon himself by
minimizing them, as has been already recorded, but in his old age he made
one more attempt in that direction. Count Frederick of Würtemberg, a
Lutheran, but a friend of reconciliation, called a conference at Montbéliard
(or Mömpelgard), a city in his domains in which were many Huguenot
refugees, with whom the Lutherans would not fraternize. The count hoped
that a discussion between the leaders on each side might mend matters.
Accordingly he summoned Beza, confessedly the ablest advocate of
Calvinism. On March 21, 1586, the conference began. It took a wide
range, but it came to nothing. Beza showed a beautiful spirit of
reconciliation, but Andreä, the Lutheran leader, in the very spirit of Luther
at the famous Marburg Conference with Zwingli (1529), refused to take
Beza’s hand at parting (March 29). f1304
Undeterred by this churlish exhibition, Beza left Montbéliard for another
round of visits at German courts to induce them once more to plead with
France to restore to the Huguenots their rights of worship; for the Peace of
Fleix had not lasted long, and the country was again plunged in the horrors
of civil war.
The Montbéliard conference had an echo in the Bern Colloquy of April
15th to 18th, 1588, in which Samuel Huber, pastor at Burgdorf, near Bern,
a notorious polemic, and Beza represented the Lutheran and Calvinist
parties, respectively. It was Beza’s last appearance as a public disputant,
and the hero of so many wordy battles once more carried off the palm. In
fact, his victory was much more decided than such contests were usually,