Martyrdom and anti-martyrdom in the work of Théodore de Bèze (ca 1544-1607). Martyrdom around the Psalms

The emergence of Reformation in 16th century France raised religious tension to an unprecedented level. Protestants were persecuted by the royal authorities, and those who refused to renounce their faith were sentenced to death by fire. In an identity-building process, Protestant faithful came to consider their burned brothers and sisters as martyrs. Martyrdom catalyses the ideological tensions of its time. In the French Reformed context, its history was mostly shaped on the basis of vast compilations, the “martyrologes”. The current project aims to broaden the field of research to the abundant and polymorphous work (poems, polemical and historical treatises, correspondence, etc.) of the Reformed poet and theologian Théodore de Bèze (1519-1605). The choice of this author is justified by his profile of privileged actor and witness to the evolution of the conception of martyrdom. The “true” martyrdom of God finds a nemesis in its heretical opposite, the “false” martyrdom of the devil. The study undertakes to recount these movements in the representation of martyrdom and anti-martyrdom through the second half of the 16th century. If Bèze follows in the footsteps of his spiritual father John Calvin, he also contributes in an original way both to set up a theology of martyrdom among the Reformed, and to elaborate a clearer definition of religious deviance, which he intends to banish from the ecclesial community by calling it heresy.
I would like to take the opportunity of this talk at the IEG to share the first results of an ongoing research on the notion of martyrdom in psalmian and para-psalmian Reformed literature. Indeed, Bèze undertook to continue the translation of the Psalms after Clement Marot. Though there seems to be few connexions between the Psalms and martyrdom, some elements shed light on Bèze’s ideas on death for faith in the 1550s.