Theodore Beza, though in some ways overshadowed by the figure of John Calvin, is far from a forgotten figure of the Reformation. He was an enormously important Reformed theologian and ecclesiastical leader as well as an accomplished humanist. Beza served for many years as Calvin's principal assistant at Geneva and would eventually succeed him as the city's chief pastor, serving as moderator of the Venerable Company of Pastors. He also succeeded Calvin in the chair of theology at the Genevan Academy. In short, Beza's leadership of the Genevan church following Calvin's death in 1564, along with his substantial body of writing, has led to substantial close scholarly attention. Yet as Kirk M. Summers aptly notes, the tendency among scholars has been to turn repeatedly to the same texts in discussions of critical matters, among them Beza's ethical thought. Few specialists have examined (or even noted) Beza's Cato Censorius Christianus, a collection of poems addressing a series of moral issues central to the Reformation at Geneva and beyond.

Summers, a classics scholar possessed of a deep appreciation of Latin poetry, focuses on the identification and investigation of the ethical concerns expressed in the Cato, which Beza (1519–1605) published in 1591, toward the end of his exceptionally long life. The study also turns to several other often overlooked works—the Poemata of 1597 and the Annotationes of 1598—as well as several of Beza's better-known publications. Summers supplements these texts with newly accessible material—the proceedings of the Genevan Consistory, the minutes of the Company of Pastors, and Beza's extensive correspondence. Thus, the present enquiry seeks to explicate Beza's ethics and its place in the larger theological context, while simultaneously shedding light on Beza's pastoral vocation as he provided guidance to the faithful in the conduct of everyday life.

The study begins by establishing the overall setting. What were the Reformed ethical notions and the disciplinary institutions that influenced the structure and substance of Beza's Cato? Summers proceeds from there to an extensive and detailed examination of the Cato. It contains twenty-one original Latin poems and one Greek poem, essentially a translation of poem 8, contributed by the Reformed Hellenist Isaac Casaubon. In them, Beza chastises a predictable range of sinners: the slothful, the proud, the greedy, perjurers, blasphemers, adulterers, hypocrites, and Epicureans (atheists). In all of this, the moral order equates with natural law, and the believer's sanctification involves restoration to an original order created by God. The chapters that follow explore Beza's understanding of these all too human failings as expressed in the Cato. A lengthy discussion of pride and ambition effectively combines with examples of several sinners who appeared before the Genevan Consistory. Summers moves next to an exploration of “living sincerely.” In this instance, Beza condemns falsehood, perjury, and, above all, blasphemy. The moral life means a commitment to truthfulness.

Several issues frequently associated with the Reformed tradition and the development of capitalism do not escape Beza's attention. Thus, while he refrains from direct praise of industriousness, he clearly denounces idleness for it is our human destiny to toil for our daily bread. The Consistory, for its part, echoed this condemnation of laziness and sloth, garrulity and frivolity. Beza's aversion to wasting time and his insistence on the work ethic in theory and practice ought not to surprise us. Equally revealing is the discussion of usury in the Cato. Here, Summers invokes the “rhetoric of mutuality” to explore the nuances of Beza's position on lending money at interest. Succinctly put, lending money to the destitute at no interest goes to the heart of Christian charity. Still, he understood the need for credit in the financial system, so long as loans were at a measured rate of interest. Along these same lines, no exposition of Reformed ethical principles would be complete without discussion of the Calvinist repression of sexuality. Here, Summers emphasizes the social and political ramifications of adultery and fornication. Above all, unbridled sexual license threatened marriage and the family, the very foundation of civic solidarity and stability.

Finally, in this catalogue of malefactors, the Cato forcefully rebukes drunkards, the Jesuit fathers, and Epicureans. Beza deemed them a grave peril to the moral order and the social fabric. Overindulgence in alcohol dehumanizes and leads to a variety of other vices. The Jesuits, cleverly disguised demons, do little more than provoke quarrels and imperil souls. Epicureans, in their promotion of pleasure as the highest good, subvert true Christian doctrine. Here, as elsewhere, the Christian must trust in God and follow scripture in the lifelong struggle to overcome sin.

Throughout the discussion, the Cato, as characterized by Summers, has a decidedly negative tone, laying bare human wickedness with considerably less attention to the promotion of virtue. In addition, a strong (and inviting) theological bent runs throughout the analysis. While Beza's insights dominate, Summers frequently cites and examines the views of Calvin, Lambert Daneau, Peter Martyr Vermigli, and a range of other Reformed theologians. Attempts to track the application of these theological understandings by institutions such as the Consistory are a bit more hesitant and, as a result, less successful. Still, Summers makes two particularly significant contributions. His study of Beza's poems reveals in fresh, occasionally unexpected, and invariably helpful ways the nature of Reformed Orthodoxy and the pronounced moral fervor that dominated the movement from the death of Calvin in 1564 to roughly the mid-seventeenth century. In addition, the reader learns a great deal about the philosophical and theological underpinnings of the strict moral principles and disciplinary activities that came to characterize the Reformed tradition in Europe and the broad Atlantic world.