# Can Anyone Source this Beza Quote?



## Semper Fidelis (Aug 3, 2015)

“Sire, it belongs to the Church of God, in the Name of Whom I speak, to receive blows, and not to give them, but it will please your Majesty to remember that the Church is an anvil which has worn out many a hammer.”

I've seen this quote attributed to Beza as written to King Henry of Navarre. Does anyone have a collected works of Beza who can confirm?


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## Phil D. (Aug 3, 2015)

*Étienne A. Laval, A History Of The Reformation in France, Vol 2 (bottom of page 33)*


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## NaphtaliPress (Aug 3, 2015)

I'm thinking after a quick look, that you will not find it in Beza's works and that this comes from De Thou's history. https://books.google.com/books?id=R...1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=incudem&f=falseAd quae verba retulit Beza, si ita res haberet, Guisium, pro ea, qua in regno potentia polleret, imminutae dignitatis suae rcos regia auctoritate vindicare potuisse, nec suis injuriae ultionem permittere debuisse: tum, converso ad Navarrum sermone, subjecit, se ecclesiae nomine missum esse, cujus proprium esset, injuriarum ictus non inferre, sed pati; ceterum meminisse Navarrum debere, eam esse incudem, quae multorum malleos hactenus retudisset et attrivisset.
​


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## Semper Fidelis (Aug 3, 2015)

NaphtaliPress said:


> I'm thinking after a quick look, that you will not find it in Beza's works and that this comes from De Thou's history. https://books.google.com/books?id=R...1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=incudem&f=falseAd quae verba retulit Beza, si ita res haberet, Guisium, pro ea, qua in regno potentia polleret, imminutae dignitatis suae rcos regia auctoritate vindicare potuisse, nec suis injuriae ultionem permittere debuisse: tum, converso ad Navarrum sermone, subjecit, se ecclesiae nomine missum esse, cujus proprium esset, injuriarum ictus non inferre, sed pati; ceterum meminisse Navarrum debere, eam esse incudem, quae multorum malleos hactenus retudisset et attrivisset.
> ​



Is that the quote in Latin?


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## NaphtaliPress (Aug 3, 2015)

It's close; the English may be loser? A Latinist can chime in.


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## Ask Mr. Religion (Aug 3, 2015)

Very rough translation off the top of my head as I did not take time to dig deeper into my Latin reference books:"Towards which words it has mattered {Beza}, if thus the thing was having, Guisium, according to her/it, which in the power with the force might exert influence, to have been able to claim of the diminished his/her/their dignity with the regal authority, nor to his/her/their-own to the injury to have owed to permit the revenge: 

Then, towards Nauarrus with the conversation turned, s/he/it has thrown under, him/itself with the name of the church sent to be, of which own s/he/it might be, the blows of the injuries not to bring in, but to allow; 

The other Nauarrum to must remember, to be that anvil, what thus-far s/he/it might have blunted the mallets of many-things and s/he/it might have rubbed."

​Google translate offers the following:"To this he brought back the words of Beza, should it be the case, the Duke of Guise, on behalf of those things, which He possessed in the kingdom of the power, the authority of the king's claim to the waters of his dignity rcos have been destroyed, they were wrong, and deem they ought to permit it; then, turning toward the King of Navarre, his words, that made it subject, name of the Church itself, was sent to, of which it belonged to, was struck by not inflicting the injuries, but to suffer; But remember Navarre should it be an anvil, which had been hammered and guise worn."​


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