Charles Perrot, a contemporary and colleague of Theodore Beza, came from a well-known French family belonging to the noblesse de robe. He was born in Paris in 1541, and seems to have spent a number of years as a monk, before joining the Reformation movement. In 1564, at twenty-three years old, he enrolled in the Academy of Geneva. That same year saw him called to the ministry in Moens and Genthoz, not far from Geneva. Having acquired the citizenship of Geneva in 1567, he was appointed minister in this city a year later, a position he was to hold for forty years, until his death in 1608, his delicate health notwithstanding. In addition, he occasionally deputized for Beza as professor at the Academy, where during two periods (1570-2 and 1588–92) he acted as rector.