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Volume. XXXIX, No. 5 John Calvin's Marriage (Part 2 of 2) (by Joel R. Beeke, https://tabletalkmagazine.com/posts/who-was-idelette-calvin-2020-01/) While working hard to expand the Institutesfrom six chapters to seventeen, he must have periodically had Bucer’s question “Why not Idelette?” echoing in his mind. After all, the woman was godly, kind, and intelligent. Though she was a few years older than Calvin, she was strikingly youthful-looking and attractive. Ultimately, though, it was the evident fruit of Colossians 3:12 in Idelette’s life that impressed Calvin, who pursued godliness in every aspect of his life. Calvin had enjoyed Idelette’s hospitality both before and after her first husband had died. Those visits increased when Calvin formally began to court Idelette. A few months later, on August 17, 1540, Calvin married Idelette, taking her and her children (a son and daughter) into his home. Friends came from near and far to attend Calvin’s wedding (D’Aubigne, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, 6:509). Idelette was a wonderful wife and companion for Geneva’s most prominent pastor. When Calvin’s work as a pastor, writer, and civil servant threatened his health, Idelette proved to be a much-needed confidant, counselor, and sounding board. She tended to his downcast spirit and his fragile health, and visited the sick in his place. She also went out of her way to assure Calvin that she respected him for remaining true to God and Scripture, no matter the cost…. After Idelette’s death in 1549, Calvin wrote to a friend: “I have been bereaved of the best companion of my life, of one who, had it been so ordered, would not only have been the willing sharer of my exile and poverty, but even of my death. During her life she was the faithful helper of my ministry. From her I never experienced the slightest hindrance” (Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 8:419). TRIALS AND PERSEVERANCE Soon after their return to Geneva, Idelette prematurely gave birth to a little boy they named Jacques. The baby died a month later in August 1542. “The Lord has certainly inflicted a severe and bitter wound by the death of our infant son,” Calvin wrote to Viret. “But He is himself a Father and knows what is necessary for His children” (J.H. Alexander, Ladies of the Reformation: Short Biographies of Distinguished Ladies of the Sixteenth Century, repr., New York: Westminster, 2002, 93). In the same letter, Calvin noted that Idelette was too grief-stricken to write, though she was submitting to God in her affliction. She had also nearly lost her life in the delivery of their baby. Calvin wrote to Viret that she had been in “extreme danger.” Idelette recovered, but sorrow followed upon sorrow. Two years later, she gave birth to a daughter on May 30. Calvin wrote to Farel, “My little daughter labors under a continual fever,” and days later she too died. Sometime later, a third child was stillborn. In the midst of Calvin’s overwhelming duties and pressures, the grief of losing children was most profound, particularly for Idelette. Yet she and Calvin pressed on, submitting to the Lord and putting their trust in Him. Insult was then heaped upon sorrow as some Roman Catholics wrote that since sterility in marriage was a reproach and a judgment, the childless condition of Calvin and Idelette must be God’s judgment against Calvin (Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 8:418–19). One writer, Baudouin, even wrote, “He married Idelette by whom he had no children, though she was in the prime of life, that the name of this infamous man might not be propagated” (Ibid.). Calvin later said the profound affliction of his childlessness was lifted only by meditating on God’s Word and through prayer. He wrote privately to his close friend Pierre Viret that he also found comfort in knowing that he had “myriads of sons throughout the Christian world” (Alexander, Ladies of the Reformation, 930). In 1545, hundreds of persecuted Waldensians took refuge in Geneva. Idelette was at Calvin’s side during that time, working hard to provide lodging and employment for them. They were so tireless in their devotion to the immigrants that some Genevans accused them of being more helpful to strangers than to friends.… IDELETTE’S DEATH Idelette’s health steadily worsened during her nine years with Calvin. She suffered from fever during the last three years of her life. By March 1549, she was bedridden. At that same time, Calvin was being hounded by powerful enemies in Geneva (who would be defeated six years later). For the moment, it seemed that everything in his life was crashing down on him. The city appeared to be rejecting him, his reforms were failing, and his precious wife was dying. Yet, through it all, God sustained His servant. Idelette’s last earthly concern was for her children. Calvin promised to treat them as his own, to which she replied, “I have already commended them to the Lord, but I know well that thou wilt not abandon those whom I have confided in the Lord” (James I. Good, Famous Women of the Reformed Church, repr., Birmingham, Ala.: Solid Ground Christian Books, 2002, 29)…. At the close of her earthly life, Idelette prayed: “O God of Abraham and of all our fathers the faithful in all generations have trusted in Thee, and none have ever been confounded. I also will hope” (Good, Famous Women of the Reformed Church, 29). She passed on to glory on April 5, 1549. Calvin was at her side, speaking to her of the happiness they had enjoyed for nine years and about the joy she would soon have in “exchanging an abode on earth for her Father’s house above” (Alexander, Ladies of the Reformation, 97). Calvin’s letters shortly after Idelette’s death expressed his grief over losing his dearest companion, who he said was a rare woman without equal. Even on her deathbed “she was never troublesome to me,” he wrote (Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 8:419). That made Calvin’s sorrow even more profound. Calvin was only forty when Idelette died. Like Hezekiah, he would see fifteen more years in his life, but they would be years without his precious wife. He wrote to his friends that he could scarcely continue with his work, yet he steeled himself to do so. His enemies charged Calvin with being heartless for working so diligently, but Calvin was anything but heartless. He wrote to a friend: “I do what I can that I may not be altogether consumed with grief. I have been bereaved of the best companion of my life; she was the faithful helper of my ministry. My friends leave nothing undone to lighten, in some degree, the sorrow of my soul.May the Lord Jesus confirm you by His Spirit, and me also under this great affliction, which certainly would have crushed me had not He whose office it is to raise up the prostrate, to strengthen the weak, and to revive the faint, extended help to me from heaven” (Alexander, Ladies of the Reformation, 97). |
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