# Marriages of Reformers



## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 21, 2005)

Recent threads on the subject of marriage and courtship have reminded me of previous studies I have done on specific examples of marriage involving Reformers (and others). 

Some interesting historical highlights worthy of note are:

* The marriage of Martin Luther and Katherina von Bora was the quintessential Reformed marriage. Both renounced their Papist vows of celibacy and entered into God's holy institution of marriage for their mutual benefit and in so doing set the prime example of how one can serve God while being married. 

* John Calvin married a widow, Idelette de Bure. She died before him, and they three children who died in infancy, although she had two children by her first husband.



> Perhaps the most important providence during this three-year stay in Strasbourg was finding a wife. Several had tried to get Calvin a wife. He was 31 years old and numerous women had shown interest. Calvin had told his friend and matchmaker William Farel what he wanted in a wife: "The only beauty which allures me is this â€“ that she be chaste, not too nice or fastidious, economical, patient, likely to take care of my health" (see note 23). Parker comments, "Romantic love . . . seems to have had no place in his character. Yet prosaic wooing led to a happy marriage" (see note 24). I think Parker was wrong about romantic love (see below on Idelette's death). But the prosaic wooing he referred to was toward an Anabaptist widow named Idelette Stordeur who had joined Calvin's congregation with her husband Jean. In the spring of 1540, Jean died of plague and that August 6, 1540, Calvin and Idelette were married. She brought a son and daughter with her into Calvin's home.
> 
> Idelette was never well again. They had two more children who also died at or soon after birth. Then on March 29, 1549, Idelette died of what was probably tuberculosis. Calvin wrote to Viret,
> 
> ...



Source: http://www.desiringgod.org/library/biographies/97calvin.html

* John Calvin described a woman's marriageable years (ie., "flower of her age," re: I Cor. 7.36) as between 12 and 20.

* John Knox married twice: first, at age 38; then, after his wife passed away, again, at age 50, to a young woman age 17! As to the age discrepancy issue, all of Knox's godly progeny came from the second wife, and their marriage was a happy one. William Gouge addresses age disparity in his work on _Of Domesticall Duties_. 

* C.S. Lewis (58), John Murray (60's) and William Farel (70's) all married for the first time late in life. Calvin did not approve of Farel's marriage due to his age. 

* Puritans and Reformers who wrote on marriage include William Gouge, Henry Smith, Heinrich Bullinger, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Daniel Defoe and many others. All of their works are still relevant and edifying today.


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## doulosChristou (Jan 21, 2005)

Does anyone know if Idelette ever renounced her Anabaptist heritage? It appears from the above that Calvin's congregation accepted Anabaptists into membership at the time that the Stordeurs joined the church.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 21, 2005)

> _Originally posted by doulosChristou_
> Does anyone know if Idelette ever renounced her Anabaptist heritage? It appears from the above that Calvin's congregation accepted Anabaptists into membership at the time that the Stordeurs joined the church.



Yes, Calvin had counseled both Idelette and her husband Jean the year previously and they both converted from Anabaptistic beliefs to the Reformed Faith prior to Jean's death in 1540.


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## doulosChristou (Jan 21, 2005)

It seems strange, then, that she would still be referred to as "an Anabaptist widow." It would be sort of like referring to Luther after his marriage to Katherina as "a Papist monk."


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 21, 2005)

> _Originally posted by doulosChristou_
> It seems strange, then, that she would still be referred to as "an Anabaptist widow." It would be sort of like referring to Luther after his marriage to Katherina as "a Papist monk."



Yes, the wording in that article could have been more clear on this point. Undoubtedly, Idelette was a Presbyterian, not an Anabaptist, immediately prior to and during her marriage to John Calvin.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Mar 25, 2007)

William Gouge, _Of Domestical Duties_:



> 9. Of equality in years betwixt husband and wife.
> 
> That matrimonial society may prove comfortable, it is requisite that there should be some equality betwixt the parties that are married in Age, Estate, Condition, Piety.
> 
> ...


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