The city council of Geneva banished John Calvin (1509-1564) from his church. Let’s just say, it’s complicated! John was invited to lead a church of French refugees in Strasbourg. Jean and Idelette Stordeur, who also fled religious persecution, were impressed with John’s preaching and joined the fellowship. They opened their home to him, and they became close friends. When Jean died in a plague, John conducted his funeral.
John was a thirty-one-year-old bachelor, consumed with leading a reformation, preaching, and writing his Institutes of the Christian Religion. His friend Martin Bucer admonished him, “You need to find a wife.” His friends put forward three worthy candidates, but none fit the bill. John said, “The only kind of beauty which can win my soul is a woman who is chaste, considerate, not fastidious, economical, practical, and careful about my health.” Martin suggested, “What about the gentle Idelette?” While John had dined at her table and watched her attend to her two small children, he had never imagined this widow as a marriage partner. They married two months later, in August 1540. They returned from their honeymoon only to enter a full house. John’s home resembled a boarding house with two siblings and several friends living there. It didn’t seem to matter. The young couple flourished, and John wrote letters to distant friends about how pleased he was with his new wife. They experienced deep heartache as all three of their children died at birth. John’s critics took it as a sign of God’s judgment. My! Christians can be nasty! Idelette died after a lengthy illness in 1548, and John felt her death keenly. “I have been bereaved of the best companion in my life,” he wrote. The following is a prayer the Calvins prayed before sleep: