Idelette de Bure

Life

Idelette de Bure was a sixteenth-century woman from the Low Countries (the region of the present-day Netherlands and Belgium). Her year of birth is uncertain. Some sources place it around 1500, while others place it several years later. Many sources give her place of origin as Liège (in present-day Belgium), though she is also described as having come from the Netherlands.

She married Jean Stordeur, a native of the same region, and they had a son, Charles, and a daughter, Judith. The couple were Anabaptists. The Anabaptists were a radical wing of the Reformation that rejected infant baptism and baptized only those who personally professed their faith. The couple are said to have moved to Strasbourg to escape persecution. There they came under the teaching of John Calvin, who was then pastor of the French refugee congregation, and embraced the Reformed faith. Not long afterward Stordeur died in an epidemic, and Calvin is said to have conducted his funeral.

In 1540 Idelette married Calvin. The wedding was performed by Calvin's fellow Reformer William Farel. The following year, when Calvin returned to Geneva at the city's request, Idelette moved there with her two children. In July 1542 she gave birth prematurely to a son, Jacques, but the child lived only a short time. She then suffered a long illness and died in Geneva on March 29, 1549. Calvin never remarried.

Ministry and Contributions

No writings by Idelette herself survive. Her life is known mostly through letters exchanged between Calvin and his colleagues. Calvin is said to have been deeply impressed by the devotion with which she nursed her first husband through his illness. She made a pastor's home for Calvin, whose health was always frail. The Calvins were close friends of the Lausanne Reformer Pierre Viret and his wife. One of Calvin's letters records that when Idelette lost her son, she was grateful for the consolation sent by Viret's wife.

Three days before her death, when Calvin promised to care for her children, Idelette reportedly replied that she had already committed them to the Lord. After her death Calvin wrote to Viret that he had lost the best companion of his life, recalling that his wife had faithfully assisted him in his ministry.

Assessment

Writers in the Reformed tradition have portrayed Idelette as a faithful companion who quietly supported her husband's ministry. However, the surviving sources consist almost entirely of letters from Calvin's side. As a result, it is difficult to ascertain her own faith and thought in her own words. Her move from Anabaptism to the Reformed church is likewise known only through records filtered through Calvin's perspective. Even basic facts, such as her year of birth and place of origin, vary from source to source.