Geneva is a special city, full of historical sites that are of special interest to Protestants, an ideal destination for the EUD Women’s Ministries Director to take the WM Union Directors gathered for the 2023 advisory at the Adventist Campus at Collonges-sous-Salève, just across the border. They spent a day in the footsteps of reformers who brought gospel light to people in darkness and learned about women who have made an impact in Geneva.
The famous Reformation Wall was a good place to start, with statues of William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore de Bèze, John Knox, and others. This stone wall was built in 1909 to commemorate Geneva's vital role in the Protestant Reformation. The motto of Geneva and the Reformation, “Post Tenebras Lux” (After darkness, light) is engraved on either side of the central statues, and on the pedestal in the center is the Christogram: ΙΗΣ.
When we think of the Reformation, the names of men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wycliffe, and Ulrich Zwingli come to mind. But the women of the Reformation have often been forgotten. We think of strong women like Katharina von Bora. But in Geneva, we encounter Marie Dentière, who championed the right of women to preach the Word of God.
Marie was born in 1495 into a relatively wealthy Flemish family of the lesser nobility in Tournai. At a young age, she entered the Augustinian convent of Saint-Nicolas-des-Prés in Tournai in 1508 and became abbess in 1521. Since Martin Luther had been an Augustinian monk, his early teachings were much discussed in Augustinian houses, and sometime in the early 1520s Marie adopted the views of the religious reformers and left her convent. This was an ecclesiastical and perhaps also a civil crime, and Marie fled to Strasbourg, a city where Protestants from both Germany and France found refuge. In Strasbourg in 1528, she married Simon Robert, a young priest who was a noted Hebrew scholar. Soon after, they followed William Farel to the Swiss Valais, an area outside of Geneva, to preach the Reformation, and Marie participated with her husband in the preaching. Simon Robert died in 1533, and Marie, who by then had two children, married 24-year-old Antoine Froment, who had come to Geneva the year before as a follower of the leading French Protestant William Farel. The Froments lived in Geneva, where Antoine worked first as a teacher and then as a merchant, always combining these activities with preaching. Marie had at least one other child and worked with Antoine in his business. The couple opened a small boarding school for girls in their home to provide a thorough education for their own as well as other girls, including the study of Greek and Hebrew.
Since the early 1520s, the city of Geneva had been at odds with its ruler, the Duke of Savoy. With the influx of French Protestants into the city, the political dispute also became a religious conflict; Farel and his followers gained considerable influence. In 1533, the Catholic bishop who was loyal to Savoy was banished; two years later, all Catholic clergy, monks, and nuns were given the alternative of either converting to Protestantism or leaving the city. This was the first time that Marie Dentière was brought into the public eye.
At the beginning of 1536, the people of Geneva were discussing their new form of government. In the spring, an anonymous pamphlet appeared entitled La guerre et deliverance de la ville de Genesve, fideement faicte et composee par un Marchant demourant en icelle (The war and deliverance of the city of Geneva, faithfully prepared and written down by a merchant living in the city). The pamphlet called on the Genevans to embrace the Reformation. It is generally believed that the author was the wife of the merchant Antoine Froment. The pamphlet's goal was achieved: in May, Geneva became a Protestant republic. Soon after, John Calvin visited the city, and Farel asked him to stay and help introduce a genuine reform. Farel and Calvin worked together to introduce new church regulations, but their ideas were considered too strict by the more moderate Protestants, and in 1538 the two men were expelled from the city.
Marguerite of Navarre, who sympathized with the Reformers and may have been godmother to one of Marie's children, inquired about the banishment of Farel and Calvin. As a result, an open letter was published in 1539, Epistre tres utile, faicte ey composee par une femme chrestienne de Tornay, envoyee a la Royne de Navarre..., (A very useful epistle, made and written by a Christian woman from Tournai, sent to the Queen of Navarre). The "Christian of Tournai" was known to all as Marie Dentière. With references to the Holy Scriptures, she proved the outstanding qualities of women and called for the active participation of women in the life and work of the Church, including preaching. Since Marie Dentière knew her Bible almost by heart, her text was abundantly peppered with appropriate quotations from Scripture. For Dentière, women and men were equally qualified and entitled to interpret Scripture and practice religion. She responded to the traditional argument that only scholars could interpret Scripture, "To excuse themselves, they will say, '[...]Scripture has several meanings, and it can be understood in different ways.' It is not for women to know it, nor for people who are not learned, who do not have degrees or doctorates; let them simply believe without questioning anything.' They just want us to give pleasure, as is our custom, to do our work, to spin the distaff, to live like the women before us, like our neighbors.... They just want us to ... Live like the women before us." Then she continued, "I ask: Didn't Jesus die just as much for the poor ignorant and idiotic as for my dear gentlemen, the shaved, tonsured, and mitered? Did he preach and spread my gospel only for my dear lords, the wise and eminent doctors? Does it not apply to all of us? Do we have two gospels, one for men and one for women? One for the wise and another for the stupid?"
In the last lines of her work, Marie exhorts, "We must ask the Lord of the harvest to send us good laborers, and when they have come, I hope they will persevere in their work to the end ... God, by His grace, will give us the heart and intelligence to do this ... Amen!" She had realized that God's workers need not be only men.
However, the fact that she encouraged women to participate in writing and the study of theology angered the Genevan authorities. After publication, almost all copies of the letter were confiscated and the publisher was arrested. Only about 400 copies of the letter survived and entered circulation. The publication and subsequent suppression of this work by Dentière marked the beginning of censorship in reformed Geneva. The Geneva Council prevented the publication of all women authors in the city for the rest of the 16th century.
By 1541, new leaders were elected in Geneva, and Calvin returned to enforce his vision of reform. Correspondence between Calvin and Farel shows a growing exasperation with Antoine Froment. They felt he was too much under the influence of his wife. In 1546, Calvin wrote to Farel about Marie Dentière, saying that he had scolded her for speaking publicly "in taverns, on almost every street corner." In her reply to Calvin, she had complained "about our tyranny, that it was no longer permitted for anyone to speak about anything." Calvin assured Farel, "I treated this woman as I had to."
In a letter, Dentière wrote, "If God has given grace to some good women to reveal something holy and good to them through His Holy Scriptures, should they hesitate to write it, speak it, and proclaim it to one another because the truth is slandered? Ah, it would be too bold to try to prevent them, and it would be too foolish for us to hide the talent that God has given us, the God who will give us the grace to persevere to the end." Marie Dentière died in Geneva in 1561.
Every year in Geneva, the Reformation is celebrated in a short ceremony in front of the Reformation Wall. It is an opportunity to participate in a short service and sing Luther's great battle hymn of the Reformation, but most of all it is a reminder of history. In July 2001, Rev. Dr. Isabelle Graesslé, pastor of the Protestant Church of Geneva and moderator of the Society of Pastors and Deacons of Geneva, was the first moderator to take the floor at this ceremony. She wanted to pay tribute to Marie Dentière, one of the most remarkable personalities of the past, who is little known today.
The tribute was so well received that it was decided to include Marie Dentière's name in the Geneva Monument, along with the names of three other "forgotten" figures in the history of the Reformation. The November 2002 ceremony was thus the occasion to unveil the names of four forerunners of the Reformation: Peter Valdes, John Wycliff, John Hus - and Marie Dentière.
This was a sign of appreciation for this woman who paid a high price for her involvement at the center of the Protestant Reformation: the price of enforced silence and a damaged reputation.
Throughout history, women have been both actively and passively silenced. Only women from higher social classes had the privilege of education, but even they were silenced and ignored by history, even though they contributed greatly. Even though women of the Protestant Reformation are hardly noticed, we should not forget them. We must know women like Juana de Albret, Margarita de Navarre, Elisabeth of Brandenburg, Ursula Münstenberg, Katherine Schütz Zell, Argula von Grumbach and Marie Dentière and appreciate their influence. They can serve as points of reference for us. We are indebted to them because they have their place in history, even if they are often ignored. They steadfastly represented their faith and stood up for it, even though many hurdles were put in their way.
What Marie Dentière called for in the 16th century is still true today. To Marie Dentière's question, we must answer: "There is only one Gospel, which is for all people and must be proclaimed by all."[1]
To read the original article, please go here.
[1] This article is based on an extract from the book by Hannele Ottschofski, Die gläserne Kuppel, published in February 2023
