414 THE KEFOIIMATION IN FKENCH SWITZERLAND.
liesh, and bone of his bone. This is a great mystery, the dignity of which camiot be expressed in words."
He himself was in no hurry to get married, and put it off till he was over thirty. He rather boasted that people could not charge him with having assailed Rome, as the Greeks besieged Troy, for the sake of a woman. What led him first to think of it, was the sense of loneliness and the need of proper care, that he might be able the better to serve the Church. He had a housekeeper, with her son, a woman of violent temper who sorely tried his patience. At one time she abused his brother so violently that he left the house, and then she ran away, leaving her son behind. The disturbance made him sick.^
He was often urged by his friend Farel (who himself found no time to think of marrying till his old age), and by Bucer, to take a wife, that he might enjoy the comforts of a wellordered home. He fii'st mentions the subject in a letter to Farel, from Strassbui-g, May 19, 1539, in which he says : " I am none of those insane lovers who, when once smitten with the fine figure of a woman, embrace also her faults. This only is the beauty which allures me, if she be chaste, obliging, not fastidious, economical, patient, and careful for my health.^ Therefore, if you think well of it, set out immediately, lest some one else [Bucer?] gets the start of you. But if you think otherwise we will let it pass." It seems Farel could not find a person that combined all these qualities, and the matter was dropped for several months.
In Feb. 6, 1540, Calvin, in a letter to the same friend, touched again upon the subject of matrimony, but only incidentally, as if it were a subordinate matter. After informing
^ He tells the story to Farel, September, 1540, shortly after his marriage. Opera, XI. Ep. 238 (fol. 83 sq.), and Hermiujard, VI. 313.
- " Hmc sola est quce me illectat pulchritudo, si pttdica est, si morigera, si non fastuosa, si parca, si patiens, si spes est de mea valetudine fore solicitam." Herminjard, V. 314.
§ 92; Calvin's makkiage and jiume life. 415
him about his trouble with Caroli, his discussion with Hermann, an Anabaptist, the good understanding of Charles V. and Francis I., and the alarm of the Protestant princes of Germany, he goes on to say : " Nevertheless, in the midst of such commotions as these, I am so much at my ease as to have the audacity to think of taking a wife. A certain damsel of noble rank has been proposed to me,^ and with a fortune above my condition. Two considerations deterred me from that connection — because she did not understand our language, and because I feared she might be too mindful of her family and education." -
He sent his brother for another lady, who was highly recommended to him. He expected to get married March 10, and invited Farel to celebrate the wedding. But this project also failed, and he thought of abandoning all further attempts.
At last he married a member of his congregation, Idclette de Bure, the widow of Jean Stordeur (or Storder) of Liege,^ a prominent Anabaptist whom he had converted to the orthodox faith,* and who had died of the pestilence in the previous February. She was probably the daughter of Lambert de Bure who, witii six of his fellow-citizens, had been deprived of his property and banished forever, after having been legally convicted of heresy in 1533.^ She was the mother of several children, poor, and in feeble health. She lived in retirement, devoted to the education of her children, and enjoyed the esteem of her friends for her good qualities of
^ Probably by Bucor. She was of a patrician family of Strassburg, and her brother a great admirer of Calvin and anxious for the match.
- Ilerminjard, VL 107 sq. It seems that the lady had no disposition to learn French, and asked time for consideration.
8 Not of " line petite ville de la Gueldre," as Bonnet states {I.e., p. 039). Bcza calls him " Storder Leodinensis."
* Florimond de Rajmond: " Calvin €pousa la veuve de Jean Lestordeur, natif de Liege, de religion anabaptiste : il I'a chantjee a son opinion : elle e'tait appelc'e Idelette de Bure."
^ Accordmg to Lenoir of Lii'ge, m " Bulletin," etc., 1800, p. 20.