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Updated 06-28-09
Jeanne de Jussie (1503-1561)
Marie
Dentiere / Marie d'Ennetieres (c.1495-1561)
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"DO WE HAVE TWO GOSPELS?"
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Jeanne de Jussie was born near Geneva to a noble family with ties to the Duke of Savoy; she was the youngest of six surviving children. She went to school in Geneva and when she was 18 entered a Franciscan monastery there, the only women's monastery within the city walls. By 1530 she had become the monastery's ecrivaine, who handled all of the written dealings with the outside world. When the nuns left Geneva in 1535, she began to write the history of their experiences, probably completing the work by 1547, when she was elected abbess of the exiled community now at Annecy. Jeanne described her work as a petite chronique; it would be published after her death with the title, Le levain du calvinisme (The germ of Calvinism).
Marie Dentiere had been in the Geneva region since 1528. Originally from a Flemish family of the minor nobility, she had joined an Augustinian monastery in Tournai, where she may have held monastic office, perhaps as superior. Sometime in the early 1520s, Marie had adopted the views of the religious reformers and left her monastery. This was an ecclesiastical and perhaps a civil crime, and Marie fled to Strasbourg, a refuge for Protestants from both Germany and France. There she married Simon Robert, a former priest of Tournai, and the couple went to spread the Reform to an area east of Geneva, Simon as pastor and his wife as his assistant. After Robert died in 1533, Marie, who had two children, married the 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 first taught and then became a merchant, always combining these activities with preaching. Marie would have at least one more child and would work with Antoine in his shop.
Since the early 1520s the city of Geneva had been doing battle with its ruler, the Duke of Savoy, and many of the city's merchants had sought alliances with the Swiss city-states that had already accepted the Protestant Reformation. In 1532 Reformed preachers like Farel and Froment converted many, and during the next two years there was armed combat within the city between Protestants and Catholics loyal to Savoy as well as sporadic incursions by outside militias. In the summer of 1535 the male citizens voted to accept the Reform. John Calvin would arrive the following year to organize the new government.
It was after that official decision for the Reform that Marie Dentiere went with Farel and others to Jeanne de Jussie's monastery. Their goal was to persuade the nuns to choose the path that Marie had chosen. They failed, but Jeanne would record Dentiere's attempt in her Petite chronique.
By the beginning of 1536, the last battles against Savoy had been won, and the Genevans were debating what their new form of government would be. In early spring an anonymous pamphlet appeared, La guerre et delivrance 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 that city). Its purpose was to convince Genevans of God's intentions for their city. Its author has been generally accepted since the 1800s as the wife of the merchant Antoine Froment.
The pamphlet's goal was achieved: in May Geneva became a Protestant republic. Soon after, John Calvin came and worked with Farel to establish new church practices. However, their ideas were found too severe by the more moderate Protestants, and in 1538 the two men were expelled from the city.
The Froments were then living in a town outside Geneva, where Antoine was a deacon (he would be made a pastor in 1541), but both he and Marie were still fully involved in Genevan affairs. Apparently Marguerite of Navarre, who was sympathetic to Reformers (although not as much as they would have liked), inquired about the banishment of Farel and Calvin. Perhaps 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, seur de Roy de France, contre les Turcz, Juifz, Faux crestiens, Anabaptists et Lutheriens (A very useful epistle, made and composed by a Christian woman of Tournai, sent to the Queen of Navarre, sister of the King of France, against the Turks, Jews, Infidels, False Christians, Anabaptists and Lutherans). The "Christian woman of Tournai" was known by all to be Marie. Despite the title, most of the letter was on the "false Christians," those French who still adhered to the Catholic Church. However, it also briefly attacked what Marie saw as corruption among local religious leaders, those moderate Protestants who had expelled Farel and Calvin; for this the Epistre tres utile was soon suppressed.
By 1541 new leaders had been elected in Geneva, and Calvin returned to establish his vision of the Reform. Correspondence between Calvin and Farel shows an increasing irritation with Antoine Froment, whom they saw as being too much under the influence of his wife. In 1546 Calvin spoke specifically of Marie: he wrote to Farel that he had scolded her for speaking in public "in the taverns, at almost all the street corners," and that in her reply to Calvin, "she complained about our tyranny, that it was no longer permitted for just anyone to chatter on about anything at all." Calvin assured Farel, "I treated this woman as I should have" (McKinley, p.19).
Two years later Antoine preached a sermon attacking local church leaders for making money from their ministries and for losing sight of spirit of the Reform; for this he was removed from his pastorate. The couple now remained in Geneva, where Antoine became a public notary and continued active in civic affairs. We hear no more of Marie until 1561, when a collection of writings addressed to women was published. One of the works in the collection was a sermon that Calvin had delivered in 1554, De la modestie des femmes en leurs habillements (On the modesty of women in their dress); introducing it was a brief preface signed by "MD."
Jeanne de Jussie's Petite chronique and Marie Dentiere's works allow us to hear the voices of women on both sides of the century's religious divide.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print:
Jeanne de Jussie:
Petite chronique (c.1535-47)
Marie Dentiere:
La guerre et delivrance de la ville de Genesve (1536)
Epistre tres utile... envoyee a la Royne de Navarre (1539)
Preface to Calvin's "Sermon de la modestie des femmes en leurs habillements" (1561)Information about secondary sources.
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1. From Jeanne de Jussie's Petite chronique:
(a) In this section of an 1865 book on William Farel by William Blackburn, use your browser's search function to go to the several uses of "Jussie" for brief quotations and paraphrases on the events of the early 1530s (as you will see, Blackburn is not a fan of the "literary nun").
(b) Go to "Jussie" for Jeanne's description of Bernese troops' 1531 treatment of religious houses as they moved toward Geneva.
(c) Go to the second use of "Jussie" for an excerpt which describes the four-day trek from Geneva to Annecy in 1535; this is followed by a brief passage on the faults of the clergy. The translation is by Philip Schaff.
2. A link to an 1853 edition of Petite chronique under its original published title, Le levain du calvinisme: ou, Commencement de l'heresie de Geneve; you can also download the work as a PDF file.
3. From Marie Dentiere:
(a) A translation by Elisabeth Wengler of the opening of Dentiere's Epistre tres utile: the initial address to Marguerite de Navarre and a "defense of women" that follows it.
(b) Go to #26 in this collection for another version of the "defense of women" section of Epistre tres utile, translated by Thomas Head (although without Head's valuable introduction and notes; for information on those, see below, under "In print").
4. Essays, etc:
(a) Click on "Traduction" for a translation of Madeleine Lazard's 2003 essay on Jeanne de Jussie and her Petite chronique. At the same site, a translation of William Kemp's 2003 essay on Marie Dentiere. Both essayists also list original editions and studies.
(b) A 2001 lecture on Dentiere by Isabelle Graessle; this lecture led to Dentiere's name being added in 2002 to the "Wall of the Reformers" in Geneva, a monument to the leaders of the Reformation.
(c) The opening of Carrie F. Klaus' 2003 essay, "Architechture and Sexual Identity: Jeanne de Jussie's Narrative of the Reformation of Geneva" (for information on the complete essay, see "Secondary sources").
(d) In Jane Dempsey Douglass' 1993 article, "Glimpses of Reformed Women Leaders," go to "Marie" for an account of Dentiere and her work; passages from Dentiere are given in Head's translation. (Much of the article is based on a 1991 essay by Douglass; for information on that, see "Secondary sources.")
(e) Wengler's abstract of her 1999 dissertation Women, Religion, and Reform in Sixteenth-century Geneva, which deals with both Dentiere and Jeanne de Jussie (for information on a 2007 essay by Wengler, see "Secondary sources").
5. Reviews (for excerpts from the translations, see "In print"; for information on the other books' treatment of Jussie and /or Dentiere, see "Secondary sources") :
(a) Karen E. Spierling on Carrie F. Klaus' 2006 translation of Jussie, The Short Chronicle: a Poor Clare's Account of the Reformation of Geneva; and elsewhere, another review, this by Susan R. Boettcher; and another, by Krystle Hernandez.
(b) Cynthia J. Cupples on Mary B. McKinley's 2004 translation of Dentiere, Epistle to Marguerite de Navarre, and Preface to a Sermon by John Calvin; and another review, by Jane Couchman.
(c) Mitylene Myhr on the 2007 essay collection, The Cloister and the World: Early Modern Convent Voices.
(d) Walter Sundberg on the 1991 collection, Biblical Hermeneutics in Historical Perspective.
(e) David Foxgrover on Douglass' 1983 study, Women, Freedom, and Calvin.
6. A 1579 translation, by L. Tomson, of Calvin's 1554 "Sermon de la modestie des femmes en leurs habillements," the subject of Dentiere's 1561 preface. Note especially the last fourth of the sermon (the last five paragraphs) in which Calvin says that women "are not to exercise the office of teaching, and it belongeth not to them to meddle with it": in her preface, Dentiere will simply ignore this section. [An irrelevant but interesting note: The Oxford English Dictionary cites this translation as the first use of the word "tomboy" to be applied to a female.]
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[Carrie F. Klaus' translation of Petite chronique is accompanied by a useful introduction that provides historical background and briefly discusses the style and reception of the work. Notes are detailed and the bibliography identifies the few English-language studies. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Jussie, Jeanne de. The short chronicle: a Poor Clare's account
of the reformation of Geneva; edited and translated by Carrie
F. Klaus (The other voice in early modern Europe). Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2006. (xxix, 214 p.: ill.)
LC#: BR410 .J8713 2006; ISBN: 0226417050, 0226417069
Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-205) and index
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"We are very afraid."
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[The opening of the chronicle describes events of the late
1520s, based on what the enclosed nun had heard from visitors.
Of more interest are those things that Jeanne had herself seen
and done. In the autumn of 1530, the nuns watched the burning
of churches and castles (including an abbey of Cistercian nuns)
outside the city walls. Increasing their fear was the fact that
Swiss Protestant troops were stationed within the city. Jeanne
was directed by the abbess to write a letter to the leaders of
Geneva, which said:]
"Our magnificent and most honored lords, fathers and good
protectors, we have heard of the arrival of God's enemies in
your town and of the evil and disrespectful things they are doing
in the church of God and to pious people, and we are very afraid.
We therefore beg you... please to keep us in your safeguard and
protection so that those enemies of God do not violate or disturb
us.
For we do not want any innovation of religion or law or to turn away from divine service, but we are determined to live and die in our holy vocation here in your convent praying to Our Lord for the peace and preservation of your noble town, if you lords will agree to preserve and protect us all here as your ancestors have done; and if not, let us leave our convent and your town, to save ourselves and seek refuge elsewhere to observe divine service, and we will keep you, as our fathers in our prayers there, and we ask you for your good will and for an answer." [p. 47]
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"The men could not believe that the sisters were so poor."
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[The next day some officials came to the monastery and assured the nuns that "the city would take care of them." Nevertheless, three days later the Swiss assigned 30 troops to be quartered at the monastery:]
The men... burned all the firewood, and the poor sisters gave them everything they had to support them and keep them from robbing the poor. But they still had a hard time feeding them, and there were only a few peas to make soup. The men could not believe that the sisters were so poor, so they tried to break into and enter the women's residence. Some brazen men, on nights when they were drunk, tried to come in with the women and harm and violate them. [p.49]
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"...so that they will be remembered."
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[When she prepares to describe the events of late 1533 and 1534, when Geneva was engulfed in battles between Catholics and Protestant, Jeanne gives her reason for writing and an assurance that what she says will be true:]
I who write this saw with my own eyes those days of misfortune.... I promise that that I write nothing I do not know to be true, and still I do not write a tenth of it, but only a small part of the main events so that they will be remembered, so that in the future those who suffer for the love of God in this world will know that our ancestors suffered as much as we do, and as people after us will, and always, in varying degrees, in the example of Our Lord and Redeemer, who suffered the first and the most. [p. 90]
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"I will soon see you freely in the street."
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[Until the summer of 1535, although the nuns were harassed, the cloister itself had not been violated. Then in July a dozen of the city merchants demanded admission, threatening to break down the door if they were not allowed to enter. The vicaress did not want to let them in, but the abbess, elderly and ill, was afraid and allowed them to enter. With them came a Reformed preacher who urged the nuns (especially those, like Jeanne, who were young) to leave the monastery:]
Some of the young nuns had tried to hide in the church, so four or five of those merchants went to get them, and they were mainly seeking the two from the city and the ones who had gone to school in their city, whom they knew. I, among them, was recognized by one of them and he tried to lift up my veil forcibly and see his face; when I did not let him, he was angry and said that he would not do any other harm at that moment. "But I will soon see you freely in the street."
These were words that pierced my soul and my poor companions' souls. [p.132]
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"...awaiting bodily death or peril to the soul."
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[The unwelcome visitors left that day, but a month later an armed mob returned and broke through all of the entrances to the monastery:]
They ran immediately through the convent..., destroying and smashing everything they found, images, books, and breviaries.... Like enraged wolves, they destroyed those fine images with great axes and hammers, especially going after the blessed crucifix, and the image of Our Lady; they left no object intact....
...[A]ll the nuns as one, healthy and sick, gathered in a heap prostrate on the ground in the middle of the choir, covering their faces..., awaiting bodily death or peril to the soul and without hope or human comfort.
When they [the mob] came to the choir where the poor sisters were waiting, they smashed the fine statues right in front of their eyes, sending shards flying above them, which hurt when they hit them.
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"You must... say no more offices or masses."
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[The iconoclasts left without injuring the nuns but taking with them one young nun who had decided to rejoin her family. Then the city leaders (the "syndics," now all followers of the Reform) came to express regret for the nun's suffering. But when the nuns asked for either protection or for permission to leave:]
"What?" said the syndics, "Where will you go? The city will certainly allow you to stay here in you house, as long as you are not prisoners and are free to come and go as you wish; and we will help those who wish to marry, and the others may do as they wish. But you must change your clothing and say no more offices or masses. Do not think you will be allowed to leave the city whenever you wish." [p.145]
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"...who meddled in preaching and perverting pious people."
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[With all the gates broken, outsiders could come into the monastery whenever they wished, and they did, usually to try to talk the young nuns into leaving and marrying. One of these unwanted visitors was Marie Dentiere. To Jeanne, Dentiere was a renegade nun, one who had broken her vows and so was capable of anything (including embezzlement). Of greater interest is the fact that Dentiere already had a reputation in Geneva for preaching:]
In that company was a nun, a false, wrinkled abbess with a devilish tongue, who had a husband and children, named Marie Dentiere of Picardy, who meddled in preaching and perverting pious people....
...[S]he said, "Oh, you poor creatures, if you knew what a good thing it is to be next to a handsome husband and how pleasing to God. Alas, I was for a long time in this darkness and hypocrisy where you are. But God showed me the delusions of my wretched life, and I saw the true light of truth and realized I had been living in sorrow the whole time because in these convents there is nothing but hypocrisy, mental corruption, and idleness. And so, without hesitating, I took five hundred ducats from the treasury and left that miserable life, and, thanks to God alone, I already have five fine children and I lead a good and healthy life."
These false and deceitful words horrified the sister greatly, and they spat on her in scorn. [pp.151-52]
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"Her uncle... had asked him to remove her from the convent."
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[On the same day a merchant, a friend of an uncle who lived near Geneva and was now a follower of the Reform, approached Jeanne individually:]
...[H]e told her that the city council had sent him to tell her that, if she wanted, they would make her a decent match, a marriage..., and he named several possibilities to her. He said that the city would never fail her and that... she was as dear to them as the Genevan girls, and, furthermore, he told her that her uncle, Lord Pillicer, had asked him to remove her from the convent. [p.153]
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"Do what you can to keep her safe!"
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[Jeanne of course declined, but it soon appeared that all of the half dozen young nuns had been approached in the same way, and that their removal from the monastery would be made forcibly. The nuns asked again if they would be permitted to leave the city as a group, and were told they could --- if they did not try take any of the monastery property with them. First they were told that each could take a small bundle of clothes, but then even that promise was rescinded. Because of rumors that the mob would stop them before they could get out of the city, they left at dawn on August 31, guarded by sentinels of the city (whom the nuns trusted little more than they did the mob). For each of the nuns, this was the first time she had been outside the monastery since the day she entered:]
Taking her sister, Sister Catherine, who was the sickest one and amazingly weak and who carried a walking stick and was supported on one side by the nurse, Sister Cecile, the vicaress very bravely went out first, followed by mother abbess, who was very feeble because of age, sorrow, and sickness and who had a strong sister supporting her.
The the vicaress took Sister Jeanne de Jussie's hand and gave it to mother portress, Sister Guillaume de Villette, and said, "Here, Sister Guilliaume! I put your niece into your hands. The mother abbess and I have taken care of her up until now. Do what you can to keep her safe!"...
Sister Colette was given to Sister Francoise, the strongest of the company; Sister Guillaume de la Frasse was given to her good aunt, Sister Jeannette; and so they went, two by two, hand in hand, their faces fully covered and in proper order and composure and silence, which was very good, because they would never have been able to leave otherwise, with the great crowd and commotion. [pp. 169-70]
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"...without ever having seen anything in the world."
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[After some frightening encounters with the mob, the nuns crossed the bridge that separated Geneva from the lands controlled by Savoy. A farmer gave them a wagon for the sickest nuns and they continued on, always afraid that the Genevans might come across the river after them:]
It was a piteous thing to see that holy company... so afflicted and overcome by sorrow and trial that several of them collapsed and fainted on the way, and since it was rainy and the path was muddy they could not get up, and they were all on foot, except four poor sick ones who were in the wagon.
There were six poor aged nuns, who had been in the convent for more than fifty years --- and two of them more than sixty-six years --- without ever having seen anything in the world. They faltered at each blow and could not bear the strong wind. [p.173]
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"...fine and well written."
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[By nightfall, they found a place to stay, and Jeanne wrote letters to those whose help the nuns would need to rely on. These letters would become part of the Petite chronique:]
Sister Jeanne de Jussie wrote all night long without sleeping...; in the letters she told the whole story of their sorrowful departure and how divine goodness had miraculously spared them all from any harm to their bodies or souls....
When the letters were finished they were examined by the lords [their hosts], who found them fine and well written, and when they read them they shed many rears of pity and devotion. [p. 175]
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"You are not here by your own right."
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[After three more days the nuns reached Annecy, where they were given an abandoned monastery. But even then they were not at first allowed the seclusion which was the one thing they wanted. They had to visit the local nobility and be visited by them:]
After dinner, the good prince and all the nobles... asked the sisters to to go to vespers at the Dominican monastery and to put holy water on madame the viscountess... who had died in childbirth less than a year before. The sisters asked to be excused, saying that since God had been gracious enough to give them refuge in such a good convent, they should never leave it again. But monseigneur the judge and the president advised them to do that good prince's act of piety, "because you are not here by your own right, but only because of the prince's wishes."
[The next day] ...all the nobles came to the convent to see the sisters, and on [the day after that] too. Because the sisters were not yet secluded, everyone came there, causing such disorder that it was impossible to turn around. The sisters stayed together in the refectory, in pious order as best they could. [pp.184-85]
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"...day and night ever since then, until today."
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[But at least the nuns were able to resume saying the Office, which they had not been allowed to do in their last days at Geneva and which they considered the main purpose of their lives. This passage is near the end of the chronicle:]
...[T]hey began to observe vespers in the choir of the church, and then they said matins [during the night] in a bedroom because no flame would remain lit in the church since there were no doors or windows. The Divine Office has been said in the convent day and night ever since then, until today, in all piety and reverence. [p.185]
La guerre et delivrance de la ville de Genesve (1536)
[This anthology includes Thomas Head's translation of the opening of La guerre et deliverance, as well as the first two sections and the closing of Epistre tres utile. Head's introduction (which includes his translation of a passage from Jussie's Petite chronique) is thorough and his notes are detailed. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Women writers of the Renaissance and Reformation / edited
by Katharina M. Wilson. Athens: University of Georgia Press,
c1987. (xl, 638 p.)
LC#: PN6069.W65 W63 1987; ISBN: 082030865X, 0820308668
Includes bibliographies and index.
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"...to uncover, to open, to see, to tell, and to speak."
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[In the spring of 1536, when all Catholics had left Geneva, Dentiere explains to her reader her reason for writing La guerre et deliverance:]
This is a very eloquent thing to all those who love God and His Word, and it is for them a great consolation to uncover, to open, to see, to tell, and to speak, but for all their enemies, traitors, and adversaries of God and this city, it is a great desolation, ignominy, and confusion. [p.270]
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"The nation and the state of my merchandise must excuse
it."
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[The title page has described the pamphlet as written by "a merchant living in the city": Dentiere's "merchandise" is the power of God to deliver his followers, which she will advertise to her readers:]
...[I]t is an impossible task for a merchant like me to know how to describe it fully. But if God touched the heart of some good person more powerful than me, who had more inventive language, more exquisite words, that man would announce it. Please do not examine the style or the rudeness of my language. For the nation and the state of my merchandise must excuse it. [p.272]
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"All who wish to speak... are permitted."
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[After briefly describing the city government that the Reformers are proposing, Dentiere speaks of the ideal kind of religious liberty that the Reformers envisaged in 1536, at least for those who accepted the basic ideas of the Reform. That ideal would not last: soon city leaders would expel those they found too extreme; later leaders would expel those they found too moderate:]
The result [of the proposed organization] is that all who wish to speak against their [the city's religious leaders'] manner of living are permitted, and if there is anyone who can show a different way of living according to the Word of God, and if what they hold is done of God and according to the gospel of Jesus, that person would be welcomed and given permission, requested to render justice to our preachers, such that each one might follow the example. [p.273]
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Epistre tres utile... envoyee
a la Royne de Navarre (1539)
Preface to Calvin's "Sermon de la modestie des femmes en
leurs habillements" (1561)
[Mary B. McKinley has translated the Epistre tres utile and Dentiere's preface to one of Calvin's sermons; she does not translate the anonymous La guerre et deliverance because she does not finds its attribution to Dentiere "convincing" (p.8), although most scholars do. McKinley's introduction discusses Dentiere's life and the period's historical background, and analyzes the two translated works; the bibliography includes the few English-language studies available. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Dentiere, Marie. Epistle to Marguerite de Navarre; and, Preface
to a sermon by John Calvin; edited and translated by Mary B.
McKinley (The other voice in early modern Europe). Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2004. (xxix, 110 p.)
LC#:BX9422.3 .D4613 2004; ISBN: 0226142787, 0226142795
Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-105) and index
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"Why don't you make them support their case publicly?"
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[After the opening address to Margurite of Navarre and the "defense of women" (both available online), Dentiere's Epistre tres utile urges Navarre, Francis I, and all rulers to allow the Protestants to debate the Catholic clergy:]
What do you fear from the cardinals and bishops who are in you courts? If God is on your side, who will be against you? Why don't you make them support their case publicly, before everybody? There are just so many doctors, so many wise men, so many great clerics, so many universities against us poor women, who are rejected and scorned by everyone.
What good are they to you, I ask you, if they will not show that their cause is good, ordained by God? Will you put up with them and let them dominate you? We say the opposite of what they say; let them prove what they say. We want to show them that they are wrong, let them defend themselves by holy scripture. [pp.61-62]
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"Read and understand before judging."
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[After speaking briefly of the errors of the Jews and of some other Protestant groups, Dentiere prepares to speak of the errors of the "false Christians." The phrase "Lisez et puis jugez" ("Read and then judge") is on the work's title page; here Dentiere uses it again:]
Since we have spoken of all the others, let us come to papal, or in other words, falsely Christian law, without offending anyone if you please, seeing I will speak the truth about it, or at least part of the truth. For it is not in my power, nor in that of any other woman, to depict and declare it sufficiently, given its enormity and abomination.
I ask you to read and understand before judging. For often people judge without pity or without having read the case, handing down a sentence that deserves an appeal. [p.73]
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"Some might be upset because this is said by a woman."
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[After listing and citing the sources of apparent contradictions and superstitions found in individual rules (decretals) of Roman canon law, Dentiere defends her citation of Latin sources. (It was be this knowledge of Latin that would made some later scholars question whether the work could have been written by a woman):]
Some might be upset because this is said by a woman, believing that this is not appropriate for her, since woman is made for pleasure. But I pray you to be not offended; you must not think that I do this from hatred or from rancor. I do this only to edify my neighbor, seeing him in such great, horrible darkness, more palpable that the darkness of Egypt.
Nonetheless, if it please you to consult and diligently examine the texts cited here..., comparing them to holy scripture, with good judgment, you will find even more that what I say here. I would not know how to write and expose the great follies, evils, and blasphemies that are written in their books and decretals. No man could be able to expose it enough. How, therefore, will a woman do it? In spite of that, be diligent in examining carefully the texts and the consequences of of what they say, and you will see that I speak the truth. [pp.76-77]
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"Your great kindness and humanity has spoiled them and lost
them."
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[A direct appeal to Navarre to send the Catholic clergy from her court. Here, Dentiere especially regrets the loss of those who had supported ecclesiastical reform but who --- like Navarre --- had declined to leave the Catholic Church:]
Therefore, lady, I pray you, avoid them: they are flatterers, they ask only for themselves and not for the things of Jesus Christ. You have maintained and supported them too much. Your great kindness and humanity has spoiled them and lost them. There is a great danger that they will spoil you by their flatteries and by their enormous poperies.... [p.78]
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"They just want us to... live as women before us did."
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[Dentiere responds to the traditional argument that only the learned could interpret Scripture:]
To excuse themselves, they will say, "....Scripture has several meanings, and it can be understood in several ways. It is not up to women to know it, nor to people who are not learned, who do not have degrees and the rank of doctor; but they should just believe simply without questioning anything." They just want us to give pleasure, as is our custom, to do our work, spin on the distaff, live as women before us did, like our neighbors....
I ask, did not Jesus die as much for the poor ignorant people and the idiots as for my sirs the shave, tonsured, and mitred? Did he preach and spread my Gospel so much only for my dear sirs the wise and important doctors? Isn't it for all of us? Do we have two Gospels, one for men and another for women? One for the wise and another for the fools? [p.79]
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"They have behaved as cowardly soldiers in battle."
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[Navarre had apparently asked about the 1538 expulsion of Farel and Calvin from Geneva. At the end of the letter, Dentiere responds, excoriating the city's moderate faction, now in charge:]
And if people complain now about ours [Geneva's leaders] throughout the land, it is not without legitimate cause; they have behaved as cowardly soldiers in battle.... That they are not good mercenaries capable of keeping good cities well garrisoned is clear. However, they are strong, skillful, and learned in every way when it comes to feeding their stomachs well, reproaching and blaming those who have been forcefully expelled and others who have died in battle.
...[T]he true pastors and ministers of Jesus are persecuted, banished, and exiled, because they don't care or worry about pleasing anyone but their Lord and master, serving, honoring and valuing him. To him I pray not to send us others, but only those who ask for nothing else but his honor and glory and the edification of all. Amen. [pp.86-87]
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"...the place in us that we know the hardest to guard."
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[Twenty-one years later, in her preface to an edition of Calvin's "Sermon de la modestie des femmes en leurs habillements," Dentiere opens her address to the reader with a military simile:]
Like those who guard a fortified place, reinforcing above all the spots that they know to be the weakest to prevent the enemy from getting in there, so we, seeing that there are in us several breaches through which Satan could enter, must mend and fortify the place in us that we know the hardest to guard, in order that he not get a foothold there....
That is how the prophets prevailed in combating and checking vice.... That is what the pastors and ministers of God's word must do: When they see that certain vices have caught on among the people in their care, they will endeavor to eradicate them by admonishing the people so that they will not spread any further --- much as a surgeon applies the plaster or the hot iron where he knows the inflammation is greatest.
Now among the vices that reign today, makeup and excessive finery in clothing win the prize. [pp.91-92]
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"The image of God conveys something worth far more."
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[On the use of makeup, after summing up some points in a 200s CE treatise by Cyprian, bishop of Carthage:]
In short, all makeup is nothing but a corruption of nature, or rather a combat against God, who does not will that his works be corrupted and counterfeited. I need only say --- like that holy doctor [Cyprian] and saint Augustine after him --- that using makeup erases the image of God in us, given that the image of God conveys something worth far more than the body's features. [p.92]
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"As for the foolish women...."
--------------------------------------
[On "excessive finery," Dentiere first speaks of both men and women, then of women alone. Here she emphasizes the effect of "too much daring" on the viewer, something of which the prudent woman will need only to be reminded:]
As for women, who are in that regard [desire for adornment] more covetous than men, may they understand that too much daring has always been associated with immodesty; likewise, on the contrary, simplicity in clothes has always been a mark of chastity and continence....
It is true that several women might resent this admonition, but I hope that, after having listened to the Apostle's exhortation [Paul's Epistle to Timothy, the subject of Calvin's sermon], which is treated at length here, they will profit from it. For as the sage says, reprove a prudent man, and he will gain knowledge.... As for the foolish women, we are not concerned with trying to please them. [p.93]
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"...deserves to be heard among all the ministers and faithful
pastors."
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[Dentiere says nothing about the last part of Calvin's sermon, which condemns women who meddle by teaching (see the sermon online). Instead, she closes by praising Calvin (by 1561 the undisputed leader of Geneva), but praising him as one among many:]
Let us listen to the Apostle speaking to Timothy and to the man who preached publicly about that passage, a man who because of the purity of his teachings deserves to be heard among all the ministers and faithful pastors in Europe today. [pp.93-94]
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Secondary sources
[This collection includes Elisabeth M. Wengler's essay,"'That in future times they will know our suffering for the love of God': Jeanne de Jussie's Petite Chronique and the Creation of Convent Identity," which summarizes Jussie's chronicle and shows how the author explains to her audience the unity of purpose that allowed the nuns' live to survive the attacks made on them. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
The cloister and the world: early modern convent voices /
guest editor, Thomas M. Carr, Jr (EMF, studies in early modern
France; v.11). Charlottesville, [Va.] : Rookwood Press, c2007.
(267 p.)
LC#: PQ230 .E48 v.11; PQ241 .C56 2007; ISBN: 1886365644
Includes bibliographical references
[May also be catalogued as Vol. 11 of EMF: ISSN:1064-5020]
-----------------------
[One chapter in Ingrid Akerland's study is "Jeanne de Jussie
and Marie Dentiere: Two Abbesses Persecuted for Their Religious
Beliefs," which compares the writing of the two women. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Akerlund, Ingrid. Sixteenth century French women writers: Marguerite
d'Angouleme, Anne de Graville, the Lyonnese School, Jeanne de
Jussie, Marie Dentiere, Camille de Morel (Studies in French literature;
v. 67). Lewiston, N.Y.: E. Mellen Press, c2003. (188 p.: ill.)
LC#: PQ149 .A54 2003; ISBN: 0773466665
Includes bibliographical references and index
-----------------------
[Thomas Head's essay in this collection, "The Religion of the Femmelettes: Ideals and Experience Among Women in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century France," first provides useful background on the strictures on women during the period covered, and then discusses the writing of Dentiere and Jussie in greater detail than in the introduction to his translations in the 1987 Women Writers of the Renaissance and Reformation (above):]
That gentle strength: historical perspectives on women in
Christianity / edited with an introduction by Lynda L. Coon,
Katherine J. Haldane, and Elisabeth W. Sommer. Charlottesville:
University Press of Virginia, 1990. (vi, 267, [11] p. of plates:
ill.)
LC#: BV639.W7 T42 1990; ISBN: 0813912938
Includes bibliographical references and index
-------------------------
[The focus of Klaus' 2003 article is on the relationship between the physical layout of Jussie's monastery in Geneva and the threat to the nuns' safety during the years 1530 to 1535. The article gives more detail than does the introduction to Klaus' 2006 translation of Petite chronique (above). (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Klaus, Carrie F. Architechture and sexual identity: Jeanne
de Jussie's narrative of the Reformation of Geneva. Feminist
Studies, 29 (2003), 279-97.
LC#: HQ1101F4; ISSN: 0046-3663
-------------------------
[Kirsi Stjerna's study includes a chapter on Dentiere which discusses her life and writing (and briefly describes the conflict between Dentiere and Jussie). Stjerna assumes Dentiere's authorship of La guerre et delivrance de la ville de Genesve (perhaps in collaboration with Froment). The book's first section provides useful background on the role of women in the religious changes of the period. Separate bibliographies give thorough coverage of editions, translations, and studies. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Stjerna, Kirsi Irmeli. Women and the Reformation. Malden,
MA: Blackwell Pub., 2009. (ix, 269 p.: ill.)
LC#: BR307 .S75 2009; ISBN: 9781405114226, 9781405114233.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [223]-258) and index
------------------------
[This collection includes Jane Dempsey Douglass' essay, "Marie Dentiere's Use of Scripture in her Theology of History," which looks at Dentiere's first two works to find "something of the flavor of theological reflection" taking place in Geneva before the arrival of Calvin (p.230). Douglass gives a detailed analysis of La guerre et deliverance, paraphrasing and quoting (in her own translation) sections of the work not otherwise available in English:]
Biblical hermeneutics in historical perspective: studies in
honor of Karlfried Froehlich on his sixtieth birthday / edited
by Mark S. Burrows and Paul Rorem. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B.
Eerdmans, c1991. (xxi, 367 p.: ill.)
LC#: BS500 .B549 1991; ISBN: 0802836933
Includes bibliography and indexes
-------------------
[Although Dentiere is discussed only briefly (pp.100-107) in this earlier study by Douglass, the chapter in which she is treated, "Women's Freedom in Church Order: Calvin in the Reformation Context," describes the early days of the Reform in Geneva and Calvin's views on women's participation in church affairs. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Douglass, E. Jane Dempsey. Women, freedom, and Calvin (Annie
Kinkead Warfield lectures; 1983). Philadelphia: Westminster Press,
c1985. (155 p.)
LC#: BT810.2 .D68 1985; ISBN: 066424663X
Includes index. Bibliography: p. [143]-151.
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Updated 06-28-09