Marie Dentière

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First name of a woman on the Reformation monument in Geneva

Marie Dentière , also Marie d'Ennetières (* 1495 in Tournai ; † 1561 in Geneva ), was a Reformed theologian, writer, Reformation historian and teacher. Since women could not publish books at that time, their works appeared under pseudonyms . She campaigned for the right to preach for women too, and in Geneva opposed the powerful reformer John Calvin .

Live and act

Dentière was born into a lower aristocratic family. As a girl she went to the Augustinian convent , where she received a theological training that sparked her interest in the Bible. She then became the prioress of the Augustinian convent of Près in Tournai, and after reading Martin Luther's writings, she became a supporter of the Reformation. After 1520 she fled the monastery and moved to Strasbourg in 1524 , where she married Simon Robert in 1528. Together they moved to Switzerland , where Robert first worked as a pastor in Bex and then in Aigle VD as a reformed pastor. After his death in 1533, the widow and mother of two children married Antoine Froment and lived with him in Geneva from 1535. To the displeasure of the prioresses, she tried in the monasteries in the Geneva area to introduce nuns to the evangelical faith.

Even the reformers did not want to come to terms with the fact that women should have fewer rights than men in the newly formed church, and slander was used to try to damage their reputation. On February 6, 1540, Guillaume Farel wrote to Johannes Calvin , who was then still in exile in Strasbourg: ... notre Froment est le premier qui, à la suite de sa femme, ait dégénéré en ivraie ... Cette femme orgueilleuse et vindicative fut , malgré tout son esprit, une mauvais conseillère à son nouvel époux, qu'elle dominait absolument (“... our Froment is the first to get drunk in the wake of his wife ... This proud and vengeful woman was a bad advisor to her new husband in spite of all her brains and completely controlled him ”). The relationship between Calvin and the Froment couple remained rather distant.

The Geneva city council ordered that almost all copies of the writing criticized by the Geneva pastors be confiscated and the publisher arrested. The incident marked the beginning of censorship in reformed Geneva. Dentière was henceforth condemned to silence and throughout the sixteenth century not a single book written by a woman left the Geneva printing presses.

She eventually left Geneva and her husband became a pastor in neighboring Massongy . She opened a boarding school for girls there and also taught in ancient languages. A preface to a sermon by Calvin on the propriety of female clothing (1 Tim. 2,9ff.), Signed with the initials MD, was published in 1561 and is also attributed to her.

Honors

On November 3, 2002, the name Marie Dentières was added to the existing inscriptions on the Geneva Reformation monument together with the names of Petrus Waldes , John Wyclif and Jan Hus on the occasion of the Reformation Festival . She is the only woman who has received this honor.

Fonts (selection)

Marie Dentière published several historical and theological writings anonymously:

  • La guerre et deslivrance de la ville de Genève fidèlement faicte et composée par ung marchand demourant en icelle (“The war for the city of Geneva and its liberation, faithfully represented and written down by a trader who lived in it”), 1536
  • Epistre tres utile, faicte ey composée par une femme chréstienne de Tornay, envoyée a la Royne de Navarre, seur de Roy de France, contre les Turcz, Iuifz, Infideles, faulx chrestiens, Anabaptistes et Lutheriens (“Very useful letter, written and written down by a Christian woman from Tournai, sent to the Queen of Navarre, sister of the King of France, against the Turks, Jews, infidels, false Christians, Anabaptists and Lutherans ”), 1539 (a pamphlet in the form of a letter to Margaret of Navarre ) . The letter, which was intended to be open and aimed at a much larger reading public, was published anonymously in 1539. It consists of three parts: a dedication letter ( Lettre d'env à la Reine de Navarre ), a short treatise on the defense of women ( Défense pour les Femmes ) and the actual missive ( Èpître très utile ).
  • Défense pour les femmes ("Defense for women"), 1539. This subsequent part is kept in a more radical tone. With reference to the sources of the Holy Scriptures, the author provides evidence of the excellent qualities of women and derives from this the demand for active participation of women in church work, including the sermon: “Was there a greater preacher than the Samaritan who was not hesitated to preach Jesus and his word, to confess to him openly before the whole world as soon as they had heard him say that we should worship God in spirit and word [...]? "

literature

swell

  • Marie Dentière: L'Epistre très utile faicte et composée par une femme Chrestienne de Tournay, Envoyée à la Royne de Navarre seur du Roy de France. Contre Les Turcz, Iuifz, Infideles, Faulx chrestiens, Anabaptistes et Luthériens . Address: Martin l'Empereur (= Geneva: Jean Gérard) 1539.
  • Marie Dentière: Epistle to Marguerite de Navarre and Preface to a Sermon by John Calvin. , ed. and over. by MB McKinley, Chicago / London 2004.
  • Marie Dentière: La guerre et deslivrance de la ville de Genève (1536) [Introduction and text], in: A. Rilliet (ed.): Mémoires et documents publiés par la société d'histoire et d'archéologie de Genève. Vol. 20, 1881 Geneva, pp. 309-384.
  • J. de Jussie: Little Chronicle. Report of a nun on the beginnings of the Reformation in Geneva , trans. and ed. by H. Feld, Mainz 1996.

Secondary literature

  • Irena Backus: Marie Dentière: Un cas de féminisme théologique à l'époque de la Réforme? ; in: Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire du Protestantisme français. (BSHPF) 137, 1991, pp. 177-195.
  • Isabelle Graesslé: Vie et legends de Marie Dentière , in: Bulletin du Center protestant d'Études de Genève 55, 2003, pp. 3-31.
  • Thomas Head: Marie Dentière: A Propagandist for the Reform , in: KM Wilson (ed.): Women Writers of the Renaissance and the Reformation. Athens / London 1987, pp. 260-283.
  • S. Ticconi, Marie Dentière , 1996.
  • William Kemp / Diane Desrosiers-Bonin: Marie d'Ennetières et la petite grammaire hébraïque de sa fille d'après la dédicace de l'Épistre à Marguerite de Navarre 1539; in: Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 60, 1998, pp. 117-134.
  • Madeleine Lazard: Deux sœurs ennemies, Marie Dentière et Jeanne de Jussie, nonnes et réformées à Genève. in: 'B. Chevalier / R. Sauzet (ed.): Les Réformes: enracinement socio-culturel. XXVe, Paris 1985, pp. 239-249.
  • Cynthia Skenazi: Marie Dentière et la prédication des femmes, in: Renaissance and Reformation, 21 (1997), pp. 5-18.
  • Eduard Kopp: Marie Dentière ; in: “ Chrismon. The evangelical magazine “No. 12/2009, Frankfurt a. M., December 2009, p. 27.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Debora Sommer: From the Abbess to the Reformer , pro Christliches Medienmagazin 5/2017, pp. 16-17
  2. ↑ Christina L. Griffiths: Marie Dentière - the Geneva Reformation from a female perspective Website Ev. Museum Austria, accessed on March 21, 2017.
  3. ^ Birnstein, Uwe: Marie Dentière In: Who is Who of the Reformation. Kreuz Verlag, Freiburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-451-61252-7 . P. 149.
personal data
SURNAME Dentière, Marie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES d'Ennetières, Marie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Reformed theologian and Reformation historian
DATE OF BIRTH 1495
PLACE OF BIRTH Tournai
DATE OF DEATH 1561
Place of death Geneva