Читать книгу The Lutheran Church in Geneva - Catherine Courtiau - Страница 4
ОглавлениеThe Lutheran Church in Geneva, 1707
Following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 by Louis XIV, Lutherans living in Lyon were forbidden to practise their religion. Six merchants from that community therefore applied to the Vénérable Compagnie des Pasteurs and the authorities in Geneva for permission to observe their worship in the city. At the time, Geneva was considered the “Protestant Rome,” the epicentre of Calvinism, a city confined within fortified walls, and dominated by the Cathedral Saint-Pierre in the Old Town on the left bank of the Rhône, and by the Temple Saint-Gervais on the right. Permission was far from assured, since Lutherans and Calvinists, two branches of the Protestant Reformation, had parted ways in the 16th century. Nevertheless, the Compagnie des Pasteurs responded favourably on 22 April 1707 and the request was approved by the authorities of the Republic of Geneva. On 28 August 1707, the first Lutheran worship in Geneva was celebrated by Pastor Anton Schulz of Berlin in a room rented for the purpose.
Meetings in the house belonging to Madame Bergeon, 1707–1766
The meeting room was on the second floor at the back of a building on the corner of Rue de la Cité and Rue Basse-Dessus, also known as Rue des Allemands (now called Rue de la Confédération). The house – owned by the “citizen and merchant” Antoine Bergeon (or Berjon), then, on his death in 1715, by his widow Anne Mallet (1652–1730) followed by their descendants – was used by the Lutherans as a chapel and meeting room until their current premises in the Bourg-de-Four was inaugurated on 9 February 1766.
It is noteworthy that in 1720 the Lutherans of Geneva were placed under the protection of Duke Frederick II of Saxe Gotha, a state of affairs that continued until July 1874 when they passed to the patronage of the German emperor, Wilhelm I.
The purchase of the Château de Coudrée, 1762
The decree, published on 15 May 1762 in the Council’s register, gives details provided by Jean-Louis Grenus (1711–1782), the chief councillor of Geneva and a state councillor of the Republic of Geneva, as well as the first president of the Société des Arts.
“Lutheran Church. House for practice of worship. Noble Mr. Grenus, Chief Councillor, officer for the German Calvinist & Lutheran churches, has reported on the Lutheran church that holds its services in the house of Mr. Bergeon at the lower end of the City. Fearing that this house will be sold & that it could no longer be used to hold services, it was considered a few years ago that the house of Mr. [Ami] Marchand [c. 1670–1752], located in the Grand Mézel, should be acquired. Permission was obtained from the Council on 9 February 1751 on the condition that this house would be purchased under the name of a private individual. That plan could not be carried through. However, today the house of the Flournoy [or Flournois] inheritance, known as the Château de Coudré[e], located opposite the hospital, is for sale. The proposal has been made to acquire it with the approval of the Council & under the same conditions and that the Lutheran Minister & Mr. Beurlin, an elder of that church, had come to him to ask for permission, and approval was given. The resolution has been taken to allow the congregation of the Lutheran Church to acquire, under the name of a private individual, the house called the Château de Coudré[e] & to arrange for the Divine Service of said Church to be held there.”
Given this spirit of openness, it is not immaterial to mention that one year later, in 1763, it was in Geneva that Voltaire published his Treaty on Tolerance!
The contract for the sale of the Château de Coudrée was signed on 22 May 1762 by Jean Henri DesGouttes, his wife Marie Armand, and the purchaser, George Amédée Beurlin, a member of the Lutheran community, merchant and citizen of Geneva. The price paid was 7,300 silver livres or 25,550 Genevan florins, both of which were currencies in the city at the time. The succession of owners is briefly mentioned in the chapter on the Bourg-de-Four.
To comply with the requirement that this acquisition could only be made by an individual, the purchase was made in the name of Beurlin for the exclusive use of the Lutheran Church of Geneva. The contract was confirmed by a notarised deed dated 4 August 1762. The sale was concluded by the deed of subhastation (sale at auction) on 13 November, and the certified payment made on 13 December was for a final sum of 7,336 livres or 25,678 florins.
Prominent among the many donors was Jean-Daniel Finguerlin (1702–1772), a citizen of Bercher (at the time in the canton of Bern, later in the canton of Vaud) and a wholesaler in Lyon, who contributed generously to the costs of purchase of the property and construction of the building. Finguerlin was a Lutheran from Augsburg where Emperor Charles V had summoned the German princes to a diet in 1530; the diet led to the drawing up of the Augsburg Confession, the document on which the Lutheran Church is based.
A detail of the Billon map, 1726. At the tip of the block, the parcels numbered 23 were occupied by the Château de Coudrée.
Perspective drawing of the Château de Coudrée by Louis Blondel.
Brief description of Château de Coudrée
On the section taken from the detailed Billon plan dated 1726, there are five parcels numbered 23, separated by walls. In 1951, the archaeologist and art historian Louis Blondel (1885–1967) accompanied his study of the Château de Coudrée, published in Genava in 1951, with his own perspective drawing, in which he explained that the courtyard looking onto the square was surrounded by crenellated walls, and that the building had been fortified at the start of the 14th century by Jean du Vernay. As late as 1548 it was still described as “la maison forte of the lord of Coudrée”.
General map of the area around the hospital drawn by Louis Blondel.
The house had two basement levels, including a vaulted cellar, part of which is still in existence. Blondel noted that the surveys of 1455 and 1464 report that there were a dozen tenants in the château and its outbuildings, while the cellars were inhabited on the side of Rue de la Fontaine.
The Bourg-de-Four
The Lutheran Church is located on the north side of the Old Town, below the Cathedral Saint-Pierre which can be reached via the Passage des Degrés-de-Poules. The church is overlooked uphill on the left by the Palais de Justice and on the right by the ancient Petit Hôpital as it looks towards the fountain in Place du Bourg-de-Four. The fountain was modified and last moved in 1817, northwards during major redevelopment of the square. It was listed as a historic monument in 1921, at the same time as the Lutheran Church and the Palais de Justice.
The history of the properties in the Bourg-de-Four was established by Louis Blondel, and later by the historian of art and architecture Leïla el-Wakil, of which the essential contents are summarised here. Reference has also been made to the chapters dedicated to the hospital buildings that surrounded the old Château de Coudrée and were published in 2016 in Monuments d’Art et d’Histoire, volume IV (Geneva volume), published under the stewardship of Isabelle Brunier.
At the end of the 12th century, most of the plots were owned by the Clarier family, followed by the de Saint-Jeoire family. In the mid-16th century, the new and independent Republic of Geneva, also called the Protestant Republic and endowed with the “Ecclesiastical Ordinances” decreed by Jean Calvin, gradually took over the rights of private individuals, including certain properties of the Allinges-Coudrée family, who by that time had inherited them.
On the Rue Verdaine side, the de Saint-Jeoire hospital, called the Bolomier hospital in the 15th century, had been attached to the Convent des Clarisses since 1473. In 1535 the latter was converted into a Hôpital général. Between 1707 and 1712 this hospital was reconstructed on the basis of the plans drawn up by the French architect Jean Vennes (1652–1717) in partnership with the French architect Joseph Abeille (1673–1756) and the Genevans Moïse Ducommun and Joseph Pechaubet. At the same time, Abeille constructed the Hôtel Lullin-de-Saussure, adorned with a balcony by the artist and wrought-ironworker Jean-Conrad Staib (see p. 23). Staib also made the gates and the railings that enclose the garden of the Lutheran Church. And Vennes constructed the Temple de la Fusterie in 1713–15 from plans he drew up in 1708. The building of the former Hôpital général has been occupied by the Palais de Justice since 1858. On the opposite side, between Cathedral Saint-Pierre and Rue du Boule (today Rue de la Fontaine), stood the Petit Hôpital, owned until 1307 by Canon Rodolphe de Saint-Jeoire. He was permitted to have a postern gate in the enclosure wall of the large cloister that surrounded the cathedral. This gateway eventually provided the opening for the Passage des Degrés-de-Poules.
Detail of the perspective view made in 1655 for Pierre Chouet. The block with the Château de Coudrée is below Cathedral St. Pierre. The spire of the Hôpital général is to its left.
On 15 December 1609, the Seigneurie (the city’s administrative body) purchased the house next to the Petit Hôpital, just uphill from the Degrés- de-Poules, from its owner Bernard d’Allinges-Coudrée, with the purpose of turning it into a storage area for the hospital. Four years later, in 1613, the property was converted into stables and wagon sheds, with wheat lofts above. The building’s façade bears a cartouche containing the date of construction and the emblem of the Republic. The château belonging to the Allinges-Coudrée family stood between the de Saint-Jeoire hospital and the Petit Hôpital, of which a vaulted room built on the ground floor in the 16th century still remains.
As was the case for the west side of Rue de la Fontaine, Jean du Vernay had become the owner of the château, which passed to his son Amédée after 1410. It then went to Amédée’s son-in-law Guillaume d’Allinges, lord of Coudrée, who was married to Françoise, Amédée du Vernay’s daughter.
On 26 March 1659, Isaac d’Allinges was obliged to auction off the Château de Coudrée for 6,850 florins due to financial problems. After several other owners, Gédéon Flournois (1671–1753) acquired the château in 1693. On 4 May 1729 the Seigneurie obtained the allodial rights and reduced the property to a fiefdom. On Gédéon’s death, the château was inherited by his son, David Flournois (1706–1757), a merchant and citizen of Geneva, and on David’s death, his wife Marie Armand became the sole heir to his assets. In the contract of her second marriage, to Jean Henri DesGouttes (1726–1791) on 3 July 1761, the house was her dowry, though she retained ownership. Then, to conclude, as we have seen, Jean Henri DesGouttes and his wife Marie Armand, widow of David Flournois, put the Château de Coudrée up for sale in 1762, whereupon George Amédée Beurlin (1741–1801) bought it on behalf of the Lutheran Church of Geneva.
