Blogging the Reformers: Baudichion de la Maisonneuve

Baudichion de la Maisonneuve was one of the leading men of Geneva in the 16th century. He was very influential in bringing the Reformation to Geneva and defending the city's liberty. He was one of the first men in Geneva to be converted to the Reformed religion. Later in the Reformation his house became one of the meeting places for the Huguenots. The Reformation in Geneva was not peaceful. Several times mobs attacked the Huguenots in Maisonneuve's house. In 1534 he was arrested in France and sentenced to be executed, but finally after the request of the town of Berne, Switzerland the king ordered him to be released and allowed him to return home. He was appointed captain-general of Geneva, and led the army to battle against their enemies. D'Aubigne said that he was “a man of noble and exalted character, bold, welcome everywhere, braving without measure all the traditions of old times, often turbulent, and the person who, more perhaps than any other, served to clear in Geneva the way by which the Reformation was to enter.”1

1 J. H. Merle D'Aubigne, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 2000) volume 1, book I, p. 142