AP

Book Launch for Campbell Markham, Marie Durand: Prisoner of the Tour de Constance, 1730 – 1768: Her Life and Letters, Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2026.

Good afternoon. My name is Alistair Bain. I am the minister of St John’s church which meets in these buildings on Sundays. It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to the launch of Dr Campbell Markham’s book: Marie Durand: Prisoner of the Tour de Constance, 1730 – 1768: Her Life and Letters

Marie Durand was 19 when she was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of Constance. Her crime? Being the sister of a preacher of the gospel. By which I mean … a preacher of the gospel of grace re-discovered by Martin Luther and proclaimed around Europe by people like John Calvin. In the 1600’s Louis XIV had made anything other than Roman Catholicism illegal in France which all but wiped out the Protestant Faith in the country. The choice given to the Huguenots (as they came to be known) was to leave the country or convert to Catholicism. Those who stayed and did not convert, like Durand’s family, were arrested and imprisoned.

Durand was arrested at the age of 19. Her Father and her brother were also arrested.

Her father Etienne was imprisoned for 19 years before being released at the age of 92.

Her brother Pierre was hanged.

And Marie? Here is how Campbell describes her fate:

Sometime before August 25, 1730, she was led across the narrow stone causeway to the Tour de Constance, through its heavy main door, and into the dank stone rooms that were to be her home for the next thirty-eight years.

On the floor of the hall where we are gathering I have marked out a chalk circle. That circle shows us the size of the room Durand and up to 24 others lived in for almost 40 years. Bedding around the edges. Buckets for toilets. Children were born in that room, delivered by women who were pregnant when they were arrested. The prisoners moved from the room into the outside for just 2 hours each day.

Some of the women died from disease. Others died from old age. Still others had mental breakdowns and were returned to their homes.

Marie Durand survived – on the “Kings bread and straw” which is all they were given (the straw being for bedding). The women also received some food and gifts from the outside. And Marie wrote letters from the inside.

38 years. From the age of 19. Living among rats and spilt toilet buckets. All because she and her pastor brother had a different religion to the King.

This is the woman Campbell wants to introduce us to. And I for one am very glad that he has.

There are two things in particular which make Marie Durand famous.

The first is her graffiti.

A piece of graffiti carved into the cell wall has been attributed to her. The graffiti is the word is RESISTER. Which means unsurprisingly – ‘resist’.

But what does that word really mean? Who is to be resisted?

The popular opinion has been that Marie Durand carved the word into the wall as a protest against her gaolers. According to this view, Marie was protesting the power of the state. She was in that sense a modern woman who was fighting for her universal human right to live in freedom. 

Campbell pushes back against that idea. And, persuasively in my view, he shows that if Durand did in fact carve RESISTER into the wall of her prison, then it was to serve not as a protest against her gaolers, but as a reminder to herself that she is to heed the encouragement of the Apostle Peter who in chapter 5 of his first letter urges his readers to resist the temptation of the devil and to show solidarity with other believers who are oppressed for their faith. One of her letters contains this prayer:

“It is your will, Almighty God; we submit to it with holy resignation. By your grace give us the strength to overcome everything and to remain firm.”

The second thing that Durand is famous for is her letters. There are something like 50 surviving letters from her. Many more were probably written but have now been lost. Some were written and never posted. The surviving letters are a treasure trove of information not only of Durand’s life, but also of her times.

You will find that the letters bring the book to life. Campbell takes us right up close to the letters themselves … describing the weight and colour of the paper as well as style of the handwriting and how evenly the ink has been applied. Those of you fascinated by stationery and fountain pens, as I am, will love all of this.

And if you are interested in how letters were transported around Europe in the 1700’s (and I most certainly am) then you will enjoy the information Campbell has included. He seems to take delight in describing the colour of the wax seals, and the size of the paper, and the dimensions of the folded packet and the fact that Durand’s writing increases  in size as the years pass – most likely due to a decline in her eyesight.

But of course, it’s not the stationery or the postage which make these letters so precious; it’s what is written in them. Durand is clearly a very intelligent woman. Her letters show her to have a keen mind and an extensive vocabulary. And they also show that she was a woman with a deep and strong faith. She has a solid grasp on the theology of the Bible, especially on practical matters such as suffering, charity, and how to engage with the civil authorities.

And it is here, in chapter 4 of the book which deals with Durand’s theology, that Campbell reveals himself to be not merely an excellent writer, which he is, but also a kind and thoughtful pastor, which he is.

This book is most definitely about Marie Durand and her life. But it also reveals something to us about the author. Just as we can learn something about Marie Durand from her writings, so we can learn something of Campbell from this book.

We discover his warmth, his creativity, his story-telling prowess, his eye for detail, his objectivity, and his love for God and his deep knowledge of God’s love for the world. I defy anyone to read this book properly and not come away, as I did, wondering what Campbell will write next.

Friends, in my estimation we are living at a time when history has become cool again. The hope of post modernism has given way to despair. We have been told in the secular west that freedom can only be found when we abandon the past and unshackle ourselves from ancient institutions. But the question needs to be asked: How is that working out for us?

History is cool again. Netflix knows it. Podcast creators know it. Hollywood knows it. And increasingly people who are hungry for answers to the big questions of life are coming to know it.[1] History is cool. And people want heroes.

Campbell has given us one. Marie Durand. Prisoner of the Tour de Constance. Resister. Woman of letters. Theologian. And who in her heroism points us to her hero. The hero we all want, even if some of us haven’t realised it yet – the Lord Jesus who, like Marie Durand, resisted the devil, suffered unspeakably at the hands of his enemies, and refused to renounce his Father in heaven, even to the point of death.

It gives me great delight to now officially launch Dr Campbell Markham’s book.

– Al Bain

Marie Durand can be purchased directly from Campbell at a 25% discount ($45 plus postage); please order from him directly by emailing campbell.markham@gmail.com.

[1] 1. See, for example, Gavin Ortlund – Why Gen Z Loves Church History (and what to do about it) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boXE_EjXePs