Blondel, David

Blondel, David one of the most learned theologians of a learned age, was born at Chalons- sur-Marne in 1591, and became a minister among the French Protestants in 1614. In 1619 he published his Modeste declaration de la sinceritt et viwite des eglises reformes (8vo). In 1631 he was nominated professor at Saumur. The synod of Charenton in 1645 fixed him at Paris with a pension of 1000 livres, in order that he might have means and leisure to write for the Protestant cause. In 1650 he was invited to Amsterdam to succeed Vossius in the chair of history, and there he caught a cold in the eyes, which deprived him of sight for the rest of his days. He died April 6, 1655. His writings, both polemical and historical, are still of great value to Protestantism. Among them are,

1. Familier eclaircissement, etc.; a treatise on the debated question about the existence of "Pope Joan," which he decides in the negative (Amsterdam, 1647, 1649, 8vo):

2. Pseudo-Tsidorus et Turrianus vapulantes; to prove the falsity of the decretals attributed to the ancient popes (Geneva, 1628, 4to):

3. Apologia pro sententia Hieronymi de episcopis et presbyteris; an able defence of Presbyterianism (Amsterdam, 1646):

4. De la primaute dans l'Eglise (1641); against Cardinal Duperron, perhaps the greatest of his works:

5. A Treatise of the Sibyls, translated (Lond. fol. 1661). A full list is given by Niceron, 8:48; see also Haag, La France Protestante, ii, 306.