BLONDEEL, DAVID. - Calvinist theologian and historian, born at Châlons-sur-Marne in 1591, died at Amsterdam on 6 April 1655. He began his ministry at Houdan near Paris.
In 1619 he published his first work: Modeste Déclaration de la sincérité et vérité des Églises Réformés de France (Sedan 1619), which immediately brought him to prominence among his coreligionists and exerted great influence on public opinion regarding their rights in France. He attended four national synods and represented them before the king in 1626. His reputation grew with the publication of numerous historical writings, undoubtedly rich in erudition but sectarian in spirit: De coena Domini disputatio (ibid. 1610); De la primauté de l'Église (Geneva 1641); Apologia pro sententia Hieronymi de episcopis et presbyteris (Amsterdam 1646). He was historiographer to the King of France, and upon the death of Vossius in 1650, he ascended the chair of history at Amsterdam, where he remained until the end of his life, working with untiring tenacity. All his works are on the Index.