Peter Datheen

DATHEEN, Peter (Petrus). b. Cassell, Nord, Belgium, c. 1531; d. Elbing, Germany, 17 March 1588. Datheen’s parentage is unknown. At an early age he was placed in a Carmelite monastery at Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium, where he was schooled in medicine and theology by monks who were sympathetic to Reformation ideals. At about 18, when the monastery at Ypres was, along with many in the region, threatened with dissolution by agents of the Inquisition, Datheen fled to London, where he was part of the Lowlands Reformed congregation under the leadership of John à Lasco (1499-1560). There he studied for the ministry: he would subsequently lead congregations in Frankfurt, Germany; and Frankenthal,...