Plancius, Pieter

Plancius, Pieter a Dutch preacher of renown, was born at Drenoutre, Flanders, in 1552. Having imbibed the principles of the Calvinistic faith in the schools of Germany and England, he embraced the evangelical ministry in 1577, and discharged its duties in Brabant and Flanders, in the midst of the persecutions of the Spanish government. After the taking of Brussels (1585), where he was pastor, he fled to Holland, and was soon attached to the Church of Amsterdam. Being a zealous defender of orthodoxy, he displayed great animosity against the Lutherans and Arminians. He was in 1619 a member of the Synod of Dort and was then one of the revisers of the version of the Old Testament. He is entitled to the gratitude of the Dutch people for the services which he rendered them by his geographical and nautical acquirements. He counseled the first expeditions sent by the Dutch to both Indies, and traced even the itineraries of those expeditions. He is much spoken of in Jeannin's negotiations, where he is called "a great cosmographer." He died May 25, 1622, at Amsterdam. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Géneralé, 40, 403.