Jean Taffin (1529–1602), was a Dutch Walloon minister and theologian.

Biography

He was born in Tournai to a noble family and travelled to Italy where he studied in Padua before returning north. From 1554 to 1557 he was librarian to

Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (20 August 151721 September 1586), Comte de La Baume Saint Amour, was a Bisontin ( Free Imperial City of Besançon) statesman, made a cardinal, who followed his father as a leading minister of the Spanish Habsb ...

in Atrecht ( Arras). He left Granvelle to study in

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under Calvin and

Beza Theodore Beza ( la, Theodorus Beza; french: Théodore de Bèze or ''de Besze''; June 24, 1519 – October 13, 1605) was a French Calvinist Protestant theologian, reformer and scholar who played an important role in the Protestant Reformatio ...

and in 1558 he became a reformer in Antwerp. He became a French-speaking pastor there in 1566. He had to flee the contra-reformers and travelled to Aken and on to

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, and after receiving his doctorate in Geneva became a pastor in

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and in 1562 he got his own church there. In 1564 he was invited to a secret conference by

William the Silent William the Silent (24 April 153310 July 1584), also known as William the Taciturn (translated from nl, Willem de Zwijger), or, more commonly in the Netherlands, William of Orange ( nl, Willem van Oranje), was the main leader of the Dutch Re ...

to talk about a union of Protestant churches with Carolus Niellius, François Baudouin and Guy de Bres. Afterwards, he preached at the St. Walburgkerk in Antwerp and in 1566 oversaw the conversion (anabaptism) of Guy de Bres. He then wrote a protest from the Wallonian Synod against Catholicism for which he was banned and fled on 17 April 1567 to

, but fled again due to the edict of 4 April 1569 by the King of France that banned him from preaching and which caused his church to burn. He sought refuge in

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where he became a preacher again and was sent to the Wallonian Synod in Emden in 1570 where he pleaded for unity among the Huguenots and Wallonian refugees. From 1572 to 1575 he became a travelling minister in Vlissingen, Middelburg, and Veere. He had become chaplain to William the Silent and presided over his marriage on 15 July 1575 to

Charlotte de Bourbon Charlotte of Bourbon (1546/1547 – 5 May 1582) was a Princess consort of Orange as the third spouse of William the Silent, Prince of Orange, the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish. She was the fourth daughter of Louis III de Bou ...

, in the Grote Kerk, Den Briel. On his request, he also was peacekeeper between Caspar Coolhaes and Pieter Cornelisz uyten Briel, whose arguments about the Protestant faith had reached a boiling point in 1578. After William the Silent was assassinated in 1584, Taffin followed mayor Marnix but fled north to Leiden where he presided over the Wallonian Synod from 18 to 20 September 1587. In 1588 he was called to Haarlem where he became pastor of the Waalse Kerk, Haarlem.Jean Taffin
in ''1585: de val van Antwerpen en de uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders'', by Gustaaf Asaert on

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From there he helped organize the various northern refugees of his church into Walloon Reformed church at Amsterdam, where he went to serve in 1590 and where he later died of the plague in 1602. Today, he is best known for his book ''Des marques des enfants de Dieu et des consolations dans leurs afflictions'' (''The Marks of God's Children'') (1585).

References

Jean Taffin
in the

NNBW The ''Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek'' (''NNBW'') is a biographical reference work in the Dutch language. It has been succeeded by the ''Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland''. It was published in ten parts between 1911 and 1937 by ...

Jean Taffin
on

GAMEO The Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (GAMEO) is an online encyclopedia of topics relating to Mennonites and Anabaptism. The mission of the project is to provide free, reliable, English-language information on Anabaptist-related t ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Taffin, Jean 1529 births 1602 deaths Dutch Calvinist and Reformed theologians Writers from Tournai 16th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians