Passchier de Fijne


Passchier de Fijne was a Netherlands pastor and writer. He was one of the first pastors of the Remonstrant Brotherhood. Because of his forbidden preaching on the ice of the river Gouwe at Gouda he was also called "the kingfisher".

Biography

De Fijne was a son of the cloth worker Paschier de Fijne and Maaike Couwerts who fled from the Southern Netherlands. Initially, he followed in his father's footsteps and became a cloth worker. He did not study at a theological faculty, but was trained in this profession by two pastors, among whom Cornelis Damman from Ouddorp.
After having been examined by the Classis Brielle, he obtained permission to exercise the office of minister. However, he would first return to his native city of Leiden. There he developed sympathy for the supporters of the theologian Arminius in the early days of the Twelve Years' Truce and took sides with the Remonstrants.
In 1611 he was appointed as a minister in Jaarsveld because of his Remonstrant disposition. During the synod of Dordrecht he refused to give up his views. He was expelled from the region, but went into hiding. He continued to preach on behalf of the Remonstrant Brotherhood, founded in 1619. Because preaching was forbidden to him by the government, he traveled in disguise across the country and preached in various shelters. In the winter, he preached on the ice of the Gouwe river near Gouda, for which he owes his nickname "the kingfisher". In Goudsche Onkatolijke kerkzaken this is described by Ignatius Walvis as follows:
In the vicinity of Gouda he was hunted by the bailiff and heretic hunter Anthony Cloots and in the vicinity of Leiden he was hunted by the bailiff Willem de Bont. In a raid by Cloots during an illegal church service of De Fijne, Cloots was so attacked by the churchgoers that he had little chance of success.
De Fijne made contact with the Collegiants in Rijnsburg, a movement led by Elder Gijsbert van der Kodde. Attempts on his part to bring them to the Remonstrant Brotherhood were shipwrecked. After the death of Maurice of Orange in 1625, the climate for the Remonstrants gradually calmed down. After his period as a traveling preacher, he was confirmed in 1633 as a Remonstrant preacher in Haarlem.
De Fijne wrote many books and pamphlets in which he defended the views of the Remonstrants. In his pamphlets he regularly used the dialogue as a means to highlight his views. In his polemic with the minister of The Hague Casper Streso he performed a peat farmer in conversation with a minister. For the Remonstrant foreman Eduard Poppius he wrote a preface to his posthumous 1625 Cort ende grondich bericht, directed against the Gomarists.
De Fijne married Machtelt Jans Bouchout on February 19, 1612 in Leiden. He died in October 1667 at the age of 79 in Haarlem. He was buried in the Grote Kerk, Haarlem.

Works

Een trouwhertighe vermaninghe Broederlijke Vermaning De Silveren Naalde Nieuwe-iaer gheschenck, ver-eert aen alle remonstrants-gesinde. Een kleyn monstertjen, met een warachtich verhael, vande mishandelinghe die den remonstrantsche ghevangenen predicanten gheschiet is. Silvere vergulde naelde bequaem om af te lichten de vliesen van de oogen der Hollantsche regenten Veen-boere wegh-kortinghe, ofte t'Samen-sprake tusschen een ghereformeerden predicant ende eenen veen-boer die de Haeghsche maniere van spreecken niet begrijpen en kan Veen-boers bescheyt Winter turf Veen-boeren waerschouwinge, over het verwarde beright, dat hy uyt den Haghe ontfanghen heeft Den siecken veen-boer. Die van sijnen predikant besocht ende vertroost wort. Seer nut te lesen voor alle ghesonde, om in tijt van sieckte, eenen vasten troost te mogen hebben Lammerenkrijgh: anders, Mennonisten kercken-twist Zee-mans nievwe-iaer, ofte t'Samen-sprake vande vernieuwinge des levens, tusschen Pieter Lichthart, ende Jan Swaerhooft, beyde bootsgesellen op een schip Kort, waerachtigh, en getrouw verhael van het eerste begin en opkomen van de nieuwe seckte der propheten ofte Rynsburgers in het dorp van Warmont, anno 1619, en 1620 Het leeven en eenige bysondere voorvallen van Passchier de Fijne
  • ''De oude Leidsche patroon, of derden Octobers banket''