David Paraeus

David Pareus (30 December 1548 – 15 June 1622) was a German Reformed Protestant theologian and reformer.

He was born at Frankenstein in Schlesien on 30 December 1548. He was apprenticed to an apothecary and again to a shoemaker. In 1564 he entered the school of Christoph Schilling at Hirschberg, whom he accompanied to Amberg, in 1566; but immediately entered the Collegium Sapientiae, at Heidelberg. His father disinherited him because of the opinions that David formed during his studies, under Zacharias Ursinus. On 13 May 1571 he became pastor at Niederschlettenbach and six months later a teacher in the Paedagogium at Heidelberg. On 24 August 1573 he resumed the pastorate in the previously Roman Catholic village of Hemsbach; where, with the consent of the congregation, he reconstructed the church along Reformed lines.

Dismissed from his office after the death of Frederick III, Elector Palatine, Pareus was appointed, in 1577, by Count Palatine Johann Casimir, pastor at Oggersheim. Transferred to Winzingen in 1580, he cultivated acquaintance with the teachers at the Casimirianum, in the neighboring Neustadt. After the death of Ludwig VI, Johann Casimir, acting as regent of the Palatinate, called Pareus as teacher to the Collegium Sapientiae in September 1584. Pareus became the director of the Collegium in 1591. In 1598, he entered the theological faculty as teacher of the Old Testament and from 1602 until his death he taught the New Testament. He attracted many students from far and wide. From 1592, he belonged to the Palatine church council. In September 1621, as the Spanish troops approached the Palatinate, Pareus fled to Annweiler, and later to Neustadt. Then, when Frederick V, Elector Palatine returned temporarily to the Palatinate, Pareus returned to Heidelberg, in May 1622, where he died on 15 June 1622.

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