BLONDEL

blondel, david (1591-1655), french protestant clergyman, was born at chalons-sur-marne in 1591, and died on the 6th of april 1655. in 1650 he succeeded g.j. vossius in the professorship of history at amsterdam. his works were very numerous; in some of them he showed a remarkable critical faculty, as in his dissertation on pope joan (1647, 1657), in which he came to the conclusion, now universally accepted, that the whole story is a mere myth. considerable protestant indignation was excited against him on account of this book.