Overd'hage, Petrus (16th century)

Petrus Overd'hage (Pieter de Zuttere, Suttere), usually called Hyperphragmus, was a Reformed theologian. This remarkable man, who was born before 1530 at Ghent, Belgium, joined the local Reformed church and probably was their preacher. He left Ghent about 1566 and then lived for some time in Emden, Germany, and later in Rotterdam, Holland. Here he was not admitted to the Reformed pulpit because the strict Calvinists accused him of heterodoxy. In 1581 he was back in Gent, and in 1593 he became a Reformed pastor at Hoogmade, Dutch province of North Brabant, but was dismissed the next year. Of his life not much is known. Whether he was a relative of the Mennonite de Zuttere (de Sitter) family could not be ascertained. He published a number of theological and devotional books. He was a spiritualist, as is shown from his confession in Latin of 1594 (a confession of 1595, written by Overd'hage in the Dutch language, agrees much more with the Calvinist doctrines); he was thought by some to have been an adherent of D. V. Coornhert, and by others a follower of Schwenckfeld.

Overd'hage is of special interest as the editor of Henric Rol's book De Slotel van dat secreet des Nachtmaels onses Heren J.C. (The Key of the Secret of the Lord's Supper). The assumption of some theologians that the author of De Slotel was not the Anabaptist Rol, but Overd'hage himself, is an error, as Samuel Cramer has proved in BRN V, 6-14. Overd'hage was very sympathetic to the Mennonites and is said to have preached sometimes in their meetings.

Bibliography

Bibliotheca Belgica i.v. de Zuttere.

Doopsgezinde Bijdragen (1884): 56 f., 58, 60.

Knappert, L. Het ontstaan en de vestiging van het Protestantisme in de Nederlanden. Utrecht 1924: 190-92.

Sepp, Chr. Drie Evangeliedienaren uit den Tijd der Hervorming. Leiden, 1879: 81-122.

Studien en Bijdragen, verzameld door W. Moll en J. G. de Hoop Scheffer IV. Amsterdam, 1880: 321 ff.

Wessel, J. H. De leerstellige strijd tusschen Nederl. Gereformeer-den en Doopsgezinden in de zestiende eeuw. Assen, 1946: 122.

Author(s)	Nanne van der Zijpp
Date Published	1959

Cite This Article

MLA style

van der Zijpp, Nanne. "Overd'hage, Petrus (16th century)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 18 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Overd%27hage,_Petrus_(16th_century)&oldid=59979.

APA style

van der Zijpp, Nanne. (1959). Overd'hage, Petrus (16th century). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 18 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Overd%27hage,_Petrus_(16th_century)&oldid=59979.

---

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 100. All rights reserved.

©1996-2024 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.