Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 7 - Section II
II. Danois.
Ezechiel Danois (sometimes called Daunois) was a native of Compiegne. He matriculated as a student in Geneva as E. Dannosivs in the year 1616. He entered the ministry of the French Reformed Church in 1620, and is on record as pasteur of Sezanne in 1625, next of Lisy in 1626, and then of Compiegne in 1650. He was sent as almoner to the garrison of La Brielle in Hanover, from whence he removed to England in 1652. At that time a French congregation was in process of formation at Thorney Abbey in Cambridgeshire. In 1646, and following years, a Sieur Du Perrier was attempting to form the French settlers at Whittlesey into a congregation, but had not been successful. M. Danois, being a solid and staid man as old as the century, succeeded in uniting the French of both localities into one congregation at Thorney, and was settled as its first minister in September 1653. He had, in 1651, issued a polemical pamphlet, entitled “Remarques sur la retractation de Pierre Jarrige rejesuitisé;” but at Thorney he lived a tranquil life for twenty-two years, being esteemed a great student and a man of immense learning, as well as a faithful preacher and pastor. He died on 24th February 1675, new style. His epitaph is in Thorney Church:—
M. S. Venerandi senis Ezechielis Danois, Compendiensis, Galli,
Coetûs Gallici qui hic congregari coepit a.d.mdclii pastoris primi,
qui studio indefesso, doctrinâ. et severitate movum nulli secundus,
ingens litteraturae; thesaurus hic orbe latuit,
Deo — sibi — paucis aliis notus,
eisque contentus testibus per liv annorum spatium,
ex quibus xxii hic Thorney Abbatiae,
summo cum fructu ministerio suo functus,
tandem hic ubi laboris sibi et quietis locum invenit.
Obiit 24 Febr. - Ao. - Dni. - mdclxxiv.