He was born in
Frankenthal in the Palatinate, son of Gaspar van der Heiden the Younger, a Reformed minister and
Counter-Remonstrant who moved to
Amsterdam in 1608. Abraham studied theology at the
University of Leiden from 1617, travelled to
Heidelberg,
Geneva and Paris, and was influenced by
Ramism and
Jean Daillé. He returned to an appointment as minister in
Naarden in 1623, moving to Leiden in 1627. In 1648 Heidanus was appointed professor of theology at the
University of Leiden. In 1650 he invited
Johannes Cocceius to join him on the faculty there. Battle lines were being drawn up for an extended series of controversies, in which
Gisbertus Voetius of Utrecht took the other side. The position Heidanus held for decades as leader of Leiden
Cartesianism eventually led to his dismissal by the university in 1676. This happened after he with
Burchard de Volder and
Christophorus Wittichius published a rebuttal of the university's condemnation of Cartesian and Cocceian views. ==References==