Early Life
Peder Sørensen, later known by his Latinized name Petrus Severinus, was born in the Danish town of Ribe on the west coast of Jutland in either 1542 or 1540. Both years are cited in seventeenth century texts. Ribe was a flourishing town on a major trade route between the farmers of Jutland and their markets to the south. It was also a harbor town that supported regular trade with Holland, England, and other port towns of the Frisian coast. Ribe was also an administrative center with the cathedral at Ribe governed by one of the most important sees in sixteenth century Denmark.
Severinus’ parents were likely prosperous and well-positioned and like other sons of the well to do, Severinus likely enrolled in Ribe’s Latin or cathedral school before moving on to universities abroad or the university at Copenhagen. After the Reformation, the Catholic hierarchy was replaced with Lutheran masters and administrators but the curriculum likely changed very little. The cathedral at Ribe was administered by some of the greatest humanist reformers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including Hans Tausen, Peder Hegelund, and Jens Dinesen Jersin providing Severinus with the best education available in Denmark at the time.
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