Arminius was one of the most learned men of a learned age. His natural faculties were singularly acute; his mind was at once inquisitive and profound; and his industry in study equalled his capacity. As a preacher he was exceedingly popular; in sweetness of voice, ardor of manner, and finish of style, he was distinguished above all his contemporaries. His per- sonal manners were of the most attractive kind; he grappled liis friends by books of steel. The funeral oration delivered by Bertius ends with the phrase, "fuisse in Batavia virum qnem qui norant non potue- runt satis existimare; qui non sestimarunt, non satis COgnoverunt." His writings, though inferior in point of Latinity to those of Calvin and Grotius, bear ample testimony i" ah learning, and to his skill in logic. He was so thoroughly versed in the ancient fathers, and sip much of an adept in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, that his opinions carried alone; with them a weight among the learned wldeh his antagonists could not well resist. Xeander calls him the "model of a conscientious and zealously investigating theolo-
gian" (Hist, of Dor/mas, ii, 276). His opponents ac- cused him of Pelagianism and Arianism, but no theo- logian of any pretence to learning will at present sus- tain these accusations. The same temper of mind which led him to renounce the peculiarities of Calvin- ism induced him also to adopt more enlarged and lib- eral views of church communion than those which had prevailed before his time. While he maintained that the mercy of God is not confined to a chosen few, he conceived it to be quite inconsistent with the genius of Christianity that men of that religion should keep at a distance from each other, and constitute separate churches, merely because they differed in their opin- ions as to some of its doctrinal articles. He thought that Christians of all denominations should form one great community, united and upheld bjr the bonds of charity and brotherly love ; with the exception, how- ever, of Koman Catholics, who, on account of their idolatrous worship and persecuting spirit, must be un- lit members of such a society. His great disciple, the republican Barneveldt, was perhaps the first European statesman that made religious toleration one of his maxims. In fact, the Arminians of Holland were the real fathers of religious toleration ; they were the first society of Protestants who, when in possession of pow- er, granted the same liberty of conscience to others which they claimed for themselves.
Before setting forth the theological views of Armin- ius, a brief historical review of the church doctrine as to predestination may not be out of place. Before the time of Augustine (fourth century), the unanimous doc- trine of the church fathers, so far as scientifically de- veloped at all, was, that the Divine decrees, as to the fate of individual men, were conditioned upon their faith and obedience, as foreseen in the Divine mind. Augustine, in his controversy with Pelagius, with a view to enhance the gloiy of grace, was the first to teach, unequivocall}7, that the salvation of the elect depends upon the bare will of God, and that his decree to save those whom he chooses to save is uncondi- tioned. Augustine did not teach the doctrine of un- conditional reprobation; that doctrine was first for- mally taught by Gottschalk (q. v.) in the ninth cen- tury. His views wrere condemned at Mentz, A.D. 848. In the Reformation period, Luther and Melancthon first inclined to Augustine's theory, but, finding that it involved the reception of Gottschalk*s as well, they went back to the primitive doctrine of conditional elec- tion. Luther, indeed, never formally retracted some of his characteristically strong expressions made at carl}- periods in his history ; but there are indications enough that his views coincided with those of Melanc- thon, who took out of the later editions of his Lcci Communes all expressions favoring unconditional pre- destination. The Lutheran Church to this day fol- lows Melancthon. Calvin, however, adopted uncon- ditional election and reprobation in the strongest form, and built his whole theological system upon it. His genius impressed the age wonderfully, and the Re- formed churches generally adopted his doctrines. The churches of the Netherlands were founded partly by Lutherans and partly by Calvinists. and so both sets of opinions had currency there. But the Belgic Confession (q. v.), which was Calvinistic, was invested with a quasi national authority from the year 1570. The larger part of the clergy of the Netherlands were undoubtedly Calvinists at the time of the appearance of Arminius, though freedom of thought on the con- troverted points had not been suppressed before his time. His rejection of the doctrine was the result of long, calm, and patient study of the Scriptures. His task was to restore the primitive, and scriptural view of the relations between God and man in the work of sal- vation, and of the sole responsibility of man for his own damnation ; and nobly did he perform it. " The great error which lie had to combat consisted in making the Divine efficiency with relation to one temporal phe-
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nomenon, viz., the readjustment of the disturbed rela- tion of God and the sinner an exception — making the relation of the Divine efficiency to that phenomenon es- sentially unlike its relation to any other temporal phe- nomenon in the universe. The church had held that every exercise of the Divine efficiency, in relation to temporal phenomena, was subjectively conditioned by Divine wisdom, omniscience, and goodness ; Calvin- ism, on the other hand, maintained that litis particular exercise of Divine efficiency was absolutely uncondi- tioned, and was grounded solely upon the arbitrary good pleasure of God. The refutation of this error, and the re-establishment of the opposite view, was the mission of Arminius." (Warren, in Jleth. Quarterly Revieie, July, 1857, 350.)