GROTIUS
1018
GROTIUS
itiios of their countrj' for having attempted to resist at I'truc-lit the army of tlie prince." Tiie magistrates of Kotterdam and of some otiier cities of Holland protest- ed against this open violation of tlieir rights, but were deposed. The Synod of Dort, which the Gomarists, sure of having the majority of tlie clergy on their side, had for a long time demanded, in order to obtain a con- demnation of the doctrines of their adversaries, was then assembled. See Dort. In consequence of the decisions of Dort, some of the Arniinian ministers were exiled, others put in prison. See Akminianism. The Gomarists, with the partisans of Maurice, commenced in Nov. 1G18, the trial of the three prisoners. Twenty- six commissioners, chosen from their avowed enemies, were appointed to judge them. After having, under appearance of legality, murdered Barneveldt in spite of the remonstrances of Du ^laurier, ambassador of France, and a friend of Grotius, thej' began the trial of the latter. He declined to recognise their compe- tence, claiming that he could only be judged by the States of Holland. His remonstrances were of no avail ; five hours' time and one sheet of paper were all the facilities afforded him for his defense. " He was condemned on the 18th of May, 1619, to perpetual im- prisonment, and his property confiscated. Pursuant to this sentence, he was conveyed on the 6th of Juno in the same year to the fortress of Loevestein, situated at the extremity of an island formed by the Maas and the Waal. His wife was allowed to share her hus- band's imprisonment, but Grotius's father was refused permission to see his son. During the imprisonment of Grotius, study became his consolation and the busi- ' ness of his life. In several of his letters addressed from Loevestein to Vossius, he gives an account of his studies, informing him that he was occupied with law and moral philosoph}'. He devoted his Sundays to reading works on religious subjects, and he employed in the same way the time which remained after his or- dinary' labors were over. He wrote during his impris- onment his treatise on the truth of the Christian relig- ion, in Dutch verse (which he subsequently translated into Latin prose, under the title De Veiitate Religionis Christiance) ; translated the ' Phoenispa;' of Euripides into Latin verse, wrote the institutions of the laws of Holland in Dutch, and drew up for his daughter Cor- nelia a kind of catechism in 185 questions and answers, written in Flemish verse. After eighteen months' con- finement,Grotius was at last released by the ingenuitj' of his wife, who had obtained permission to go out of the prison twice a week. He constantly received books, wliich were brought in and taken out in a large ciiost together with his linen. For some time this chest was strictly examined bj' the guards, but find- ing only books and foul linen, they at last grew tired of the search, and gave it up. Grotius's wife, having observed this, persuaded her husljand to get into the chest, which he did, and in this manner escaped from the fortress on the 21st of March, 1621. He made his way through Antwerp to France, where his wife, Avho had been detained for about a fortnight in prison, join- ed him a few months afterwards. Louis XIII received Grotius very favorablj', and granted him a pension of .^000 livres, but it was paid with great irregularity. He was harshly treated b}' the Protestant ministers of Charenton, who, having assented to the doctrines of the Sj'nod of Dort, refused to admit Grotius into their communion, and he was obliged to have divine service performed at home. At Paris (1622) he pul dished his .\pol()(j>t!cum (often reprinted), which was prohil)ited in Holland under severe penalties. Having spent a year at Paris, he retired to a country-seat of the president De Jlesmes, near Senlis, where he spent the spring and summer of 1623. It was in that retreat that he commenced his work De Jure Belli et Pacts, which was published in the ne.Kt year. , During his residence in France he was constantly annoyed with importunities to pass over to the Poman Catholic religion. Pnit,
though he was tired of the country, and received invi- tations from the duke of Holstein and the king of Denmark, he declined them. Gustavus Adolphus also made him offers, which, after his death, were repeated by Oxenstiern in the name of queen Christina. In the mean time the stadtholder Maurice died, and his successor seeming less hostile to Grotius, he was in- duced bj' the entreaties of his Dutch friends to venture to return. He arrived at Rotterdam in September, 1631, and the news of his return excited a great sensa- tion throughout all Holland. But, in spite of all the efforts of his friends, he was again obliged to leave the countrj', and went (1632) to Hamburg, where he lived till 1G34, when he joined the chancellor Oxenstiern at Frankfort-on-the-Main, who appointed him councillor to the queen of Sweden, and her ambassador at the court of France. The object of the embassj' was to obtain the assistance of France against the emperor. Grotius arrived at Paris in March, 1635 ; and although he had many difficulties to encounter from Richelieu, and afterwards from Mazarin, he maintained the rights and promoted the interests of his adopted sovereign with great firmness. He continued in his post till 1644, when he was recalled at his own request. Hav- ing obtained a passport through Holland, he embarked on his return at Dieppe, and on his landing at Amster- dam (1645) was received with great distincticn, and entertained at the public expense. From Amsterdam he proceeded by Hamburg and Liibeck to Stockholm, where he was received in the most flattering manner bj' the queen. Grotius, however, was not pleased with the learned flippancy of Christina's court, and resolved on quitting Sweden. The climate, also, did not agree with him. The queen, having in vain tried to retain him in her service, made him a present of a large sum of monej', and of some costl}' objects; she also gave him a vessel, in which he embarked for Liibeck on the 12th of August; but a violent storm, by which his ship was tossed about during three days, obliged him to land on the 17th in Pomerania, about 15 leagues from Dantzig, whence he proceeded towards Liibeck. He arrived at Rostock on the 2Gth, very ill from the fa- tigues of the journey, and from exposure to wind and rain in an open carriage ; he died on the 28th of Au- gust, 1645, in the sixt3'-third j'ear of his age. His last moments were spent in religious preparation, and he died expressing the sentiments of a true Christian. His body was carried to Delft and deposited in the grave of his ancestors, where a monument was erected to him in 1781" (^English Cyclopadid).