§ 65. The Arminian Controversy. A.D. 1604-1619.

§ 65. The Arminian Controversy. A.D. 1604-1619.

Literature.

I. Arminian Sources.

Scripta adversaria Collationis Hagiensis. In Dutch, Gravenhage, 1612; in Latin, by Petrus Bertius, Leyden, 1616. This contains the authentic text of the Remonstrance.

Remonstrantia, or the Five Articles of 1610. A German translation in Böckel's Evang. Reform. Bekenntniss-Schriften. Leipzig, 1847, pp. 545-553.

Simon Episcopius (Prof. at Leyden, 1612; expelled by the Synod of Dort, 1618; Prof. at the Remonstrant Seminary, 1634; d. 1643): Confessio seu Declaratio Pastorum qui Remonstrantes vocantur, etc. Harderw. 1621 in Dutch, 1622 in Latin (German transl. in Böckel, l.c. pp. 572-640). Also his Apologia pro Confessione Remonstr., 1629. Both are included in the works of Episcopius, 2d ed. London, 1678, Vol. II. Part II. pp. 69 sqq.; 95 sqq.

Acta et Scripta Synodalia Dordracena ministrorum Remonstrantium in foederato Belgio. 2 Cor. xiii. 8. Harderwiici, 1620. This volume (a copy of which is in the Union Theol. Seminary Library) contains the official acts and dogmatic writings of the Remonstrants in explanation and defense of their five articles against the decisions of the Synod of Dort, including a lengthy exposition of the ninth chapter of Romans and other Scripture passages quoted against them.

Jac. Arminius (1560-1609): Disputationes publicæ et privatæ. Ludg. Bat. 1614, 2d ed. (with the Oratio Petri Bertii de vita et obitu Arminii.). Armin. Opera, Lugd. Bat. 1629; and other editions. English translation of The Works of James Arminius, by James Nichols and William Nichols. London, 1825, 1828, and 1875, 3 vols.

Also the writings of Episcopius (d. 1643); Grotius (d. 1645); Limborch (d. 1714); Clericus (d. 1736); Wetstein (d. 1754), and other distinguished Arminian scholars. Comp. A. van Cattenburgh: Bibliotheca Scriptorum Remonstrantium. Amst. 1728.

II. Anti-Arminian or Calvinistic Sources.

The Acts and Proceedings of the National Synod of Dort: Acta Synodi Nationalis, in nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi, autoritate ordinum generalium Foederati Belgii provinciarum, Dortrechti habitæ anno 1818 et 1619. Accedunt plenissima de quinque articulis theologorum judicia. Dord. 1620, 4to. (The judicia theologorum are omitted in the Elzevir folio ed. of the same date.)

The Suffrage of the Divines of Great Britain concerning the Articles of the Synod of Dort, signed by them in 1619 [? Lond. 1624].

Reports of Breitinger, the Hessian, and other foreign delegates.

III. Historical and Controversial.

P. Molinæus (Calvinist): Anatome Arminianismi. Leyden, 1619, etc.

N. Vedel (Calv.): Arcana Arminianismi. Leyden, 1632-34, 4 Parts, 4to.

Peltius: Harmonia Remonstrantium et Socinianorum. Ludg. 1633.

Byssen: De prædestinatione contra Remonstrantes et Jesuitas. Gorchum, 1660.

Sam. Rhetorfort: Examen Arminianismi. Utrecht, 1668.

Janus Uytenbogaert (Arminian): Kerckelijcke Historie, etc. Rotterdam, 1647.

Jac. Triglandius (Calvinist): Kerekelijcke Geschiedenissen van de vereen. Nederlanden. Leyden, 1650.

Jo. Halesii Historia Concilii Dordraceni; J. L. Moshemius vertit, variis observationibus et vita Halesii auxit. Hamburg, 1724. John Hales (1584-1656), Canon of Windsor--called 'the Ever-memorable'--attended the Synod of Dort, by which he became a convert to Arminianism, and wrote Golden Remains; Letters from the Synod of Dort; Acta Synodi Dordr.; Sententia Arminii; see Works, 1765, 3 vols.

Peter Heylin (a friend of Laud and Arminian, d. 1662): Historia Quinquarticularis; or, a Declaration of the Judgment of the Western Churches, and more particularly of the Church of England, in the Five Controverted Points, reproached in these last times by the name of Arminianism. London, 1660, in 3 Parts.

Gerhard Brandt (Remonstrant preacher at Amsterdam, d. 1685): Historie der Reformatie (History of the Reformation in and about the Low Countries, from the Eighth Century down to the Synod of Dort), Amst. 1677-1704, 4 vols. Very full on the Remonstrant controversy. An English translation, by Chamberlayne, London, 1720-23, 4 vols. fol. (The last volume gives the history from 1600 to 1623.) Also in French, 1726.

Zeltner (d. 1738): Breviarium controversiarum cum Remonstrantibus agitatarum. Norimb. and Altdorf, 1719.

Jac. Regenboog: Hist. der Remonstranten, in Dutch, Amsterd. 1774 sqq., 3 vols.; in German, Lemgo, 1741-84.

G. S. Franke: Historia dogmatum Arminianorum. Kiel, 1814.

Thomas Scott: The Articles of the Synod of Dort; with a History of Events which made way for that Synod, etc. London, 1818. (Calvinistic.)

James Nichols (Arminian): Calvinism and Arminianism compared in their Principles and Tendency. Lond. 1824, 2 vols. (An ill-digested mass of materials.)

M. Graf: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Synode von Dordrecht. Basle, 1825.

D. de Bray: L'histoire de l'Église Arminienne. Strasburg, 1835.

Joannes Tideman (Remonstrant preacher at Rotterdam): De Remonstrantie en het Remonstrantisme. Historisch onderzoek. Te Haarlem, 1851 (pp. 131).

H. Heppe (Melanchthonian): Historia Synodi Nat. Dordr. in Niedner's Zeitschrift für hist. Theol., 1853, pp. 227-327. Contains the Report of the Hessian deputies to Landgrave Moritz, with Introduction and Notes. The same: Art. Dortrecht in Herzog's Real-Encykl. Vol. III. p. 486.

Alex. Schweizer: Centraldogmen. Zurich, Vol. II. (1856) pp. 31-201.

G. Frank: Geschichte der Protest. Theol. Leipz. 1862, Vol. I. pp. 403 sqq.

M. Schneckenburger (independent, d. 1848): Vorlesungen über die Lehrbegriffe der kleineren protest. Kirchenparteien, ed. by Hundeshagen. Frankf. a. M. 1863, pp. 5-26.

William Cunningham (Calvinist): Historical Theology. Edinb. 1864, Vol. II. ch. xxv. pp. 371-513.

E. Böhl (Calvinist): Blätter der Erinnerung an die Dordrechter Synode, 250 Jahre nach ihrem Zusammentritt allen Freunden der reform. Lehre gewidmet. Detmold, 1868 (41 pp.).

John L. Motley: The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland. N.Y. 1874, 2 vols. chs. viii. and xiv. Motley gives the political history of the period, but barely touches on the Synod of Dort, and with strong antipathy to Calvinism.

Comp. also Whedon (Methodist), art. Arminianism, and A. A. Hodge (Presbyterian), Calvinism, both in Johnson's Cyclop. Vol. I. (1874), representing both sides. Also art. Arminianism, in M'Clintock and Strong's Cyclop. Vol. I. p. 412 (Methodist).

The Arminian controversy is the most important which took place within the Reformed Church. It corresponds to the Pelagian and the Jansenist controversies in the Catholic Church. It involves the problem of ages, which again and again has baffled the ken of theologians and philosophers, and will do so to the end of time: the relation of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. It started with the doctrine of predestination, and turned round five articles or 'knotty points' of Calvinism; hence the term 'quinquarticular' controversy. Calvinism represented the consistent, logical, conservative orthodoxy; Arminianism an elastic, progressive, changing liberalism. Calvinism triumphed in the Synod of Dort, and excluded Arminianism. So, in the preceding generation, strict Lutheranism had triumphed over Melanchthonianism in the Formula of Concord. But in both Churches the spirit of the conquered party rose again from time to time within the ranks of orthodoxy, to exert its moderating and liberalizing influence or to open new issues in the progressive march of theological science.