ed; in order that they might meet the innovations maturely, they appointed, that the doctrine of the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, should be most purely set forth, as well in the churches as in the public schools of these regions; and to this end, in the churches and in the public schools of Holland and West Friezland; that, concerning the perfect satisfaction of our Saviour Jesus Christ for our sins, concerning the justification of man before God, concerning saving faith and original sin, the certitude of salvation, and the perfection of man in this life, nothing should be taught otherwise, than as it is every where delivered in the reformed churches, and hath been hitherto delivered in these provinces. In the mean while, every where in the churches, discords, scandals, disturbances, and confusions increased in a deplorable manner. For the Remonstrants labored assiduously with all their powers, that the pastors who especially resisted their attempts, (the magistrates having been excited against them by false accusations,) should not only be cast out of their ministerial stations, but out of the cities themselves; and that on all the churches which were deprived of pastors, even when reluctant and struggling against it, those should be obtruded, who were addicted to their own opinions; all others being excluded wherever they were able, though excellently furnished with learning, piety, and necessary endowments, and lawfully sought out and called by the church.* And this was the cause, that the orthodox churches could not consider, as their lawful pastors, pastors of this kind; who had either oppressed and cast out their innocent colleagues, contrary to all law and justice, or who had been obtruded on them against their will, and who had reviled the doctrine of the reformed churches, in the most virulent sermons, daily and in a horrid manner; that they could not hear their sermons, or partake of the Lord's supper along with the same; but that they chose rather to go to the sermons of orthodox pastors in the adjacent places; though they were exposed to many reproaches, disgraces, and injuries on that account. And these were the beginnings and occasions of the separation from the Remonstrants.†

* The toleration which these men pleaded for, was precisely like that which papists demand as emancipation; that is, power and full liberty to draw over others to their party by every artful means; till they become strong enough to refuse toleration to all other men.

† Here was a schism begun, as several others have been: but did all the blame lie on those who separated from the rest? On the other

The church at Alcmar was the first among all, which was compelled to institute a separation of this kind. For Adolphus Venator, the pastor of that church, having been suspended from the office of teaching, as well for his too impure life, as for his most impure doctrine, by the churches of North Holland, despising the censures of the churches, nevertheless persisted in the office of teaching. And now that the magistracy having been changed, as it was used to be done every year, such persons had been lawfully chosen as seemed least to favor his party, and on whose patronage he could no longer depend; having excited the people against the lawful magistracy, he effected that they (the common people) having seized arms by sedition, would not be appeased, before the lawful magistracy, having abdicated themselves, certain others were substituted to the same, men estranged from the reformed religion, and addicted to the party of Venator. These men, as soon as they had been established in the government of the city, at Venator's instigation, at first commanded the elders and deacons to go out of their office; and then they also deprived of their ministerial stations two pastors because they had opposed themselves against the errors of Venator; of whom the one, Peter Cornelii, for almost fifty years had presided over that church with the greatest edification, the other Cornelius Hillenius, a man of the most upright faith and life, and a very earnest (accerrimum) defender of the orthodox doctrine they most unworthily cast forth as driven out of the city. This separation (at Alcmar) the church at Rotterdam was compelled to imitate: for Nicolas Grevinchovius, when he saw his colleague Cornelius Gezelius, most acceptable to the church at Rotterdam, on account of his singular piety, modesty, and sincerity, and that by his endeavors, he vehemently resisted the introduction of the doctrine of the Remonstrants; procured, that by the magistracy of that place, he should first be deprived of his ministry, and then driven out of the city by the public beadles (lictores.)* The pastors also of the Class of Rotterdam, attached to the purity of doctrine, declined holding the

hand, Would such a toleration as is here described, meet the wishes and claims of the advocates for toleration, who in this transaction, as in many others, are imposed upon by a favorite term, however misapplied?

* The names both of the persecuted and persecuting pastors are given in this history; but the names of the magistrates who concurred in the persecution are withheld, in honor as it may seem of the magistracy. This greatly accords to the narrative in the Acts of the Apostles.

meetings of the Class with this Grevinchovius, and others who had been drawn over by him to the opinion of the Remonstrants, when the magistracy of Rotterdam by authority had obtruded Simon Episcopius, to whom the church of Amsterdam in which he had lived, had refused to give a testimonial of doctrine and life, on the unwilling church of Bleyswick, contrary to the preferable (potiora) suffrages of the pastors. Many churches also in the villages, on which either Remonstrants had been obtruded against their will, or whose pastors had revolted to the Remonstrants, because they could not hear without the greatest offence, and sorrow, and perturbation of mind, those horrid railings against the orthodox doctrine, which were daily heard in their sermons, having left their temples they either went to the sermons of the neighboring orthodox pastors; or where these could not be had at their own villages, they were instructed by other pastors, or by orthodox candidates for the ministry, in separated assemblies; which when the Remonstrants had in vain attempted to hinder by the edicts of their magistrates, they excited no small persecution against these churches.*

In the mean time, the lords the curators of the University of Leyden, by the counsel of the Remonstrants called M. Simon Episcopius to the professorship of theology, that very renowned man Dr. John Polyander, who had been called to the same professorship in the place of F. Gomarus, being unwilling and struggling against it. This augmented not a little the grief and anxiety of the churches; when from this it appeared, that it was determined by them (the curators) to cherish contentions in that university, and to establish the doctrine of the Remonstrants. But as these evils now could scarcely any longer be contained within the limits of the churches of Holland; this contagion at length pervaded, in the first place, the neighboring churches of Gueldria, the province of Utrecht and Transisulania. In the diocese of Utrecht, by the negligence of the pastors, the ecclesiastical order seemed fallen down. And under the pretext of restoring it, Utenbogardus introduced into that church some Remonstrant pastors, and among them, one James Taurinus, a fierce and turbulent man. These (pastors) from that time

* This was their toleration! Certainly, according to this history, the persecution began on the part of the Remonstrants; nor does the contrary appear that I can learn from other histories. The Contra-Remonstrants appealed to existing laws and to legal Synods; the Remonstrants used the illegal aid of penal edicts and secular magistrates.

gave diligence, not only in this city, but in the whole province, by ejecting every where the orthodox pastors, and substituting Remonstrants in their places; that the doctrine of the Remonstrants alone should publicly prevail. But in order to establish their cause in the same province, they devised a new formular of ecclesiastical government, which at first had been approved by the Synod, in which Utenbogardus the pastor of the Hague presided, and then through the endeavor of the same person, by the Illustrious the States of that province likewise. In the fourth and fifth article of the second chapter, the toleration of the opinion of the Remonstrants, which in Holland they so greatly urged, was established; where also the doctrine of the reformed churches is obliquely and odiously traduced. Finally very many new things in the government of the churches occur every where in this formular (formula.) So that from the same it might appear, that nothing other was proposed by these men, than that they might make all things new, not only in doctrine, but in the external government of the church by rites (gubernatione ritibus ecclesiæ.)

And now also in Gueldria, the Remonstrants had drawn over to their party, the pastors of Neomagen, Bommelien, and Tilan; who from, that time placed over the ministerial charges of the neighboring churches, only men of their own opinion. And that they might do this with the more freedom and safety, Utenbogardus, Borrius, and Taurinus, going into Gueldria, when the comitia of the Illustrious the States were celebrated in the same place, with the other Remonstrants effected this, that in the province also, the ordinary and annual meeting of the Synods should be prevented. In Transisulania also, some pastors, especially in the church of Campen and Daventer, by the endeavor and artifices of certain persons, had been drawn over to the opinion of the Remonstrants who in those places thenceforth disturbed peaceable churches with new contentions.

Sept. 27, 1612.] When the Belgic churches saw that this evil, thus crept also into the other provinces, was spread abroad in them; as they judged it to be most highly necessary that it should be met as soon as possible, neither that the remedy should be any longer deferred, having communicated counsels one with another, they sent away two delegates from each of the provinces, to the Illustrious the High Mightinesses the States General: namely, from Gueldria, John Fontanus and William Baudartius; from

Holland, Libertus Fraxinus and Festus Hommius; from Zeland, Herman Frankelius and William Telingius; (those of Utrecht refused to send theirs ;) from Friezland, Gellius Acronius and Godofrid Sopingius; from Transisulania, John Gosmannus and John Languis; finally, from the state of Groningen and Omlandia, Cornelius Hillenius and Wolfgang Agricola, who, together with the deputies of the church of Amsterdam, which was synodal, Peter Plancius and John Hallius, having set forth copiously the difficulties and dangers of the churches, as well in the name of the churches themselves, as also most of them in the name of the Illustrious the States of their own provinces, (whose letters also they set before them,) most strenuously requested and adjured the Illustrious their High Mightinesses the States General, that, pitying the most afflicted state of the churches, they would at length seriously think concerning a remedy of these evils; and for that purpose, at the earliest time call together a national Synod, (which had been) first promised many years before. Though most persons among the States General judged, that the convocation (of a Synod) was not to be deferred any longer, and even themselves urged it: yet because the delegates of the province of Utrecht were absent, and those of Holland and West Friezland said, that they had not been furnished with mandates sufficiently clear as to that business, by those who delegated them; the matter was put off, until the delegates of all the provinces had agreed to it by their common suffrages, which was thenceforth hindered from being done, by the endeavor of the Remonstrants in Holland and Utrecht.

In the mean time, the Remonstrants did not desist from strenuously promoting their own cause, (or cease) to court (aucupari) the favor of the great men, to occupy the minds of the magistrates, to render suspected to the politicians and impede all synodical meetings, to seize on the vacant churches, to propagate their own opinion by sermons and public writings, to rail at the orthodox doctrine with horrid calumnies, to draw over the people to their party, and to alienate them more and more from the doctrine of the reformed churches. For this purpose they earnestly scattered pamphlets (libellos) in great number, among the common people, written in the vulgar tongue, under the titles of The Bells of a Conflagration,' (campanes incendiaria) A more compressed Declaration,' A more direct Way,' and others; in which they not only fought in defence of their own

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