Ordinum Pietas (1613), Its Context and Seventeenth-Century Reception

GROTIANA Grotiana 34 (2013) 7–10 brill.com/grot

Introduction Dossier: Ordinum pietas (1613), its Context and Seventeenth-Century Reception

Hans W. Bloma and Harm-Jan van Damb a) Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam / Universität Potsdam Email: [email protected] b) VU University Amsterdam Email: [email protected]

On 13 and 14 June, 2013 the Peace Palace Library (The Hague) hosted a conference in celebration of the 400th anniversary of one of the most controversial publications of Hugo Grotius, written during the eventful years of the Twelve Years’ Truce. The story is well-known: in 1611, during the rising tensions of the religious conflict between Arminians and Gomarists over the control of the Reformed Church, the University of Leiden appointed – with the support of the States of Holland – a controversial theologian as successor of Jacobus Arminius: the Steinfurt professor Conrad Vorstius (1569-1622), erstwhile student in Heidelberg and Geneva, whose Steinfurt publications made him to be suspected of the heresy of Socinianism. The Dutch theologian Sibrandus Lubbertus (1555-1625) had started planning a critique of Socinianism some ten years before, and cor- responded with Gomarus and Junius about it. In 1603, David Pareus wrote Lubbertus from Heidelberg about the Socinian leanings of Vorstius in his Theses de trinitate, and about Socinianism in general, and so in 1611 Lubbertus vehemently opposed Vorstius’s appointment. The States of Holland didn’t want to give in, and our Hugo was the one to reply to Lubbertus: this was the tract Der Staten Godsdienstigheid etc. as Ordinum pietas was titled in the Dutch translation of Johannes Uyttenbogaert. The book proved to be oil on the fire, Lubbertus replied and the conflict ended with a defeat of the States of Holland, who had to see Vorstius leave Leiden even before taking office.

For Grotius Ordinum pietas was the step towards his more theoretical De imperio circa sacra, on the relationship between church and state. The lat- ter, however, was only published posthumously, in 1647. In Ordinum pietas we find Grotius discussing the Fathers, i.a. Augustine, on predestination, and in general stating his views on the freedom to preach, emphasizing that the Christian church is a public church since its establishment under the Emperor Constantine in 313. Professor Silke-Petra Bergjan (Zurich University) traced this background in her contribution, and detailing the scholarship that was available to and used by Grotius, she argued that in Ordinum pietas we see how Grotius used his sources – with the help of his friend Vossius – to justify semi-Pelagianism (defence of free will), as well as the five fundamental articles of Arminianism. At the other end of the time line, Professor Bas de Gaay Fortman (Utrecht University) commemorated Ordinum Pietas in his keynote lecture ‘Between Principles and Practice. Grotius’s views on Church and State in a Con temporary Context’, discussing the significance of Ordinum pietas for our present times. In his view, it belongs to the foundational texts for a tolerant and respectful integration of religions into modern society, in the tradition of the Edict of Nantes, the Act of Toleration and the American Constitution. The conference opened with a personal reflection by the editor of Ordinum pietas, professor Edwin Rabbie (Erasmus University), considering the occasion of this edition, as well as the changed technical conditions and editorial principles for early-modern text edition. As professor Rabbie related, in particular Hans Posthumus Meyjes’s discovery of the manuscript of Grotius’s Meletius and its subsequent edition in 1985, mark a renewed interest in Grotius as theologian and writer on church politics in the post- war period. In 1613, an important reason for the composition of Ordinum pietas was to justify the States of Holland to King James, an aim that was partially pre-empted by a secret action of the Regent of the States’ College at Leiden University, Petrus Bertius, who provided the English king with a copy even before it was printed. Later English reactions to Ordinum pietas were discussed at the conference in lectures by Dr. Hugh Dunthorne (Swansea University) and Dr. Charles Prior (University of Hull). The discussions between Arminianism and orthodox Calvinism in the 1610s were connected to the religious debate in German Protestantism, as the Vorstius case demonstrates. Franciscus Junius, one of Grotius’s teachers in Leiden, had been in Heidelberg where Thomas Erastus developed ideas on church-state relations later known as Erastianism, and another important person involved in the conflict, the Pensionary of the States, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, had been a student in Heidelberg in about the same