Introduction

1 The Synopsis as Handbook of Scholastic Reformed Theology

This bilingual edition of the Synopsis Purioris Theologiae makes available for the first time to English readers a seminal treatise of Reformed Scholasticism. Composed by four professors of , it gives an exhaustive yet concise presentation of Reformed theology as it was conceived in the first decades of the seventeenth century. During the remainder of the seventeenth century, the Synopsis had a prominent place as a theological handbook for use in training Reformed ministers in the Netherlands. The following Introduction gives a brief sketch of the historical and literary background of the Synopsis. (A more detailed account of the historical and theological contexts will be provided in Volume 3.) Next, an outline is given of the theological topics covered in the first 23 disputations of this volume, and important aspects of scholastic methodology and conceptuality are pointed out. The Introduction closes with some practical features of this edition. Originally the Synopsis Purioris Theologiae consisted of a cycle of public dis- putations held in the Leiden theology faculty from 1620 to 1624.1 In 1596 this fac- ulty had started a cycle of disputations that covered all the topics of Reformed dogmatics, and during the next thirteen years the cycle was repeated five times. After the death of Jacobus Arminius (1609) and the departure of (1611), the theological faculty of Leiden had been shaken by the eccle- siastical difficulties that would be resolved by the (1618/19). Fol- lowing Dort’s rejection of the Remonstrant teachings on grace and predestina- tion, the Remonstrant spokesman (1583–1643) was removed from his teaching post, and new professors were appointed to join (1568–1646), who was then the only professor of theology. Toward the end of 1619, Antonius Walaeus (1572–1639) and Antonius Thysius (1565– 1640) delivered their inaugural lectures at Leiden. The first disputation of a new cycle was defended on 6 February 1620, with Johannes Polyander presiding. For the first nine disputations Polyander, Walaeus and Thysius composed the the- ses and presided in turn, as was the custom in disputation cycles. In the fall of 1620, Andreas Rivetus (1573–1651) was added to the theological faculty, and

1 For more details on the theological disputations at Leiden, see Donald Sinnema and Henk van den Belt, “The Synopsis Purioris Theologiae (1625) as a Disputation Cycle,” Church History and Religious Culture 92.4 (2012): 506–513, 515–519.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2015 | doi: 10.1163/9789004282469_002 2 introduction immediately joined the cycle of public disputations started by his colleagues. From disputation ten on the four colleagues presided in this order: Polyander, Rivetus, Walaeus, Thysius.2 Reformed scholastic theology as presented in the Synopsis has a multi- faceted character that is reflected in features of the text. It arises from an eccle- siastical background in the Reformed churches that were established in the Netherlands in the middle of the sixteenth century, and that had experienced a process of consolidation and conflict between 1570 and 1620. As the word “purer” in the title of the Synopsis points out, the authors position themselves explicitly in line with the orthodox Reformed teaching that had been articu- lated at the great Synod of Dort in 1618–1619. The newly appointed faculty at Leiden thought it important to display theological unity. For that reason the four professors mostly acted jointly, and so prevented the rise of disagreements within the theological faculty.3 From their decidedly Reformed perspective they defined their Christian doctrine in contrast with alternative or opposite views. At the same time, the Synopsis should be understood as a properly aca- demic handbook of theology. The Leiden professors entered the arena of aca- demic theology, and gave an account of the substantial and methodological presuppositions of their position. Familiar with discussions and opinions of their own time, well-versed in literatures ranging from classical antiquity and the early church to medieval theology and the Reformation, they argued their views in a concise but pointed way with clarity, precision, and logical reason- ing. Both on the academic level and on the ecclesiastical level, the Synopsis responds to challenges coming from the immediate context of the early seven- teenth century. One century after the Reformation began, the Catholic church still posed enormous intellectual and practical challenges to the emerging Reformed churches. Groups that were labeled as Anabaptists, Spiritualists, or Libertines, presented alternative modes of belief and behavior from an entirely different perspective that could not be ignored by the Reformed theologians in the Netherlands. In addition to these more recognizable ecclesiastical frontiers,

2 See Sinnema and Van den Belt, “Disputation Cycle,” 517–519. More information on the four professors and on the academic context in which they were teaching appears in Volume 3. 3 Walaeus’s son reported later that the professors were concerned to avoid division within the theological faculty. They even decided not to pass their judgments on a controversy separately, but only together as colleagues; no theses were to be disputed publicly unless all colleagues had seen and approved them. See “Vita Antonii Walaei,” in Antonius Walaeus, Opera Omnia (Leiden, 1647), 1:[27].