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Official participation in the Synod of Dort, held in 1618–9 in Dordrecht in the Netherlands, consisted of different groups: Dutch ministers, church elders, and theologians; representatives of churches outside the Dutch Republic; and Dutch lay politicians. There were 14 Remonstrants who were summoned, in effect as defendants. There were also some observers, who had no voting status. Listings are usually given according to a traditional ordering for the provinces that begins with Gelderland; for the provincial synods Holland was divided into two, North and South. In the sources both Latinised names and spelling variants occur. Lists of those nominated to participate in some capacity differ from those who signed the final Acts of the Synod. Figures vary a little, but one total given is for 102 official participants. The outcome of the Synod was the most significant single event in the Calvinist-Arminian debate.

The Dutch members of the Synod were divided up by provincial synods (for the clerics and elders as delegates), or by provinces (for the lay members). Allowing for Holland as exception, the delegates were divided into ten "colleges": one for each of seven provinces, plus Drenthe; one for theological faculties; and one for the Walloon churches.

Dutch delegates

Dutch theologians

Delegates from Dutch provincial synods

Dutch lay commissioners

• Jacob de Witt (treasurer)

The commissioners by province were:

• Gelderland and Zutphen: Martinus Gregorius, Hendrik van Essen.
• Holland and West Friesland: Walrave de Brederode, Hugo Muys van Holy, Jacobus Boelens, Gerardus van Nieuburg, Rochus van Honaert, Nicholaas Krombout.
• Zealand: Symon Scotte, Jacobus van Kampe.
• Utrecht: Frederik van Zuylen, van Nieuveld, Willem Herteveld.
• Friesland: Ernestus van Aylva, Ernestus ad Harinksma.
• Overijssel: Hendrik van Haagen, Johannes van Hemerde.
• Groningen: Hieronimus Ysbrants, Efaart Jacob Clant, Daniel Heinsius.

Of these Gregorius, van Honaert, Krombout, and Ysbrands were doctors of both laws. The list of commissioners later signing the Acts of the Synod is somewhat different.

Remonstrants

A number of prominent Remonstrant ministers were cited to appear before the Synod, around 10% of the 200 identified Remonstrants at that time in the Dutch Reformed Church. Of those, a number were deprived of their church posts before the proceedings, which formed the latter part of the political and religious struggle that had been triggered in 1618, and which came to a head after the Synod closed. Only three Remonstrants were among the delegates (from Utrecht, two ministers and a church elder). Simon Episcopius emerged as leader of the group of Remonstrants who were summoned. His efforts to secure participation in the debates of the Synod for the group failed after extensive procedural discussion; the summoned Remonstrants were, however, required to remain in Dordrecht. With one exception they refused to subscribe to the required declaration at the end of the Synod, were expelled from the Church, and banished. In total around 70 Remonstrant ministers were banished in the aftermath of the Synod.

The 14 Remonstrants banished by the Synod were:

• Gelderland: Bernerus Wezekius, Henricus Hollingerus.
• South Holland: Simon Episcopius, Iohannes Arnoldi Corvinus, Bernardus Dwinglonius, Eduardus Popius, Theophilus Rickwaerdius.
• North Holland: Phillippus Pinakerus, Dominicus Sapma.
• Utrecht: Isaacus Frederici, Samuel Neranus.
• Overijssel: Thomas Goswinus, Assuerus Mathisius.
• Walloon churches: Carolus Niellius.

(These are the Latinised names as given, correcting two spellings.) Apart from the Utrecht representative ministers who were Remonstrants–Frederici and Naeranus–these clergy were therefore not full participants in the Synod at any point.

A baseline list of 13 names in Historie der Remonstranten (1774) by Jacobus Regenboog is of those Remonstrants who were summoned (and omitting the delegates Frederici and Naeranus from the Utrecht provincial synod):

• Gelderland: Henricus Leo of Bommel, Vezekius of Egteld, Hollingerus of Grave.
• South Holland: Episcopius, Arnoldi and Dwinglo of Leiden, Poppius of Gouda, Rykewaard of Brielle.
• North Holland: Pynakker of Alkmaar, Sapma of Hoorn.
• Overijssel: Gozuinus and Mathisius of Kampen.
• Walloon churches: Niellius of Utrecht.

It was Henricus Leo who was the sole Remonstrant of these summoned who signed the Act of Cessation (acte van stilstand) as required by the Synod, and escaped banishment. His absence from the first list gives numbers that tally.

There is a longer listing in the works of John Hales of those Remonstrants who were cited by the Synod (21 names, but 20 if Joannes Arnoldi and Corvinus are duplicates); this list includes names of ministers who were by other means removed from their posts. The breakdown by provinces is:

• Gelderland: Leo, Wezekius, Holderingus.
• South Holland: Adrianus Bozzius, Nicolaus Grevinchovius, Episcopius, Arnoldi, Poppius, Rickwardus.
• North Holland: Joannes Geysteranus, Sapma.
• Overijssel: Goswinius, Mathisius.
• Walloon churches: Simon Goulartius, Niellius.
• Utrecht: Utenbogardus, Corvinus, Duinghonius, Pinakerus, Neranus, Friderici.

Goulartius (Simon Goulart the Younger of Geneva, 1575–1628) the Remonstrant was the son of Simon Goulart of Senlis (1543–1628). Though summoned he had already been dismissed from his post.

Foreign representatives

There were 27 delegates who attended from outside the Dutch provinces. Two replacements were made during the Synod.

Great Britain

Imperial delegates

There was some consideration given to invitations to clergy from Reformed churches in the German principalities and cities of the Empire, with a view to being selective and distinguishing among types of nominally Calvinist church. Invitations were issued to: the Palatinate, Brandenburg, Hesse-Kassel, Nassau, East Friesland, Hanau. Anhalt was excluded. John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg declined to send a delegation; the Calvinist–Lutheran relationship in Brandenburg was fragile, and a diplomatic excuse was made. It was later alleged that Anhalt was not invited, for fear that the delegation would be pro-Remonstrant.

France

From France: None because the French government prohibited their attendance. A set of empty chairs was set up in the assembly in honor of the absent French Huguenots. Four delegates had been chosen by the National Synod: Daniel Chamier, Jean Chauve, Pierre Du Moulin and André Rivet.

Observers

Notes

1. Martin Mulsow, Jan Rohls, Socinianism and Arminianism: Antitrinitarians, Calvinists, and cultural exchange in seventeenth-century Europe (2005), p. 38; Google Books.
2. Israel p. 460.
3. ^ Methodist Review, Volume 10 (1828) p. 438; Google Books
4. ^ "Synod of Dort | Wesleyan Arminian". wesleyanarminian.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2014-09-26.
5. "Eilardus van Mehen". biografischportaal.nl. Retrieved 2014-09-26.
6. "Kerkrecht.NL - Kerkrecht.NL". Archived from the original on 2012-05-26. Retrieved 2011-10-11.
7. "Sebastiaan Damman". biografischportaal.nl. Retrieved 2015-04-10.
8. "Damman, Sebastiaan". thesaurus.cerl.org. Retrieved 2015-04-10.
9. Damman, Sebastian
10. ^ (in German) Article Dordrechter Synode in Gerhard Krause, Gerhard Müller (editors), Theologische Realenzyklopädie: Volume 9 (1993), p. 143; Google Books
11. Schroeder, C.J. (2001). In Quest of Pentecost: Jodocus Van Lodenstein and the Dutch Second Reformation. University Press of America. p. 9. ISBN 9780761819981.
12. ^ Schaff, p. 485; Google Books.
13. ^ (in Dutch) Staatkundige historie van Holland: Benevens de Maandelijksche Nederlandsche Mercurius (1774) Volumes 36-39 p. 13–5; Google Books.
14. Schaff, P. (1877). The Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Churches. Ccel. ISBN 9781610250399.
15. "Synod of Dort -The Subscribers;". reformedlayman.com. Retrieved 2014-09-26.
16. A Catalogue of an Invaluable and Highly Interesting Collection of Unpublished Manuscript Historical Documents ... The Entire Property of a Gentleman of the Highest Consideration in Holland ... which Will be Sold by Auction, by Mr. Sotheby, at His House, No. 3, Wellington Street, Strand, on Monday, May 30, 1825, and Six Following Days (Sunday Excepted), at Twelve O'clock. 1825. p. 112.
17. "reformationfiles.com". Retrieved 2014-09-26.
18. "Imagining the Synod of Dordt and the Arminian Controversy". Archived from the original on 2012-04-15. Retrieved 2015-04-10.
19. The Synod of Dort. "TrueCovenanter.com: The Judgment of the Synod Holden at Dort, Concerning the five Articles: As also their sentence touching Conradus Vorstius". truecovenanter.com. Retrieved 2014-09-26.
20. Jacobus Regenboog, Historie der Remonstranten, kortelyk vervattende de geschiedenissen der Gereformeerde Christenen, die men Remonstranten noemt (1774), p. 13; Google Books.
21. in note 17. (in Dutch)
22. (in Latin) John Hales, Peter Gunning, John Pearson, Golden Remains, of the Ever Memorable Mr. John Hales (1688), p. 553; Google Books.
23. K. A. E. Enenkel, Jan L. de Jong, Jeanine Landtsheer, Alicia Montoya, Recreating Ancient History: episodes from the Greek and Roman past in the arts and literature of the Early Modern Period (2001), p. 226; Google Books.
24. (in Dutch) Biografisch lexicon voor de geschiedenis van het Nederlands protestantisme
25. New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, article Dort, Synod of.
26. Cranfield, Nicholas W. S. "Carleton, George". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4671. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
27. Coffey, John. "Balcanquhall, Walter". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1151. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
28. Richard Watson, Nathan Bangs, A Biblical and Theological Dictionary Volume 1 (1832), p. 948; Google Books.
29. ^ James Isaac Good, The Origin of the Reformed Church in Germany (1887), p. 407; archive.org.
30. Milton, p. xviii note 2.
31. (in German) Dietrich Christoph von Rommel, Geschichte von Hessen, Volume 6 (1837), p. 587; Internet Archive.
32. Schaff.
33. Patterson, p. 193; Google Books.
34. Robert Peters, John Hales and the Synod of Dort, in G. J. Cuming, Derek Baker (editors), Councils and assemblies: papers read at the Eighth Summer Meeting and the Ninth Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society (1971), pp. 277–88; Google Books.
35. Cust, Richard. "Brinsley, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/3441. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
36. "Liebaert, Carolus". thesaurus.cerl.org. Retrieved 2015-04-10.
37. Lucius, Ludwig

References

• Peter Ymen De Jong (1968), Crisis in the Reformed Churches; Essays in commemoration of the great Synod of Dort 1618–1619
• Jonathan I. Israel (1998), The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall
• Anthony Milton (editor) (2005), The British Delegation and the Synod of Dort
• Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds ¶65: The Arminian Controversy; online text.
• Theologische Realenzyklopädie, Volume 9 (1982) (editors Horst Robert Balz, Gerhard Krause, Gerhard Müller) at p. 143, for a complete listing of delegates from outside the Netherlands; Google Books.

External links

• Media related to Participants in the Synod of Dort at Wikimedia Commons

• Participants in the Synod of Dort
• Lists of people associated with religion
• Arminianism