historical and political thought in the seventeenth - RePub - Erasmus ...

Chapter 3. Biography
Besides their differences on the subject of predestination the two camps
were divided on other issues as well. The Remonstrants wanted room for both
their religious views and those of the Counter-Remonstrants within one public
church, the authority over which they placed in the hands of the political
authorities. The Counter-Remonstrants staunchly opposed such ideas. Their
ideal was one public church with one common confession that was free from
political interference, especially in matters concerning doctrines of faith.
In 1618/19 the conflict came to a dramatic end. Backed by a vague resolution
of the States General ‘to do what was necessary “for the service, security,
peace and prosperity of the lands”’ Maurits succeeded to defeat the opposition
in Holland. 47 Oldenbarnevelt, with whom Maurits had also differed on
foreign policy, was arrested and executed on a scaffold outside the Ridderzaal
in The Hague. Grotius was sentenced to a lifelong imprisonment at castle
Loevenstein, but in 1621 he managed to escape and fled to Paris. 48
At Leiden the town council was purged of Remonstrants after which the
town became a stronghold of the Counter-Remonstrants. Remonstrants were
actively prosecuted, especially by Willem de Bont (c.1588-1646), professor of
law at Leiden University and from 1619 until his death bailiff (schout) of Leiden.
49 The board of curators and burgomasters and the professor corps of Leiden
University were also purged. Among the victims were Cornelis van der
Mijle (1579-1642), curator and son-in-law of Oldenbarnevelt, Petrus Bertius
(1565-1629) and Caspar Barlaeus (1584-1648), both professors in the faculty of
arts, and Gerard Vossius, regent of the Staten-college, the college responsible
for the housing and education of poor theology students. Van der Mijle and
Vossius both returned, although Van der Mijle had to wait more than twentyone
years for his reinstatement as curator in 1640. Vossius had more luck: in
1622 he was appointed professor of eloquence and universal chronology. 50 To
47 Geert H. Janssen, Het stokje van Oldenbarnevelt. Verloren Verleden, Vol. 14 (Uitgeverij Verloren;
Hilversum, 2001), p. 64. ‘… te doen wat “voor dienst, verseeckerheyt, rust ende welvaert van de landen”
noodzakelijk was.’ The States General had taken this step in secret, without informing or consulting the
deputies of the States of Holland. Ibidem. See also A.Th. van Deursen, Maurits van Nassau, 1567-1625: de
winnaar die faalde (Uitgeverij Bert Bakker; Amsterdam, 2000), pp. 265, 314, with reference on the latter.
48 For further details, see Israel, The Dutch Republic, pp. 421-77. For some more recent views, see
A.Th. van Deursen, De last van veel geluk: de geschiedenis van Nederland, 1555-1702 (Uitgeverij Bert Bakker;
Amsterdam, 2004), pp. 191-213, and Maarten Prak, The Dutch Republic in the Seventeenth Century: The
Golden Age. Translated by Diane Webb (Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, 2005), pp. 29-37.
49 Simon Groenveld and J.A.F. de Jongste, “Bestuur en beleid”, in Groenveld (ed.), Leiden, Vol. 2,
pp. 55, 65-66, and Jan Wim Buisman, “Kerk en samenleving”, in ibidem, pp. 131-43, esp. pp. 136-38.
50 For Van der Mijle, see H.A.W. van der Vecht, Cornelis van der Myle (Klein; Sappemeer, 1907), pp.
134-35, and Album scholasticum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae MDLXXV-MCMXL. Samengesteld door C.A.
Siegenbeek van Heukelom-Lamme; met medewerking van O.C.D. Idenburg-Siegenbeek van Heukelom
(E.J. Brill; Leiden, 1941), p. 109. For Vossius, see Cor Rademaker, Leven en werk van Gerardus Joannes Vossius
(1577-1649) (Uitgeverij Verloren; Hilversum, 1999), p. 131; Wickenden, G.J. Vossius and the Humanist
Concept of History, pp. 6-8; Album scholasticum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae MDLXXV-MCMXL, p. 168.
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