History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

views avowedly as intermediate between the
Protestant and Roman systems, in the hope that
they might conciliate not a few members of the
latter Church, and lead to peace. The orthodox
party could not see that these benefits would flow
from the course their opponents were pursuing; on
the contrary, they believed that they could not stop
where they were -- that their views touching the
fall and the power of free-will must and would find
their logical development in a greater divergence
from the theology of the Protestant Churches, and
that by removing the great boundary-line between
the two theologies, they were opening the way for
a return to the Church of Rome; and hence the
exclanlation of Gomarus one day, after listening to
a statement of his views by Arminius, in the
University of Leyden. Rising up and leaving the
hall, he uttered these words: "Henceforward we
shall no longer be able to oppose Popery."[7]
Peace was the final goal which the
Remonstrants sought to reach; but the first-fruits of
their labors were schisms and dissensions. The
magistrates, sensible of the injury they were doing
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