The Life of John of Barneveld, 1609-15, Volume I.

a Public Fact-Struggl

ical Orders-Dispute

I. at the Appointmen

-Hague Conference-C

Points to the Remon

throughout the Coun

in neutral, but finds

Party-The States of H

tates-General Contra

gue-Three Armies to t

esta

lic fact, and theological hatred was

e ecclesiastical arrangements of 1591 great power was conceded to the civil authority in church matters, especially in regard to such app

1612 it had been resolved by the States of Holland that each city or village should, if the magistracy

be prolonged to the end of time-the struggle for power between the sacerdotal and political o

clared that no difference of opinion in the Church existed sufficient to prevent fraternal harmony and happiness. But Gomarus loudly declared that, if there were no means of putting down the heresy of Arminius, there would before long be a struggle such as would set province against province, village against village, family against family, throughout the land. He should be afraid to die in such doctrine. He shuddered that any one should dare to come before God's tribunal with such blasphemies. Mean

election filled to the brim the cup of bitterness, for no man was more audaciously latitudinarian than he. He was even suspected of Socinianism. There came a shriek from King James, fierce and shrill enough to rouse Arminius from his grave. James foamed to the mouth at the insolence of the overseers in appointing such a monster of infidelity to the professorship. He ordered his books to be publicly burned in St.

s? He ordered the States-General to chase the blasphemous monster from the land, or else he would cut off all connection with their false and heretic ch

ter Plancius and many orthodox preachers, echoing the wrath of the King. He lived at Gouda in a private capacity for se

called a Remonstrance, addressed to the States of Holland, and defending themselves from the repr

eter, because for a long time he had been Prince Maurice's favourite preacher, was placed in the hands

d exhorted to fraternal compromise. Until further notice, they decreed that no m

his grace believe in Jesus Christ, and in faith and obedience so continue to

vertheless, that no one actually exce

himself, nor out of his free will, but

completion of man's salvation; all good deeds must

o overcome evil; but whether they cannot lose grace should be mo

n this point, and declared that a true believer, throu

achers had drawn up a Contra-Remonstrance of Sev

Five and Seven Points, or the sending of them to foreign universities for arbitrati

tury was called the platform of the two great parties: a term which has been pe

e the Sev

no more power to believe and Convert itself than a dead man to restore himself to life, in order to make them bles

-grown believers, are to be considered as elect so

elect; but, on the contrary, in His eternal and unchangeable design, has resol

whose sufferings, although sufficient for the expiation of all men's sins, neverth

ly Ghost, of strength upon their minds; so that they not merely obtain power to

e become repentant and believing, are kept in such wise that they indeed through wea

d in Christ should bring forth no fruits of thankfulness; the promises of God's help and the warnings of Scripture tending to make their sal

eological and supernatural contemplation, where the atmosphere becomes too rarefied for ordinary constitutions. Rather we attempt an object

to the Commonwealth be kept separate, did not tend quite as much to lower and contaminate the religious sentiments as to elevate the political idea. To mix habitually the solemn

is more difficult to catch than to comprehend the broader

had puzzled even his royal mind. Barneveld modestly disclaimed the power of seeing with absolute clearness into things beyond the reach of the human intellec

re was ever to be found the fierce wrangle of Remonstrant and Contra-Remonstrant, the hissing of red-hot theological rhetoric, the pelting of hostile texts. The blacksmith's iron cooled on the anvil, the tinker dropped a kettle half mended, the broker left a bargain unclinched, the Scheveningen fisherman in his wooden shoes forgot the cracks in

ing all who had wandered from the ancient fold or resisted foreign tyranny to the axe, the faggot, the living grave. There had been small leisure then for men who fought for Fa

the controlling influence was Remonstrant; but Amsterdam and four or five other cities of that province held to the opposite doctrine. These cities formed therefore a small minority in the State

ested on the complete submission of the States of Holland to his will, was tottering. The battle-line between Church an

tate manifesto, that My Lords the States-General were the foster-fathers and the nat

hes made up one indivisible church, seated above the States, whether Provincial o

the lead of the Advocate, the scene was changed. A majority of the Provinces being Contra-Remonstrant,

must be one church-the Church of Geneva and Heidelberg-if that theocracy which the Gomarites meant to establish was not to vanish as a dream. It was founded on Divine Right, and knew no chief magistra

vile Arminian heresy might perhaps be declared correct. It was now however a matter of certainty that the S

was not undertaken to maintain one sect; that men of various sects and creeds had fought with equal valour against t

seemed a doctrine by which mankind were not regarded as saved or doomed according to belief or deeds, but as individuals d

ad so heroically fought for two generations long for liberty against an almost superhuman despotism, now howlin

arried by a pig than a parson. For this sparkling epigram he was punished by the Remonstrant magistracy with loss of his citizenship for a year and the right to practise his trade for life. A casuistical tinker, expressing himself violently in the same city against the Fiv

ince of Orange, I

en the Inquisition of

orfeit the prize that he had drawn in the lottery, and

parties in the Reformed Church. For it was the Remonstrants who had possession of the churches at Rotterdam, and the printer's distich is valuable as pointing out that the name of Orange was beginning to identify itself with the Contra-Remonstrant faction. At this time, on the other hand, the gabble that Barneveld had bee

ing saved from damnation through repentance and the grace of God, he must i

currence. Clergymen, suspected of the Five Points, were driven out of the pulpits with bludgeons or assailed with brickbats at the church door. At Amsterdam, Simo

e miles distant. Seven hundred Contra-Remonstrants of the Hague followed their beloved pastor, and, as the roads to Ryswyk were muddy and sloppy in winter, acquired the unsavoury nickname of the "Mud Beggars." The vulgarity of heart which suggested the appellation does not inspire to-day great sympathy with the Remonstrant party, even if one were inc

brought about by synods, but by kings, princes, and magistrates." It was the same eternal story, the same terrible two-edged wea

e saved and who damned. By His decree some are drawn to faith and godliness, and, being drawn, can nev

their sins and put their faith in Christ, and will give them eternal life, but will punish those who remain impenitent. Moreov

the Reformed Church had been torn into two very unequal parts. But it is difficult to believe that out of this arid field of controversy so plentiful a harvest of hatred and civil convulsion could hav

oints obtain the mastery? Should that framework of hammered iron, the Confession and Catechism, be maintained in all its rigidity

blic through his influence over one province, prescribing its religious dogmas and laying down its laws; or had not the time come for the St

d, did his best in the terrible emergency. He conferred with Prince Maurice on the subject of the Ryswyk secession, and men said tha

up the fateful three from whom deadly disasters were deemed to have come upon the Commonwealth. He wished to remain neutral. But no man can be n

These are matters of theology which I don't und

predestination, whether it is green or whether it is blue; but I do

d strong intellectual powers. He was a regular attendant on divine worship, and was accustomed to hear daily religious discussions. To avoid them indeed, he would have been obliged not only to fly his country, but to leave Europe. He had a profound reverence for the memory of his father, Calbo y Calbanista, as William the Silent had called himself. But the great prince had died

Orange-Nassau, was stronger than any other possible combination. Instinctively and logically therefore the Stadholder found himself the chieftain of the

er refused to let him go, fearing his influence in other places. "There is stuff in him," said Maurice, "to outweigh half a dozen Contra-Remonstrant preachers." Everywhere in Holland the opponents of the Five Points refused to go to the churches, and set up tabernacles for themselves in barns, outhouses, canal-boats. And the authorities in town and village nailed up the barn-doors, and dispersed the canal boat congregations, whi

rved that these differences could only be settled by force of arms. An ominou

e Five Points men who were driven into secession, whose barns were nailed up, and whose preachers were mobbed. A lugubrious spectacle, but less

ion-the organic law of the confederation made at Utrecht in 1579-each province reserved for itself full control of religious questions. It would indeed seem almost unimaginable in a country where not only every province, but every city, every municipal board, was so jeal

The States-General were Contra-Remonstrant by a still greater majority. The Church, rigidly attached to the Confession and Catechism, and refusing all change except through decree of a synod to

arty. The instinct of national self-preservation, repudiating the narrow and destructive

, and deciding that there was nothing objectionable in the doctrine of predestination therein set forth. He had recommended unity and peace in Church and

and it seemed possible that the Commonwealth might enjoy a few moments of tranquillity. That James had given a new exhibition of his

etract. But for the time being the course of politics had seemed running smoother. The acrimony of the relations between the English government and dominant party at the Hague was sensibly diminished. The King see

on of the sovereign authority, for our preachers understand that the disposal of ecclesiastical persons and affairs belongs to them, so that they alone are to appoint preachers, elde

s and King Philip even, as Counts of Holland, kept these rights to themselves, save that they in enfeoffing more than a hundred gentlemen, of noble and ancient families with seigniorial manors, enfeoffed them also wi

rical problem not to be solved offhand by vehement citations from Scriptu

ng sentiments as to passages of Holy Writ, or disputations concerning God's eternal predestination and other points thereupon depending. Of the

" wrote Barneveld to the ambassador in London, "at the best opportunity and with becoming compliments. You may be assured and assure his Majesty th

e of those commissioners, and, as will subsequently a

not well pleased that through other agency than his these letters have been written and presented. I think too that the ot

ment seemed quiet, the ort

ready discussed. You will keep a sharp eye on the sails and provide against the effect of counter-currents. To maintain the authority of their Great Mightinesses over ecclesiastical matters is more than necessary for the conservation of the country's welfare and of the true C

became as turbulent as the extreme Calvinists, and already hopes were entertained by Spanish emissaries and spies that this rapidly growing schism in

his Majesty for mutual toleration. The publication of the letters was done without order, but I believe with good intent, in the hope that the vehemence and exorbitance of some precise Puritans in our State should thereby be checked. That which

etained there by indisposition. The leave-taking was therefore by letter. He had done much to injure the cause which the Dutch statesman held vital to the Republic, and in so doing he had faithfully carried out the instructions of his master. Now that James had written these

parture of the value of L4000. I fear nevertheless that he, especially in religious matters, will not do the best offices. For besides that he is himself very hard and prec

intain the genuine Reformed religion, and oppose all novelties and impurities conflicting with it," and the Ambassador was instructed to see that

atriots whose faith and truth has so long been proved, to be abandoned, by the blessing of God, shall never be accomplished. Be of good heart, and cause these Flemish tricks to be understood on ev

e alliance between France and Spain had been arranged, and that the Pope, Spain, the Grand-duke of Tuscany, and their various adherents had organized a strong combination, and were enrolling large armies to take the field in the spring, against the Protestant League of the princes and electors in Germany. The great king was dead. The Queen

ettled by statutes of descent, expounded by doctors of law, and sustained, if needful, by a couple of comparatively bloodless campaigns. Those who looked more deeply into causes felt that the limitations of Imperial authority, the ambition of a great republic, suddenly starting into existence out of nothing, and the great issues of the rel

directed especially against the Netherlands, was to resume the campaign in the duchies, and to prevent any aid going to Protestant Germany from Great Britain or from Holland. Another in the Upper Palatinate was to make the chief movement against the Ev

to tear itself in pieces for a theological subtlety, about which g

municating a survey of European affairs at that moment to Car

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the very name of l

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the state or the sta

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was now artfully i

esaid Puritans a