The Life of Hugo Grotius written by Charles Butler

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Unfortunately for the success of the embassy of Grotius, two envoys from
some of the Protestant states in Germany had previously signed a treaty
with France, which was generally considered by the confederates to be
injurious to their interests.

[Sidenote: Embassy of Grotius to the Court of France.]

The first interview of Grotius with the Cardinal took place on the 28th
March. During their conference, a dispatch arrived from Oxenstiern to
Grotius: it was immediately put into his bands, by the Cardinal's
desire. It announced a resolution, taken by the Chancellor, to repair to
Paris, and that he was actually on his journey thither. Richelieu was
displeased: but he determined to give the chancellor the most
honourable and flattering reception. On the 21st of April, Grotius met
Oxenstiern at Soissons: they proceeded together to Paris. Conferences
between the Cardinal and the Chancellor immediately took place. The
matter in discussion between the courts were soon arranged: France
undertook to declare war against the emperor, to subsidize Sweden, and
to send an army to co-operate with her forces in Germany. It has always
been considered highly creditable to the firmness and talents of
Oxenstiern, that, in the reduced condition of the Swedes, he could
obtain for them such advantageous terms. Immediately after the treaty
was signed, the Chancellor quitted France. During his stay, he shewed a
marked attention to Grotius, and expressed unqualified approbation of
his conduct and views.

The arms of Sweden again triumphed. In Pomerania, General Bannier
obtained important advantages over the imperialists; in Alsace, the arms
of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar were equally successful. In the following
year, the two victorious generals carried their arms into the heart of
the Austrian territories, and, were almost uniformly successful.

[Sidenote: CHAP. XI. 1634-1645.]

But it is foreign to these pages to dwell further on the military
achievements or political intrigues of the times of which we are
speaking. Humanity shudders at the perusal of the events of this war.
Through the whole of its long period, Germany was a scene of
devastation. In its northern and central parts, the ravages of advancing
and retreating armies were repeatedly experienced in their utmost
horrors: many of its finest towns were destroyed; whole villages
depopulated; large territories laid waste. Frequently the women, the
children, and the aged, naked, pale, and disfigured, were seen wandering
over the fields, supporting themselves by the leaves of trees, by wild
roots, and even grass. The war extended itself into Lorraine: an
affecting account of the calamities, which it produced in that beautiful
province, was published by Father Caussin, who accompanied Lewis XIII
into it, as his confessor.

[Sidenote: Embassy of Grotius to the Court of France.]

Struck with the scene of woe, St. Vincent of Paul, an humble missionary
priest, who, at that time, resided at Paris, requested an audience of
Cardinal de Richelieu. Being admitted, he represented to his eminence,
with respect, but with firmness, the misery of the people, the sins, and
all the other enormities, which are the usual consequences of war: he
then fell upon his knees, and in a voice, equally animated by grief and
charity, "Sir!" he said to the Cardinal "have mercy upon us! Have
compassion upon the world! Give us peace!" The stern and vindictive
genius of the Cardinal sunk before the man of God. He raised Vincent
from the ground. He told him, with much apparent benignity, that "the
general pacification of Europe was his great object, but that
unfortunately it did not depend on him alone; there being, both within
and without the kingdom, those who sought the contrary, and prevented
peace." Few ministers have shewn greater ability, or produced greater
public or private misery, than Richelieu. It may, on the other hand, be
doubted, whether, at the day of general retribution, when every child of
Adam will have to account for his works, even one will appear with more
numerous deeds of useful and heroic charity than St. Vincent of
Paul.[042]

[Sidenote: CHAP. XI. 1634-1645.]

The affairs of the important embassy entrusted to Grotius, prospered in
his hands. In his conduct, there was an uniform assemblage of prudence,
activity, moderation, and firmness. To the French monarch, he was always
acceptable--not always so to the cardinal minister. It was the constant
object of the latter, to delay the payments of the subsidies promised
to Sweden, or to make deductions from them; and to lessen the number of
soldiers, which France was bound, by treaty to supply. Sometimes by
blandishments, sometimes by loftiness, the minister or his agents
endeavoured to induce Grotius to sanction these irregularities: but
Grotius was always true to the interests of the country which he
represented: it does not appear, that the Cardinal gained a single point
against him. Towards the close of his embassy, Grotius succeeded in
renewing the treaty between Sweden and France, on terms which were
considered to do great honour to his diplomatic talents.

In the discharge of his embassy, Grotius had to sustain other
unpleasantnesses. His pension was not regularly paid: this often
subjected him to great inconveniences. He had disputes respecting rank
and ceremonial, both with the French ministry and the ambassadors of
other states. It must surprise an English reader to find, that Grotius
questioned the right of the English ambassador to precedence over him:
the French court often played one ambassador, against the other.

[Sidenote: Embassy of Grotius to the Court of France.]

In the midst of these troubles, Grotius preserved the serenity of his
mind; and his attachment to sacred and profane literature. He cultivated
the acquaintance of the learned and the good, of every communion; and
possessed their esteem and regard. His conduct as ambassador was always
approved by the Chancellor Oxenstiern, while he lived, and after his
decease, by his son and successor in his office. The Queen of Sweden was
equally favourable to Grotius; but she unadvisedly took an adventurer
into her confidence, and sent him, in an ambiguous character, to Paris.
This disgusted Grotius: and age and infirmities now thickened upon him.
He applied to the Queen for his recall. She granted it in the most
flattering terms, and desired him to repair immediately to Stockholm, to
receive, from her, distinguished marks of her favour. She wrote to the
Queen of France, a letter, in which she expressed herself in a manner
highly honourable to Grotius: she acknowledged her obligations to him
and protested that she never would forget them. This was towards the
month of March 1645.

[Sidenote: CHAP. XI. 1634-1645.]

About three years after this event, the war of thirty years was
concluded by the peace of Westphalia. France and the Protestant princes
of Europe dictated the terms: the Swedes were indemnified for their
charges of the war, by Pomerania, Steten, Rugen, Wismar and Verden: the
house of Brandenburgh obtained Magdeburgh, Halberstad, Minden and Camin;
Alsace was conquered, and retained by France; Lusatia, was ceded to
Saxony. The history of the treaty of Westphalia has been ably written by
_Father Bougeant_, a French Jesuit: some critics have pronounced it the
best historical work in the French language. Till the late revolution of
France, it was the breviary of all French aspirants to political
distinction.

CHAPTER XII.

THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS OF GROTIUS:--SOME OTHER OF HIS WORKS.

1. _Subsequent History of Arminianism_. 2. _Grotius's Religious
Sentiments_. 3. _His Projects of Religious Pacification_.

XII. 1.

_Subsequent History of Arminianism._

We left the Arminians under the iron arm of Prince Maurice:--He died in
1625:--We have mentioned, that Prince Frederick-Henry his brother, and
successor in the Stadtholderate, adopted more moderate councils in their
regard; that he recalled the Remonstrants, with some exceptions, from
banishment; that many settled at Amsterdam and Rotterdam; and that the
Arminians founded a college in the former city:--_Episcopius_ was its
first professor of theology:--it has never been without teachers, of
eminence for learning, as Courcelles, Pollemberg, Limborch, Le Clerc,
Cottemburgh, and Wetstein.

[Sidenote: CHAP. XII.]

It should be added, that the authority of the Synod of Dort insensibly
declined:--its authority was never formally acknowledged by the provinces
of _Friesland_, _Zealand_, _Utrecht_, _Gueldreland_ and
_Groeningen_: In 1651, they were induced to intimate that they would see
with pleasure, the reformed religion maintained upon the footing, upon
which it had been maintained and confirmed by the Synod of Dort; but
this intimation was never considered to have the force of a legislative
enactment.[043]

[Sidenote: XII.1. History of Arminianism.]

The theological system of the Arminians, after their return to Holland,
underwent, if we credit Dr. Mosheim,[044] a remarkable change. They
appear, by his account, to have almost coincided with those, who exclude
the necessity of divine grace in the work of conversion and
sanctification; and think that Christ demands from men, rather virtue
than faith; and has confined that belief, which is essential for
salvation, to very few articles. Thus the modern Arminians, according
to Dr. Mosheim, admit into their communion,--1st. All, with an exception
of Catholics, who receive the holy scriptures; and more especially the
New Testament; allowing at the same time to every individual, his own
interpretation of the sacred books:--2dly. All whose lives are regulated
by the law of God:--3dly. And all, who neither persecute nor bear ill
will towards those who differ from them in their religious sentiments.
Their _Confession of Faith_ was drawn up by Episcopius in 1622: four
divines of the established church of Holland published a _Refutation_ of
it: the authors of the _Confession_ replied to it in the following year,
by their _Apology_.

[Sidenote: CHAP. XII.]

James I. of England directed his theological representatives in the
Synod of Dort, to join the members in the condemnation of the doctrines
of Arminius:--but, when the English divines returned from that assembly,
and gave a full account of its proceedings, the King and the greatest
part of the English clergy expressed their dissatisfaction with them,
and declared that the sentiments of Arminius on the divine decrees, was
preferable to those of Calvin and Gomarus. By the exertions of
Archbishop Laud, and afterwards, in consequence of the general tendency
of the public mind to doctrines of mildness and comprehension, an
Arminian construction of the English articles on predestination and
free-will was adopted:--it has since prevailed,--and the Arminian creed,
by the number of its secret or open adherents, has insensibly found
admittance into every Protestant church.

[Sidenote: History of Arminianism.]

If we believe the celebrated Jurieu[045], Arminianism even in its
Socinian form, abounded, in less than a century, after the death of
Arminius, in the United Provinces, and among the Hugonots of the
adjacent part of France. By his account, the dispersion of the French
Hugonots, in consequence of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
revealed to the terrified reformers of the original school, the alarming
secret of the preponderance of Socinianism in the reformed church. Its
members, according to Jurieu, being no longer under the controul of the
civil power, spread their Socinian principles every where, with the
utmost activity and success: even in England, Jurieu professed to
discover the effect of their exertions. He mentions that in 1698,
thirty-four French refugee ministers residing in London addressed a
letter to the synod, then sitting at Amsterdam, in which they declared,
that Socinianism had spread so rapidly, that, if the ecclesiastical
assemblies supplied no means for checking their growth, or used
palliatives only, the mischief would be incurable.

[Sidenote: CHAP. XII.]

This charge, however, the Arminians have indignantly rejected. A writer
in the _Bibliotheque Germanique_[046] relates, that

"the celebrated Anthony Collins called on M. Le Clerc of Amsterdam:
He was accompanied by some Frenchmen, of the fraternity of those,
who think freely. They expected to find the religious opinions of
Le Clerc in unison with their own, but, they were surprised to find
the strong stand which he made in favour of revelation. He proved
to them, with great strength of argument, the truth of the
Christian religion. Jesus Christ, he told them, was born among the
Jews; still, it was not the Jewish religion which he taught;
neither was it the religion of the Pagan neighbourhood; but, a
religion infinitely superior to both. One sees in it the most
striking marks of divinity. The Christians, who followed, were
incapable of imagining any thing so beautiful. Add to this, that
the Christian religion is so excellently calculated for the good of
society, that, if we did not derive so great a present from heaven,
the good and safety of men would absolutely demand from them an
equivalent."

Throughout the conversation, M. Le Clerc reproached the Deists strongly,
for the hatred, which they shewed to Christianity. He proved, that, by
banishing it from the world,

"they would overturn whatever was most holy and respectable among
men; break asunder the surest bonds of humanity; teach men to shake
off the yoke of law; deprive them of their strongest incitement to
virtue, and bereave them of their best comfort. What," (he asked
them) "do you substitute in its place? Can you flatter yourself,
that you will discover something better? You expect, no doubt, that
men will erect statues to you, for your exertions to deprive them
of their religion! Permit me to tell you, that the part you act
makes you odious and despicable in the eyes of all honest men."

He finished the conversation by requesting Mr. Collins to bring him no
more such visitors.

[Sidenote: XII. 1. History of Arminians.]

From the close of the 17th century, till the present time, Arminianism
has been continually on the increase. It is a just observation of Mr.
Gibbon, that "the disciples of Arminius must not be computed by their
separate congregations."

Doctor Maclaine says, it is certain, that the most eminent philosophers
have been found among the Arminians. "If both Arminians and Calvinists,"
says Mr. Evans, in the excellent work we have cited,

"claim a _King_ (_James_ I.), it is certain that the latter alone
can boast of a _Newton_, a _Locke_, a _Clarke_, or a _Boyle_.
Archbishop _Usher_ is said to have lived a _Calvinist_; and died an
_Arminian_. The members of the episcopal church in Scotland; the
Moravians, the general Baptists, the Wesleyan Methodists, the
Quakers or Friends, are Arminians; and it is supposed that a great
proportion of the Kirk of Scotland teach the doctrines of Arminius,
though they have a Calvinistic confession of faith. What a pity it
is that the opinions either of Calvinists or Arminians,"

--(we beg leave to add: or any other Catholic or Protestant opinions
whatsoever)--

"cannot in the eyes of some persons be held without a diminution of
Christian charity!"

XII. 2.

_Grotius's Religious Sentiments_.

[Sidenote: CHAP. XII.]

To the milder form of Arminianism, Grotius always inclined. During his
embassy in France, he adopted it without reserve. He was soon disgusted
with the French Calvinists. The ministers of Charenton accepted the
decisions of the Synod of Dort, and, in conformity with them, refused,
when Grotius repaired to Paris, after his escape from Louvestein, to
admit him into their communion. On his arrival at Paris, in quality of
ambassador, they offered to receive him: Grotius expressed pleasure at
the proposal; and, intimated to them, that if he should go into any
country, in which the Lutherans, knowing his sentiments on the sacrament
of our Lord's Supper, should be willing to receive him into their
communion, he would make no difficulty in joining them. Thus every thing
appeared to be settled; but the ministers then objected to receive
Grotius as ambassador from Sweden, because that kingdom was Lutheran.
Grotius, upon this, resolved to have the divine service performed in his
house. Lutherans publicly attended it. "We have celebrated," he writes
to his brother, "the Feast of the Nativity in my house: the Duke of
Wirtemberg, the Count de Saxenburgh, and several Swedish and German
lords, attended at it." His first chaplain was imprudent, his second
gave him great satisfaction.

[Sidenote: XII. 2. Grotius' Religious Sentiments.]

Burigni has collected, in the last chapter of his Life of Grotius, a
multitude of passages, which shew his gradual leaning to the Roman
Catholic faith. He produces several passages from his works, which
prove,--

_That_ he paid high regard to decisions of the councils, and the
discipline of the primitive church; and thought the sentiments of the
antient church should be deferred to, in the explanation of the
Scriptures: [047]

_That_, the early reformers were held by him in no great esteem:[048]

_That_, mentioning Casaubon's sentiments, Grotius said that this learned
man thought the Roman Catholics of France better informed than those of
other countries, and came nearer to truth than the ministers of
Charenton:--

"It cannot," says Grotius, "be denied, that there are several Roman
Catholic pastors here, who teach true religion, without any mixture
of superstition; it were to be wished that all did the same:"[049]

_That_ the Calvinists were schismatics, and had no mission:[050]

[Sidenote: CHAP. XII.]

_That_ the Jesuits were learned men and good subjects. "I know many of
them," he says, in one of his writings against Rivetus, "who are very
desirous to see abuses abolished, and the church restored to its
primitive unity."--We shall hereafter see that Father Petau, an
illustrious member of the society, possessed the confidence of
Grotius:[051]

_That_, Grotius looked upon the abolition of episcopacy and of a visible
head of the church, as something very monstrous:[052]

_That_, he acknowledged that some change was made in the eucharistic
bread; that, when Jesus Christ, being sacramentally present, favours us
with his substance,--as the Council of Trent expresses its doctrine on
the Eucharist,--the appearances of bread and wine remain, and in their
place succeed the body and blood of Christ: [053]

[Sidenote: XII. 2. Grotius's Religious Sentiments.]

_That_, Grotius did not approve of the sentiments of the Calvinists
concerning the Eucharist, and reproached them with their contradiction.

"You will hear them state in their confessions," says Grotius,
"that they really, substantially and essentially partake of
Christ's body and his blood; but, in their disputes, they maintain
that Christ is received only spiritually, by faith. The antients
go much further: they admit a real incorporation of Jesus Christ
with us, and the reality of Christ's body, as Saint Hilarius
speaks."

It must however be remarked that, although Grotius thought that the term
_Transubstantiation_ adopted by the council of Trent, was capable of a
good interpretation, it is not clear, what was his precise opinion
respecting the Eucharist. He proposed the following formulary:

"We believe that, in the use of the supper, we truly, really, and
substantially,--that is to say,--in its proper substance,--receive
the true body and the true blood of Jesus Christ, in a spiritual
and ineffable manner: [054]"

_That_, Grotius justified the decision of the Council of Trent,
concerning the number of the sacraments:[055]

_That_, after the year 1640, he took no offence at the use of images in
churches, or at prayers for the dead:[056]

_That_, he thought the bishops of Rome may be in error, but cannot long
remain in it, if they adhere to the universal church;--this seems to
presuppose the church's infallibility:[057]

[Sidenote: CHAP. XII.]

_That_ in the opinion of Grotius; fasting was early used in the church;
the observance of Lent was a very early practice: the sign of the cross
had something respectable in it; the fathers held virginity a more
perfect state than marriage; and the celibacy of the priests conformable
to the antient discipline of the church:[058]

And

"that those, who shall read the decrees of the Council of Trent,
with a mind disposed to peace, will find that every thing is wisely
explained in them: and agreeable to what is taught by the
Scriptures and the antient fathers."[059]

It is certain, that Grotius was intimate with Father Petau, a Jesuit,
inferior to none of his society, in genius and learning; that the good
father used all his endeavours to convert Grotius to the Roman Catholic
religion; and was, at length, so much persuaded of his friend's
catholicity, that, when he heard of his death, he said prayers for the
repose of his soul.[060]

[Sidenote: XII. 3. His Project of Religious Pacification.]

As the religion of Grotius was a problem to many, Menage wrote the
following Epigram upon it: the sense of it is, that--

"As many sects claimed the religion of Grotius, as the towns, which
contended for the birth of Homer."

_Smyrna, Rhodos, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athenae,
Siderei certant vatis de patria Homeri:
Grotiadae certant de religione, Socinus,
Arrius, Arminius, Calvinus, Roma, Lutherus_.

XII. 3.

_Grotius's Project of Religious Pacification._

A wish for religious peace among Christians grew with the growth and
strengthened with the strength of Grotius. It was known, before his
imprisonment at Louvestein, that he entertained these sentiments: he
avows them in the dedication to Lewis XIII. of his treatise _de Jure
Belli et Pacis_.

"I shall never cease," he says in a letter to his brother,[061] "to
use my utmost endeavours for establishing peace among Christians;
And, if I should not succeed, it will be honourable to die in such
an enterprise." "I am not the only one, who has conceived such
projects," he writes in another letter to his brother:[062]
"Erasmus, Cassander; Wicelius and Casaubon had the same design. La
Meletiere is employed at present in it. Cardinal de Richelieu
declares that he will protect the coalition; and he is such a
fortunate man, that he never undertakes any thing, in which he
does not succeed. If there were no hopes of success at present,
ought we not to sow the seed, which may he useful to
posterity?[063] Even if we should only diminish the mutual hatred
among Christians, and render them more sociable, would not this be
worth purchasing at the price of some labour and reproaches?"[064]

Grotius expressed himself in similar terms to Baron Oxenstiern: Surely
it is the true language of the Gospel.

[Sidenote: CHAP. XII.]

In the first appendix to this work,--we shall insert, an account

"of the Formularies, Confessions of Faith, and Symbolic Books, of
the Roman Catholic, Greek, and principal Protestant churches:"--

In the second appendix,--we shall insert an account of the principal
attempts made, since the Reformation, for the re-union of
Christians.--The former is abridged from the "Historical and Literary
Account of the Confessions of Faith," which was formerly published by
the present writer;--the second is an essay appended to that work:--both
have been before referred to in the present publication.

[Sidenote: XII. 3. His Project of Religious Pacification.]

Grotius[065] thought that the most compendious way to produce universal
religious peace among Christians, would be to frame, with the
concurrence of all the orthodox Eastern and Western churches, a
formulary which should express, briefly and explicitly, all the articles
of faith, the belief of which they agree in thinking essential to
salvation. In a letter addressed from Paris in 1625,[066] he mentions
that Gustavus Adolphus had entertained projects of religious
pacification, and had taken measures to effect it; that he had procured
a meeting of divines of the Lutheran and Reformed churches and that they
had separated amicably: Grotius says that the differences between them
were as slight as those between the Greek and Coptic churches.

For some time, Grotius flattered himself that he should succeed in his
project of pacification. In one of his letters to his brother, he
mentions distinguished Protestants, who approved and encouraged them

"I perceive," he says, "that by conversing with men of the most
learning among the reformed, and explaining my sentiments to them,
they are of my opinion; and that their number will increase, if my
treatises are dispersed. I can truly affirm, that I have said
nothing in them from party spirit, but followed truth as closely as
I could."[067]

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