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tient endurance, and boldness of enterprise, to which nothing in the history of modern times can furnish a parallel.* The details of the sufferings of the inhabitants of Leyden, during the siege of that city, with their unflinching fortitude and resolution, are such as would excite doubt, had they not been given both by friends and foes. From a nation of merchants and mechanics, the Belgians, by their love of freedom, and of the rights of conscience, were converted into heroes. The ruin designed to be inflicted upon them by the tyranny of Spain, their unbroken courage hurled back upon that haughty nation; and the blow they inflicted upon their merciless despots so effectually shook the power of Spain, that she has not recovered from its effects to this day. It has been deemed necessary to make this statement, because it has been the practice of a certain class of writers to speak of this people with the utmost scorn and contempt; alleging that they are utterly destitute of every great and ennobling virtue.†

One circumstance in their history should however never be forgotten, and especially by the English nation; that is, that this people stood in phalanx with Britain, in the hour of need, when Philip the Second concentrated the whole force of his vast European dominions, for the purpose of prostrating England to his sway, and banishing civil and religious freedom from these lands. With the devout and truly Protestant mind, the struggle of the Dutch at that period will be viewed as a species of agency, providentially governed, for the purpose of checking the despotism and cruelty of Popery, which aimed at extinguishing every thing like evangelical light and truth, which had been spread through Europe, by means of the Reformation.

The Germans first introduced Protestantism into the Netherlands. This arose out of the constant intercourse existing between these two portions of the emperor's do minions. To the spread of what were called the new opinions, this monarch was greatly opposed. This he

* Grimesthorpe, 405. Watson.

†Take a specimen from the Modern Universal History, vol. xxxi, p. 3, "The Dutch are cold, phlegmatic, uninventive, and brutal; without a spark of genius or liberality, and wholly destitute of the true spirit of enterprise."

evinced by publishing his famous edict in 1521, prohibit. ing the people of the Low Countries receiving or reading any books containing the doctrines of Luther; and consigning to death those who were found to hold the tenets of that reformer.* But in the face of dangers and death, the people embraced these doctrines; so that Philip, when he was invested with his Belgic territories, found that the inhabitants, to a great extent, had embraced the doctrines taught in the Augsburgh Confession.

This man, who was not inaptly called "the demon of the south," revived the edict which Charles had happily, in the latter years of his reign, abolished; and he expressly commanded, that the burning and living burial, adopted by his father in his carly zeal, should again be instituted in all their revolting forms. Under the direction of Alva and the council of troubles, subsequently named by the people the council of blood, this edict was attended to with savage ferocity, and the number of its victims was truly appalling. During the government of this ferocious being, nothing like public instruction seems to have existed. Nevertheless, the friends and followers of the doctrines of the Reformation were numerous. After the removal of Alva from the Low Countries, the Protestants became more bold, and began publicly to assemble for the worship of God, and to hear those doctrines preached which they had embraced. These meetings were usually held under the cover of darkness, and in the dead of the night. Some secluded spot, or densely dark wood, was the place of rendezvous; and thither the people hastened, at the peril of their lives, to hear the truth from the lips of some zealous preacher. As hostility to the tyranny and cruelty of Philip began to take deeper hold upon the minds of the higher ranks, and especially the nobility, the latter deemed it right to turn to their own account the love of religious liberty manifested by the middle and lower classes of the people. Emboldened by the silent

*Could it be supposed that so sage a monarch as Charles would allow the following statements concerning Luther to be inserted in this edict?" It seems to us, that the person of the said Martin Luther is not a human creature, but a devil in the figure of a man, and cloaked in the habit of a monk, to enable him so much the better and more easily to bring the race of mankind to everlasting death and destruction."-Brandt, vol. i, p. 40.

sanction of some of the nobles, and encouraged by the avowed patronage of others, the people began publicly to assemble in great numbers, and hold their meetings in the open air. This was first done in the year 1566. These meetings were similar to those held by the Hugonots, in the year 1552, among the peasantry, in some of the provinces of France, and whimsically called by the French government, in an edict published to suppress them, "ecoles buissonnières," or hedge schools.

An opportunity so favourable for more widely extending the doctrines of the Reformation in the Netherlands, was promptly taken hold of by the Protestants of the neighbouring kingdoms. This was especially the case with the followers of Luther and Calvin. But the former were by far the most numerous and successful, and spread their doctrines through the southern provinces, and espe cially in Flanders. The latter chiefly flourished in the eastern provinces. Congregations soon became regularly established; and some of the Romish clergy were won over to the reformed faith, and became zealous and bold advocates for the truth. Among these, deserving especial notice, was Herman Stricker, a converted monk, a native of Overyssel, and subsequently a powerful and intrepid preacher. This man frequently attracted an audience of seven thousand persons to hear him. Still there was a great lack of preachers to supply the increasing desire of the people for the word of life. This the Dutch felt the more painfully, because at the period we are alluding to they had no means of educating persons for the public ministry. They were, therefore, chiefly dependent upon foreign assistance for the ministry of the Gospel, and the administration of religious ordinances among them. Thus circumstanced, they availed themselves of the opportunity of sending their youth to universities founded in other countries, which had earlier renounced papal superstition and domination. Among the institutions of this kind, the one established at Geneva was then highest in repute. And hither, from the Low Countries, were sent young men distinguished for their talents and religious character, to be educated for the ministry. In this seat of learning, Beza taught what Calvin himself called the decretum horribile.

Among the persons sent to this university, during the period in which Beza filled the divinity professor's chair, was Arminius, whose name has since gone forth into all Christendom. Here it will be necessary to give a brief history of this extraordinary man, in order that the reader may more fully understand the ecclesiastical affairs of the Low Countries at this period, and the events which prepared the way for the subject of these memoirs to take so prominent a part in the religious controversies which then agitated the Netherlands. This is the more important, as these controversies gave rise to the famous Synod of Dort, the proceedings of which interested, not only the whole of Protestant Europe, but, to a great extent, the princes and theologians of the Catholic states and countries.*

Arminius was a man of rare talents, amiable temper, and eminent piety. He first studied at the university of Leyden, and afterward, by the liberality of the honourable senate of Amsterdam, at Geneva; where he soon acquired the reputation of a profound scholar, an acute logician, and an able disputant. For a brief period he left this university, to pursue his studies at Basle. Here he received particular marks of attention from the theological professor, Grynæus. On quitting this university to return to Geneva, though comparatively very young, it was proposed to honour him with the degree of doctor, at the public expense, which offer he modestly declined. After continuing some time at Geneva, he was recalled by his patrons to Amsterdam, for the purpose of being set apart to the ministry, in that city.

In the office of a preacher he acquired great celebrity, and was esteemed by his colleagues and the neighbouring ministers as an able divine, and a profound theologian. In proof of this, the well known circumstance which led to a change in his theological views, may here be briefly noticed. In doing this it will be necessary to ascend a little higher than the precise period when this event took place. An ecclesiastical history of Holland, now before me, published in German, by a person of the name of Bentham, in the year 1678, under the title of " Hollàndis

See Anti-Synodica Johannis Malderi. He was Catholic bishop at Antwerp.

cher Kirch und Schulen Staat," or, A History of the Church and Universities of Holland, adverts to this and the preceding events in so distinct a manner, that I have thought it right to translate and insert the substance of his statement in this place.

"In the early part of the preceding century, a person by the name of Hardenberg, residing at Emden, preached against the Romish Church. He soon attracted many hearers: several of whom embraced his sentiments. Among these was one by the name of Clemens Martenson. This man, in the year 1554, published a work, in which he treated of conditional election. This book was subsequently approved by Henry Antonides, professor of theology at Franeker; and had a very extensive sale, meeting with many admirers and advocates. This was especially the case in the province of Utrecht, where the ministers, without an exception, had received the sentiments it advocated. Those of Holland and Friesland, to a very great extent, had done the same. About this time, those who maintained the more rigid doctrines of Calvin began to spread more extensively in the Netherlands. Some French ministers, who had embraced the sentiments of this reformer, appeared in the Walloon provinces, where they strenuously held forth and advocated the doctrines of their master. As these persons had, by some means, secured the attention and support of the prince of Orange, they were emboldened to draw up, and present to the governante, Margaret, dutchess of Parma, a confession of their faith; in which they introduced the doctrine of absolute predestination. Immediately on the appearance of this confession, which was in the year 1567, it gave great offence to many theologians, who declared that the doctrines it contained on predestination were innovations, and publicly and zealously condemned them as such. Among those who came forward to declare their disapprobation of this confession, were the following persons: John Isebrand, preacher at Rotterdam; Gellius Snecanus, preacher at Friesland; John Holmann, professor of the ology at Leyden; Jasper Koolhaes, of Leyden; Herman Herberts, of Dort; Cornelius Meinards, and Cornelius Wiggerts, of Horn; with several others. In the meantime, the doctrines of Calvin found many advocates; yet

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