seems natural; while the simple forms of Presbyterianism, with the equality of its ministers, were more in accordance with the character of the civil government. The reader need scarcely be informed, that this system admits lay officers in its constitution, and requires the authority of the magistrates to enforce the decisions of its consistories and synods. From this arose a question as to the interference of the magistrates in the internal affairs of the Church, and if allowed, to what extent it was to be admitted. A fierce struggle ensued on this subject, and the clergy were divided into two distinct parties upon it. Those who were the opponents of unconditional reprobation and election, and the advocates of universal redemption, were in favour of the magistrates having extensive rights of interference, and might be called the Erastians of Holland. The opposite party were the advocates of Calvinism in its most unmitigated forms, at the head of which was Gomarus.* Here was an occasion of conflict, which powerfully urged the disputants to enter the arena of debate; and while a difference of opinion in doctrinal points frequently contributed to the existence of dissensions among the ministers, yet this question was to a great extent mixed up with their quarrels, and added much combustible matter to their contentions. The right of the magistrate to interfere in the affairs of a Church like that of the Presbyterian, will be admitted by the stanchest advocate of religious liberty, when he glances at the power assumed by its consistories. As an establishment, they engirted all within their pale, and according to Baxter's complaint of English Presbyterianism, "they turned the communion of saints into the communion of the multitude, and corrupted the Church by forcing into it the rabble of the unfit and unwilling ;" and then, by ecclesiastical decisions and excommunications, punished such as acted against what was called Church discipline. The most rigid of the advocates of the jus divinum of this system were for claiming the right to inflict ecclesiastical censures and punishments on persons who either erred in doctrine or conduct, without appealing to the government of the This man supported the old papal doctrine of the Church being independent of the State; not indeed by a papal supremacy, but by collateral power.-Lardner's Cyclop. vol. xlvi, p. 182. magistrate, save merely the calling him in to execute the sentence they pronounced against a delinquent. How direct an assimilation this was to Popery, the reader will see without any attempt being made to point it out. And thus, says Baxter, "I disliked the course of the more rigid of them that drew near the way of prelacy, by grasping at a kind of secular power, not using it themselves, but binding the magistrates to imprison men, or confiscate their property, merely because they were excommunicated." Thus Orme, when alluding to the Presbyterianism of England in Owen's day, says, "Its worst feature was in its intolerance, and determined and persevering hostility to liberty of conscience. Their most distinguished writers advocated the rights of persecution." This spirit, it is true, was bad in England, but it was awfully worse in Holland. This appears natural, from the circumstance of the men who were the advocates of persecution having been educated in the place where they heard theological lectures from Beza, who had written a book in defence of persecution, and from whence Castalio and Bolsec had been banished, by the influence of Calvin, for opposing his decretum horribile, and having trod the ground* where Servetus was burned by order of * This place is named CHAMPEL, as we find in the sentence passed upon this victim of persecution. It is as follows:-"Au nom du Pere, du Fils, et du Saint Esprit, par cette nostre definitive Sentence, laquelle donnons ici par escrit, Toy MICHEL SER. VET condamnons à devoir estre lié et mené au lieu de CHampel, et là devoir estre à un pilotis attaché et bruslé tout vif avec ton livre, tant escrit de ta main qu' imprime, jusques à ce que ton corps soit reduit en cendre; et ainsi finiras tes jours, pour donner exemple aux autres, qui tel cas voudroient commetre.' -Historie Van Michael Servetus, van den Heere Henrick van Alwoerden. A large plate of this unfortunate man is given in this work, in the back ground of which is a small representation of him bound to the stake when he is being consumed by the flames. The utmost stretch of our charity cannot lead us to find an apology for this cruel deed, so far as Calvin was connected with it; for if it was not done by his direct appointment, yet as he was "in some sort the arbiter of every act and every thought of the people of Geneva," his permis. sion of it stamps indelible disgrace on his memory. Calvin says, "that after the sentence had been read to Servetus, he manifested a species of brutal timidity and fear." We translate his own words as given by Alwoerden in Dutch, as we have not Calvin's works. "So soon as it was announced that he was to die, he began to ap pear greatly troubled then fetched deep sighs-wept most bitterly; the magistrates, who sanctioned and carried into execu. tion the persecuting measures of Calvin against him. And though much may be said in palliation of the measures of these men, from the spirit of the age in which they lived, yet this does not alter the fact of their standing before us in the character of persecutors. And so far did the genius of intolerance influence those ministers who were the followers of Calvin and Beza, that whenever any of the magistrates refused to comply with their wishes to persecute, they instantly branded them as apostates from the principles and doctrines of the Reformation. This was the case with the amiable and venerable Hooft, mentioned at page 40, who, because he argued against intolerance, and endeavoured to check these bigots in their career of persecution, and refused to dip his hands at their request in the blood of his fellow citizens, was never forgiven by them; and they had finally the pleasure of seeing this Christian Cato,* with several of his brother and then, unable to restrain himself, roared out repeatedly and vehe. mently in Spanish, Misericordia! Misericordia!"-Zie Calvyn's Werk van 1597. (bl. 607, a van 1612.) Calvin certainly intends by this representation to hold him up to contempt for displaying such a want of manly courage. Perhaps he had not shown more himself had he been in his situation. * Brandt says of this gentleman, that he was a man who by his wisdom, knowledge, experience, and inviolable integrity, had ac. quired great reputation, and was now [1596] burgomaster for the fifth time. We shall give a few extracts from his speech to his brother magistrates, counselling them not to concur in the wishes of the clergy, who were anxious to persecute a certain individual on account of some supposed heresy he had embraced : "As for the prisoner himself," he says, "I do not know that I ever saw him; and after he was in custody, I was informed by credible persons that notwithstanding his mean condition and charge of a great many children, he had always behaved himself honestly without being troublesome to any body, and that he was looked on as a man zealously concerned for his salvation. But I understand he was excommunicated some time since on account of his opinions. The Church ought to be satisfied with this excommunication as having done her office, without prosecuting the poor man any farther.-Ought we now to put men to death for crimes which the clergy call blasphemy, but of which they will not suffer the civil powers to take any cognizance? Besides, that word blasphemy is extended so far that it is made to include Papists, Lutherans, Mennonites, Enthusiasts, and, it seems, almost all that do not conform in every point to our own Church.-Perhaps it may be said that the Spaniards persecuted without reason, but we with reason; but senators and magistrates, distinguished by the same tolerant spirit, hurled from the bench of authority by Maurice when he joined the High Calvinists, in order that he might succeed more effectually in accomplishing his purpose of seizing the reins of government. : Prior to this time, this prince was the object of their hatred; as he was frequently engaged with the magistrates in checking the factious spirit of these men, and confirming the appointment of certain ministers to the pulpit, who had been chosen by the more tolerant clergy and the deputies from the States of Holland and other provinces and so early as the year 1584, the senators of Holland found it necessary to enact a law that should authorize commissioners from their honourable body to be present at the synods of the clergy, as well as at the examination and election of ministers, with the right of voting in such cases. This circumstance will account for the fact of many of the grave Dutch statesmen frequently taking part in meetings, where the ministers "Reasoned high Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, The opposition of the Gomarist clergy to this regulation had been frequently manifested on former occasions ;* every one thinks reason to be on his side, and none will want a pretence to proceed to the like cruelty. If we were to compare the opinions and doctrines of the clergy with the Holy Scriptures, what text should we find in the New Testament to justify persecution for the sake of religion? It is especially strange that those who strenuously maintain the doctrine of PREDESTINATION should thus insist upon persecution or forcing of conscience; for if their doctrine be true, no man can avoid that to which he is ordained. I can never consent that this poor creature should be hurried to the Hague and shut up in a prison, to the utter ruin of his five small children and his wife." This speech so far succeeded, that instead of the man being burned at the stake, he was only banished from the city, to which he was subsequently allowed to return, and lived ⚫in union with the Church for many years.-Brandt, vol. i. *In the beginning of the Reformation in Holland, William, prince of Orange, and the States of that province, had a design to confine the election of the pastors to the magistrates of that place; but the ecclesiastics were so dexterous as to get the project put by. A national synod, held at the Hague in the year 1586, ordered that pastors should be elected by the consistory, and that they should but the call and examination of Episcopius presented an opportunity for making a grand trial of their strength in opposing it, which they were determined to improve. They were goaded on to the measures they took against him, says Brandt, by the apprehension of his talents giving additional weight to the cause of the Arminians. This apprehension, continues this writer, had been excited by the fame he had acquired at Franeker, in consequence of his disputations with Sibrandus; the report of which had spread through the whole of Holland. On his return to Amsterdam, which took place soon after his last debate with that professor, the ministers of this city who had been the bitter and unrelenting persecutors of Arminius, soon adopted measures to show their dislike of this, his distinguished scholar. On the subject of moral and religious character, Episcopius was unassailable; but envy and bigotry are never without the means of annoying and persecuting their object. There are modes of assailing a man which, though not overt and flagrant, are, nevertheless, effectual in accomplishing the object designed, because they tend to point him out as a suspected person, and intimate that there is something about him which, though not definable, is yet of a doubtful character; and when once this is accomplished, much is effected in the way of ruining such an individual. How far the measures adopted by the bigoted Calvinist ministers of Amsterdam tended to this, the reader shall judge. Scarcely had he arrived, says Limborch, at his native city from Franeker, when the ministers and members of the consistory began to adopt measures in order to annoy and manifest their opposition to him. That the reader may see this, and mark their feelings toward him, it will be necessary to pay this deference to the magistrates, to acquaint them with the election, and ask if they had any thing to object against the conversation and doctrine of the elected person. The States of Holland were so far from approving the Synod's orders, that they issued an edict that same year in which they declared their intention of preserving to themselves and the gentlemen the right of patronage. Neither did the States of Zealand stand to the canon of that national synod. In Holland, always when a Church became vacant the contest revived. The consistories maintained that the privilege belonged to them alone. The magistrates and gen. tlemen, however, would keep up the right of patronage.-Le Vassor, p. 14, part ii. |